Basically my life's a cartoon.

Hey! I'm a working voice actor, Sleep No More fanatic, and all-around good guy. Maybe? You tell me.

[wayfan]

McKittrick May Fair!

Attending May Fair (my first *ever* McKittrick party!!) next month!! If anyone has any tips on how to make it a good time, or attire (I’ve already got a silver cape and a white/gold Venetian mask), or how things might be different than attending SNM (other than just more people in lots of rooms and constant music and drinks through the whole building), I’d appreciate it!!! So excited!

[wayfan]

NYE Party 2018??

I’m thinking of finally shelling out $200+ for the King’s Winter Masquerade this year. I’ve never been to any McKittrick party before and I don’t drink, so will anyone else be going there or can give me tips on how to have a fun time? I’ve already got at least a cape and mask picked out, I’ll pick up the other costume bits later. Would appreciate any help or advice, or knowing if more friendly faces will be there!

[readwithjoy]

A bit of home

@chadchronicles inspired me, and I thought it would be fun to see what other people may have created as a tribute to Sleep No More (or any other fandom!)  Does anyone else have a little display or keepsake on the wall?  Here is something I put together this summer from some pieces I had collected over the years: 

And here is a close up of the Tempest in a Teacup drawing I found in London last summer.  I couldn’t resist the little ship in the storm…

Bring on the decorating pics! 

[wayfan]

My masks and cards are all lined up in order, my trinkets are scattered somewhat randomly (got jumbled up in the move to NYC), my moleskine is behind the program, poster is on the wall next to it, and my Hecate mini magic box is at the back. :)

[wayfan]

Through the Wren

An immersive theatre experience where 12 guests journey in and out of a parallel world set in a mid-1840’s Gothic Romance Fairytale.

ONLY 3.5 DAYS to help us raise the FINAL $999 for this amazing original immersive theater piece coking to NYC this October!! Please PLEASE help if you can!

[theaterguy105-blog]

The Kickstarter for ‘Through the Wren’ has 16 days to go! If you haven’t yet checked us out and considered pledging if possible, PLEASE DO SO! We are almost half way to our goal!

Bitly.com/throughthewren

[wayfan]

Guys, please please PLEASE support this effing incredible show. Like, with your actual money if you can. It’s got everything immersive fans love: bird motifs, dark spaces, mysterious houses, secrets, hot men, hot women, hot everyone, you get the picture. It’s SO CLOSE TO HALFWAY THERE BUT IT NEEDS DOLLARS. PLEASE GIVE YOUR DOLLARS.

[wayfan]

Right, so it’s absolutely definitely Barshaw House and I can’t thank @readwithjoy enough for getting me that info so quick!

[wayfan]

So we need to talk about this, the old Hotel postcard (it’s also the basis for the new SNM poster), I’m so fascinated by this. Is it a photo? An artist’s drawing? Is the building real? An amalgam of different buildings? Film set? Totally imaginary? If it is real, where is it/can we find it?

[wayfan]

So stoked for SNM #18 tonight! Will anyone else be there??

[wayfan]

SNM #18 is coming, and rather different this time!

This is a total bragging thing and I’m sorry. :P

At my last show (6/23, late) I actually tripped and fell over one of the bench columns in the ballroom chasing after Bald Witch. Bruised my leg pretty bad and almost broke my glasses. As a legally blind individual, I noticed that glow-in-the-dark tape is everywhere in the ballroom but on those benches, and made a mental note. (Overall I had a fantastic show.) I emailed the Hotel afterwards just to let them know it had happened, not expecting anything. They got back to me a few days ago giving me and a guest free Max’s List tickets for a show whenever we want. So me and my roommate (first time, but he’s been to Manderley!) are going on Thursday and I’m super excited and I wanted to just say the McKittrick Hotel is a really lovely place sometimes.

[theaterguy105-blog]

Through the Wren is coming!

