Now that i am no longer contracted it should be safe to talk about this. The incident from last year mentioned in the article happened to my co-actor and i, and it was not the worst behaviour from guests we had to endure. We have had our eyes poked through the eye-holes of our masks, our costumes grabbed in an effort to remove them, we have been shoved backwards, slapped, we have had guests deliberately stop in front of us for long periods just to taunt, shout at and physically intimidate us, we have been hit with souvenirs guests had bought from the park including wands, light sticks and canes, and the icing on the cake was when a guest pulled out a LIGHTER on my set which was ENTIRELY MADE OF NEWSPAPER. Despite constant reassurance that copious amounts of fire-retardant had been applied to our set (and costumes), i decided not to go back on set until something was done. Needless to say we raised hell internally, filing AT LEAST two incident reports per shift and speaking to our director, SM and crew at every opportunity. We did manage to come to an agreement towards the end of the night when, after sitting out many sets, a crew member was finally placed in our room close to us to ensure our safety. It really was that simple and that was all we wanted. I am a performer by profession and i know that the company i am contracted under is obliged to provide for my safety and protection while i am at work. The issue (amongst many) is that many of the scare actors hired by USS are not professional performers and are unclear on their rights as actors, therefore do not see it as their perogative to be as enraged. I found myself having to tell many other actors that being hit or taunted is NOT part of the job of a performer, haunted house or not. You did not ask for it neither is it expected just because you work as a scare actor. It is the responsibility of the guests to understand that scare actors, are PEOPLE working to provide a service as entertainers, and it is the responsibility of the company to ensure that unfortunate incidents are prevented to the best of their ability. It was defintely not their best last year. Above all that, i would also like to identify the following issues as the main reasons why the abuse of scare actors occur: dehumanisation (when actors are dressed in costumes that are entirely covered, or play non-humanoid characters, people choose to ignore the fact that beneath the costumes are actual people), abuse of power (guests know that actors are, by contract, not allowed to retaliate) And inconsequential actions (guests are in a dark room where perceivably no one can see them, real world punishment for abuse does not exist etc) With this, i would like to remind haunted house guests of their responsibility to be aware of their actions and to understand that beneath all the costume and makeup, actors are people with feelings too. You attended the event in the name of fun, and these people are there working to ensure you have a good time. Stop being such assholes.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 07:27:31 +0000
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