Well, we have this great looking organ, Pieter has gutted it already and is working on the mechanics to have it play automatically, and we are also busy making an alcove out of styrofoam as a backdrop for the organ.
But, nothing else is coming to me. Normally if I have a 'main prop' the rest just comes naturally.
For instance, when we decided to make the headless waiter...first thought was to have him in a cafe/restaurant...then came the idea for a Hard Rot Cafe...then came the idea for a game involving who killed the guests in the cafe.
Last year, when we decided to make the transformation box, I immediately got the idea to include it in a mad scientist lab. Then I was able to tie the invitations and game into that theme.
The ideas just aren't coming for the organ and how to incorporate it into our party.
Funeral? Wedding? Phantom of the Opera? We've discussed them all but are having difficulties figuring out how to tie them into our party. The entrace to our party is through the carport and that's where we decorate to create the theme and that's where the organ will be located.
Any ideas out there? I think I'm suffering from a burn out.
MsM
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Where there is no imagination there is no horror. ~Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Of the ideas you mentioned, I like the wedding. You could have so much fun with the 'dead' bride, groom and wedding attendants. Not to mention that a Halloween wedding cake would be just the thing to be the center of the refreshment table.
I was doing a search for party themes and ran across a 'fear factor' theme. The last stunt that the group had to do was a skit, for which they had 10 minutes to prepare and the skit had to include the characters that the people were dressed as. It didn't really do much for me cause it didn't have anything to do with a wedding.
But then it hit me. In the Netherlands, its traditional for the guests to do a 'stukje' or skit in english, for the bridal pair. That's how I could incorporate the fear factor stunt that I had read into the wedding theme. With dutch people you really have to have an activity/game or they just sit and don't mingle.
So this is what I have so far:
Theme:Wedding
Food: Wedding buffet complete with wedding cake
Games/activities: Dancing, skit, throwing the bouquet
Decorations: Wedding altar + organist, gift table with creepy gifts, guest book
The only part I'm still having problems with is the bridal pair and the master of ceremony.
Should I have static props from skeletons as the bride and groom or ask a couple of regular guests to play the parts. One of my new coworkers has already offered to come play a role at our party. She's a very outgoing gothic type. I could make her the bride or use her as the ceremony master-ess. Two of our most fun guests (and regular attendees) are men. They see each other once a year (at our party) and go crazy. The one guy has already attended a couple of times dressed as a woman. And when he does, the other guy has a blast trying to hit on him (as a her) the whole night. I was thinking those two might make a good bridal pair.
The other option is that Pieter and I dress as the wedding pair, but we are not nearly as much fun and crazy as some of our guests. Well, actually Pieter could probably pull it off but then much later into the night after a few drinks lol
Decisions, decisions.
Any more ideas or input?
MsM
__________________
Where there is no imagination there is no horror. ~Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Man! Weddings....they are in their very own class of scary! I avoid the real ones like the plague. A Haunted one...I don't know how I'd feel about that. I wouldn't think men would be too crazy about them either...
I like the Phantom of the Opera idea. A haunted theater, period costumes and maybe play the game "who am I?" Where you pin a 3x5 card on each guests back with the name of a character and the guests play something similar to twenty questions to figure out who they are. You could even pick period characters...Shakespeare...Edgar Allen Poe etc. I think theater props can be really scary...it's that sitting there, once used, and waiting to be used again. It speaks of past performances and dark memories. Long dark drapes a few spot lights....and that great organ...I get great visuals off that.
The skit idea is FABULOUS!! And if your coworker had offered, I'd take her up on it. Let her be the bride and have a skelly groom, then you don't have to have two people. It sounds like your 'burn out' is over...you're cookin' now!!!
Man! Weddings....they are in their very own class of scary! I avoid the real ones like the plague. A Haunted one...I don't know how I'd feel about that. I wouldn't think men would be too crazy about them either...
I like the Phantom of the Opera idea. A haunted theater, period costumes and maybe play the game "who am I?" Where you pin a 3x5 card on each guests back with the name of a character and the guests play something similar to twenty questions to figure out who they are. You could even pick period characters...Shakespeare...Edgar Allen Poe etc. I think theater props can be really scary...it's that sitting there, once used, and waiting to be used again. It speaks of past performances and dark memories. Long dark drapes a few spot lights....and that great organ...I get great visuals off that.
When we were brainstorming, the Phantom seemed to be winning out at first. The atmosphere that you could create would be amazing. Fog, spotlight, organ, theater curtains.
But we couldn't go any further with it. Ok so you have this really cool and creepy setting....and then? I have a dutch crowd. They are very formal and very reserved. They are pretty good with their costumes but then don't really get into their characters....with a few exceptions. They are primarily 'sitters'. The first couple of parties we had, I had to almost push them into the kitchen to help themselves to the food since its not something the dutch do. I also had to make sure I had more people than chairs. To force them into moving about lol
I don't think the card game would be enough to engage them. They'd do it for a few minutes and then they'd be back sitting in a large circle talking politics and taxes. The dutch have this thing about sitting in a circle at parties (especially bday parties). Ex pats call it the birthday circle of hell haha As new people arrive, chairs are added and the circle widens. The idea of smaller groups throughout the whole house is foreign to them.
But thanks for responding.
MsM
__________________
Where there is no imagination there is no horror. ~Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
When we were brainstorming, the Phantom seemed to be winning out at first. The atmosphere that you could create would be amazing. Fog, spotlight, organ, theater curtains.
But we couldn't go any further with it. Ok so you have this really cool and creepy setting....and then?
Actually, you could expand on the theme and turn it into a haunted masquerade or carnivale-type setting. You could use some feather masks, harlequin faces, evil clowns and/or jesters, a chandelier or two (most likely fake), and so on; I think it could really become something special. Just my thoughts
What about a scavenger hunt? With questions that they had to search the house for the answers to, not actually collect items? Someone else posted a cool game where they made different "scenes" and the guests had to figure out what movie it represented. That way it keeps them up and moving around, instead of in their "circle".
This HGTV link had some great Haunted Masquerade ideas that could fit very well with the Phantom theme:
Burn Out?
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