Calling all my immersive theatre/Sleep No More/Then She Fell friends! My new immersive theatre piece ‘Through the Wren’ is coming very soon! On July 17th we will be launching our kickstarter campaign to raise additional funds for the show! We are right now aiming for an early October opening! I’ll post the link to our Facebook page below. If you can, please give it a like! We have some beautiful artwork from the show on there! I am so unbelievably excited to share this with all of you. This project is truly from the heart. Thanks guys, much love!

https://www.facebook.com/Through-the-Wren-420602525083846/

[wayfan]

You guys, this person is one of my favorite humans and this show is going to be so so amazing. Please do yourself a favor and keep tabs on the fantastic work that’s being created here.

[wayfan]

Sleep No More friends?

I love coming on Tumblr every few days to see what’s developed in the hashtags. I certainly feel like a part of the fandom, I’ve been going fairly consistently for just about 2 years now, and I know the quote-unquote “big fans” at least by blog name. I’m sure my number of shows will grow even more as I just moved to Brooklyn and have even easier access to this wonderful world than I did before.

However...maybe it’s just me, maybe I’m not talking to people in line enough, or I bring my friends and am always talking with them, but the fact remains that I feel slightly unfulfilled in terms of knowing/meeting Tumblr or online folks irl at the show. I’m legally blind, so maybe that also has something to do with it, but I’m almost always in the same outfit (grey tee and jeans, glasses under the mask) and would very much like to know more of you in person so we can talk outside of screens about the profound experience this show continues to give us. Any tips for distinguishing you lovely folks? Thanks!

[wayfan]

Sweet 16!

This Sunday’s (4/22) late show will be my 16th visit to that famed Hotel, my dear friend @theaterguy105-blog is taking me as a birthday gift! (Also considering it a housewarming party of sorts as I’m moving to NYC this weekend!) I’m also bringing along a friend of mine and his girlfriend who have never been but have always wanted to, so this is the first time I’ll have taken so many people at once! I’m so excited. Any fun tips (should I go back to Manderley or not? I’ve never actually chatted with M/WIB during the show) or words of encouragement to pump me up even more would always be appreciated!

[saku-baka]

VOICE CAST UPDATE: NEW FABIAN

You might have wondered why you haven’t heard anything about our game development the last couple of months. Well, part of it was because we sadly had to find a new voice for Fabian. But now we’re very happy to announce Austin Nebbia will join our voice cast! 

[email protected] | www.AustinNebbia.com | http://www.facebook.com/anebbiavo

Follow our blog to stay up-to-date with Vicboys A dating sim set in the Victorian Age

[wayfan]

Thrilled to be a part of this!!

[wayfan]

So it’s too early for me to post my review on Etsy (first thing I’ve ever bought there by the way), but I have to give such incredibly major props to @unklarity for her amazing and breathtaking mini Hecate box she made for me. Every piece is so exquisite, every potion is beautiful, the box itself is gorgeous, it’s so personalized, and even a day or two later I’m still finding surprises. It’s absolutely one of the coolest purchases I’ve ever made online. If you have even the slightest level of McKittrick obsession, you absolutely owe it to yourself to get one of these. (And I just got a mini box!) The conversation was fun, customizing was a breeze, shipping was super quick, and even the packaging was VERY protective. Cannot speak highly enough of this fabulous person and her shop.

[readwithjoy]

A few thoughts on safety, sexual harassment, and my favorite hotel...

Here are a few thoughts I have after reading the recent Buzzfeed article on sexual assault and harassment at Sleep No More.

1) I am not surprised. At all. Not even a little bit. I have been groped in the show by other audience members. It’s a frightening feeling when someone reaches around, touches me, and then disappears into the crowd. It’s happened more than once, and I’ve even had fellow women in the audience witness it and come up to ask me if I’m okay. I have no idea who the people were or how to report the incidents committed by unknown assailants. I say this not to make it about me, but to emphasize the vulnerability of the performers. I’m sure it’s a million times worse for them. The performers are vulnerable in ways the audience never will be.

2) I’ve been hearing about this kind of behavior for years. What took so long?  (And why did it take the threat of bad publicity to add a warning to the opening speech about not touching performers?? It should have been done in 2011 when the initial request was made.)  This type of groping and grabbing has been happening to male and female performers since the beginning of the show.

3) I have seen audience members walking around without a mask on.  Which means either A) a performer pulled it off and they should be immediately taken out of the space, or B) they took it off themselves and it should be assumed  that a performer pulled it off and they should be immediately taken out of the space.  Clearly there was a breakdown in safety training since I’ve seen this more than once over the years.

