Perfomed in MN
Theater 2010
Concept
The concept is a theatrical presentation in a television drama format featuring four distinct stories with supernatural and horror themes. A narrator will introduce each segment and provide epilogue commentary. There will be a theme song performed by a live band at or near the beginning of the show, with musical interludes between the segments. The production will emphasize multimedia effects, lighting techniques and stage movement for atmosphere and visual flair, without reliance on elaborate sets or props. The goal is to provide pop culture appeal through creative visuals and music, going for genuine chills as opposed to spoof or self-parody.
Narration
The narrator will be a ghostly young girl with white clothes, pale makeup and dark eyes. Two or three actresses may be used, along with lighting techniques, to make her appear and disappear instantaneously in different parts of the stage. At some points she will be engaged in little girl activities, such as swinging or jumping rope. Magic trick effects may be used to make props appear and disappear in a ghost-like fashion. Her comments will generally be creepy, with a minimum of ironic jokes and puns.
Inferno
The first segment will open with a group of workers in the midst of a burning office building. They are on an upper floor and have just discovered that the stairway designated in the fire escape plan is already engulfed in flames. There is an intense atmosphere of panic and fear. They decide to try the elevators, which are not in operation. They force an elevator door, hoping for some kind of ladder or rungs down the shaft, but there are just the elevator cables and they are red hot from the fire. One worker tries to climb down the cables anyway but is severely burned and barely manages to make it back out of the shaft. The heat is excruciating, the smoke is thick and everyone is in pain and extreme fright. Someone recalls another stairwell in another part of the building, but when they try to get there one worker opens a door and is enveloped in flames, and runs screaming down the hall. The others try to get through in the ventilation system but are driven back by the fire and smoke, and end up with more burns and pain and just as frantic as before.
At about that point, three things happen in rapid succession. A worker looks out the window and, in a momentary glimpse through the smoke, sees a vast city of skyscrapers, every one in flames. Second, the worker who earlier burst into flames will reappear, coughing and complaining but not burnt to a crisp; the others will find it somewhat odd but not react with amazement, and will instead focus once again on their immediate plight. Finally, they will find themselves at the top of the stairway designated in the fire escape plan and discover that it is already engulfed in flames, i.e., the story will loop back to the beginning enough for the audience to realize it is starting all over again. The narrator, with delicate subtlety, will nudge the audience to understand that the office workers are the souls of the damned spending eternity in the burning building.
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In a Dead Man’s Eye
The second story begins in an ophthalmologist’s examination room. The doctor is regrettably advising the patient that the latest treatments do not seem to be having the desired effect, the corneal deterioration is progressing even more rapidly than before, and the prognosis is not good. There is nothing more that can be done to reverse the process, and unfortunately the patient will be completely blind within a few short months. The patient says there must be something else you can try, no, says the doctor, I’ve tried everything, but there must be some kind of experimental technique or something, no, I’m afraid there’s nothing like that, but you’ve got to help me I can’t go blind there must be something. Well, the only remote possibility is really not even worth mentioning, but in a case like this the only possible chance would be a complete corneal transplant. There have only been one or two documented successes, however, because the rejection rate is extremely high for the delicate neuro-corneal tissue. There would not be a ghost of a chance unless the donor happened to be a close blood relative.
The protagonist visits his younger brother in the garden of his palatial home. He is patiently and politely trying to raise the subject of his medical situation, but it is clear that the brother is not pleased to be visited. The brother expresses no doubt as to why he is there, why does he ever show up but to beg for more money. ......
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Porter Square
The third story takes place on a subway platform in Boston. There are a few people waiting for the train. A resident is explaining to a visitor from out of town that the Porter Square station was part of an extension of the Red Line constructed in the 1980s, and they both marvel at how deep underground it goes, with three escalators, deepest hole in the ground anywhere around. An agitated person enters and asks if anyone knows about the rumors everyone’s talking about. Blank looks.She says she overheard some people up above talking about how there’s some kind of war going on, an attack expected right here in the United States, something about bombs in the Ukraine that were seized or sold to terrorists or something.
A couple more people enter, talking excitedly.They heard on the radio the bombs were in the air, minutes away from dropping. The guy on the radio said Boston was one of the targets, it was confirmed by some military guy. They were listening to the radio up there in the video store and as soon as they heard that, bam, they were gone, get as deep down as possible, away from the surface.More people appear on both sides of the platform, and everyone is trying to find shelter as far underground as possible.
As more and more people arrive, the original group gets more compressed toward the center. Multimedia or staging techniques may be used to present the image without actually having crowds of actors on the stage.......
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Always the Last
The last segment is told as a first person narrative, possibly with a voiceover rather than having the character directly address the audience. There are several brief scenes with the fellow alone in his house. He is walking up the stairs to go to bed at night, very gingerly, and explains that the stairs creak horribly and his wife will kill him if he wakes up the baby. He is going through the cabinets in the kitchen, searching unsuccessfully for the peanut butter. He is pacing in the study, unable to sleep.
He explains that he has become convinced the house is haunted, some kind of poltergeist. He keeps misplacing things: the deck of cards is missing from the drawer in the kitchen, the rocking chair has been moved from its place next to the fireplace, he can’t find the lamp in the living room. One day, he finally sees a ghost, a small child playing with a toy truck in the hallway – a lighting effect will bathe the child in a spectral blue-gray tint. The child pauses and looks right at him, he freezes, they stare at each other, then he backs away. Another time he is going to bed and as he is about to lie down he sees a ghostly man and woman already lying there.
A third ghost encounter occurs as he enters the living room and sees a spirit sitting in a chair reading a newspaper........
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LOOPHOLE
[The scene opens with the Devil sitting across a table from a nervous man in a suit. The Devil is leaning back to confer privately with an imp.]
BUGWART: It’s a trick.
DEVIL: Of course it’s a trick.
BUGWART: Then you’re not going through with it.
DEVIL: To the contrary, dear Bugwart. That is why I’m going through with it.
BUGWART: I don’t understand.
DEVIL: That’s why I’m me and you’re not. [Turning to the man and speaking aloud] So, Mr. Harris, I trust everything is in order......
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