[Terrormaster]

Greetings haunters. We've been slowly moving more towards Halloween gatherings over doing up the lawn. For the last few years we've been topping off the evening with a bit of Haunted Theater (a sort of spooky storytelling bizarre magic show for the uninitiated) performed by yours truly. Much like the yard haunt, a considerable amount of time goes in to designing and planning the show.

This year I'm looking at taking things to a different level. I've been tossing around this idea of making the entire party a bit more interactive and engaging. I'm not even sure what to call it except maybe something like Haunted story time or show-n-tell.

The idea is that before the show everyone can have a chance at presenting and/or performing something and being in the spotlight. Whether it's reading a spooky poem, telling a scary story, doing a bit of theater or puppet show, or even sing a song. Guests can work separately or together in groups. It doesn't have to be a major production and should be no more than about 10 minutes or so tops so everyone that has planned to participate can.

Looking to get some input and suggestions on how to present this to guests and any other ideas that could work with this concept.

Pretty sure this is a bit of a new idea and I would love to see where it goes.

Thanks,
-TM

 

[RoxyBlue]

Success will be very much dependent on how willing your guests are to be in the limelight. A lot of folks just like to kick back and enjoy a party without having to do anything; and many can be on the shy side at the thought of putting themselves out there However, with advance warning (I assume you'll be adding this to your invitations), you may get some good bites.

Here are a couple things I've seen done at Halloween parties that might work for you:

1) Fill in the blank story telling. One person reads a story to a group of people who have been provided with slips of paper with various words written on them. The reader stops at pre-selected moments in the story and points to one of the guests, who then reads the word on the slip of paper. The results are frequently humorous and kids really enjoy the game.

2) Who am I? More of an ice breaker but definitely interactive. The names of horror actors or characters (such as Dracula, wolf man, etc.) are written on pieces of paper that are then taped to each guest's back. The goal is to try and figure out who your character is based on what the other guests say to you.

 

[Terrormaster]

It's more of a dinner party type gathering that we do - think more of the wine-n-cheese masquerade kinda atmosphere. It's primarily family members and a few friends.

In terms of the story telling / show-n-tell it's more about creating an atmosphere akin to gathering around the campfire and telling ghost stories than playing party games. Thinking a bit tribal in the sense where the village gathers together and the shamans and wisemen entertain with stories and fables. At this point thinking it will mostly be the kids - most of them love entertaining the adults.