4) The following three quotes reveal a very disturbing aspect of management, not just at Sleep No More, but at any job where people are vulnerable to this type of assault. There are many, many, MANY reasons why filing an official complaint is not wise. This can range from past experience, job insecurity, the power differences in work situations, a person’s willingness to suffer further humiliation on top of the assault, etc. So–a lack of an official complaint is a pretty lousy reason not to believe someone.

In addition–if there is a clearer example of victim shaming than this third quote, I’m not sure what it is. This seems to imply that not only is the assaulted person at fault for not reporting, but any further safety issues are also their fault. In other words–management is completely innocent and the victim is the problem.

…The Sleep No More representatives said Lincoln never filed a complaint about inappropriate conduct and therefore they didn’t believe she had been groped…

…“Because Bartnik, 39, didn’t report the incident and no other staff witnessed it, the Sleep No More spokesperson said they don’t believe it happened…“ 

…“If indeed there are some instances where former colleagues failed to report safety issues, then we are very disappointed they endangered themselves and other employees by failing to take the appropriate steps required by our safety rules,” the McKittrick’s management said in a statement…

I hope that this will lead to stricter safety procedures for the show. The bar for banning someone should not be so high. I don’t mean ejecting them from an evening. If someone assaults another person (either a performer or another audience member,) they should be blacklisted. Grabbing parts of the body that are usually covered, even when they are not covered and you’ve paid for a ticket, is not acceptable. Ever. I wish I was more shocked that these people are allowed back into the building, but I’m not. Money talks. And I guess if you spend enough of it there, you are allowed to behave however you wish.

As always – we need to remember that when we are in that space, we are in someone’s work space. Yes, the performers are creating art and entertainment for us to enjoy. But they are also at work. They are not objects or toys to play with, and they are certainly not there to be assaulted. Respect their space and their work.  And allow them to take the lead.  Follow where they lead you, but don’t push the boundaries. Be bold when looking through the set and choosing which scene to watch. Do not be bold when considering touching someone without their permission.

Here is the article: 

Performers And Staffers At “Sleep No More” Say Audience Members Have Sexually Assaulted Them

[rottenwoodandwiltedsunflowers]

This is a great post and I totally agree about being surprised it took this long for this problem to surface in a public manner. I think there were some very obvious red flags in this article that I found very troubling.

1. Obviously the reluctance on the part of Emursive to admit to a widespread problem. Downplaying the problem does nothing to fix it. I can see why the production company would be eager to minimize a problem that many of us have know existed for years now (and clearly not properly addressed). Their response to a slew incidents spanning years should not be, “well we only have a handful reported”.

2. Probably the grossest thing in this article is when management says that they take into consideration wheather the audience member was drunk and the severity of the offense. It should not matter if an audience member was drunk. It is irrelevant. If the cast/crew member deemed it severe enough to take it to management, there is a 99.9% chance it was inappropriate. These people are professionals at work. They don’t freak out over a little audience flirting or following. TRUST YOUR EMPLOYEES!

3. It is concerning that Emursive and their attorneys are so tight lipped on the harassment policies. That tells me that either their policies are subpar on paper or that they are not following them when these incidents occur. The fact that they let BuzzFeed look them over but would not let them have a copy makes me more inclined to believe the latter. I have heard the stories from performers, heard what other fans have witnessed first hand and seen the boarder line behavior myself. I don’t believe the guidelines are being followed. I know that there have been inappropriate audience members allowed back into the show on at least 2 occasions in the last year (one in the last month after physically groping a staff member).

Some people are aweful. End of story. I think we all can acknowledge harassment within the show will happen. The actors aren’t stupid, they know the reasonable risks but the response is what counts. Minimize the extent of the harassment by removing the threat. Don’t turn a blind eye and become defensive when called out.

-W

[wayfan]

I can’t add much else to what these two have already said. Just spreading the word. Some people are sick and the fact that they’re taking a beautiful piece of art that so many people love so dearly and honestly and using its boundaries to hurt people is reprehensible, as is the treatment by Emursive on this matter.  Hope this will be a wake-up call.

[wayfan]

SNM Tropes help??

Hey fellow tropers and white masks! I started the Sleep No More TV Tropes page a long time ago and it’s never had any updates.  I added what I could think of at the time, but it’s so large and expansive; I would love for others to help me add whatever tropes and subpages they see fit! Thanks!

[wayfan]

SNM #13 (10/22/17 Early)

(Never really done a detailed recap before so please forgive me if it sucks.)

Getting there this time was a bit crazy. I live in Pennsylvania, and due to some crazy mix-up or misreading the bus schedule, it looked like I wasn't going to make it onto the bus to get in line on time, so I hopped an Uber to the next closest stop and bussed it into Port Authority. Made my way down to Penn Station, where I met my friend Jake just getting in from Long Island, and we hightailed our asses over to that glorious brick building that haunts my dreams. In line met two wonderful young ladies who had come together, R was a first-timer and K a fifth-timer, and we struck up quite a chat with them re: spaces, faces, aces, all that. Had a blast. (You know who you are! Thank you for being so great!)

They ushered us in, we got our aces (first time for diamonds!), and we headed up through the maze (quickest/easiest time I've had there by far). We emerged into that soft familiar red glow and Madeline (Tina Mitchell) welcomed us in. She and I took an immediate liking to each other, and she looked my direction every time I saw her. Me and Jake just missed the first elevator, but we got the second, with Assaf Salhov's wonderful accent giving us good vibes. I took the liberty of being the "scared first person out of the elevator" and looked back at the crowd as the doors close on me on 5. I immediately headed for Shaw's office, and found her with one other white mask, who I stuck with until she got Shaw's floor-5-1:1. I poked around there for a bit (I always take time to pet the wolf in the laundry room), and eventually made my way down to the Speakeasy, where Jeff Docimo's Speaks was just setting the table for his brief meeting with Andrea Shimota's Agnes. I watched that interaction (and their reactions to Quinn Dixon's Boy screaming bloody business on the pool table) before following Agnes out as her sole choice for her 1:1. I've gotten it two or three times, but having just viewed "Rebecca" in full for the first time mere days before, it had real special significance to me. (Also this will most likely be my last visit in 2017, so I nearly teared up at the end. Sometimes, in my dreams, I do go back. Oh, do I.)

I heard the pounding bass of the rave start as I came out of the funeral home and immediately sprinted down High Street to see my favorite character, my lady in red. My oh my, Virginia Logan's Hecate. She is what we have been waiting for; the role she was born to play, in my opinion probably my second or third favorite. (No one will ever top my first Hecate, the delightfully demonic Elizabeth Romanski.) I sat with her at the table as the rave winded down, kept my eyes on her during Sexy's (the wonderful Emily Oldak) bar dance, and left her dinner with Agnes at just the right time to get pulled into her lair to deliver her note for the Porter. (Her eyes are simply mesmerizing.)

I raced downstairs with the note (Definitely my favorite I've ever read: "Mummy's tired of your little games. Bring me what I seek. Now.") and hand it to the Porter (Christopher Bannow). He read it and brought me down the hall to the smaller desk to write his reply as Lady Macduff was murdered (can't read it, his boat-folding is just too exquisite to re-open). As the second loop started, I floated the boat back up to Hecate, just sitting down for her meal, who stared at me for a long while as she ate before choosing someone else for the ring and the song.

It must have been around this time that I decided (since, again, last show of 2017) that I would go back out to Manderley and see what was going on. Lucky I did, I had my first experience with the gypsies of Manderley. Apparently Madeline had been gossiping about me to Cordelia (Chelsey Ng), who noticed that I was hovering near her table. We struck up a lovely chat and she read my cards, which was very interesting. She made me a little bracelet to keep (thank you!). I then pressed my luck and asked if she knew any ways to explore the more "hidden" areas of the hotel, and she suggested I check out the King James. When I let her know that I had met the women up there, she asked me to come with her to the bar. She wrote a note on a cocktail napkin (Addressed to "P." -- I tried to read it eventually, but couldn't really make it out -- some poem about "a mouse singing a sad song"?) and told me to give it to the Matron in the hut, which I did as soon as I hurried back upstairs. She took the note from me and took my new line friend K in for a 1:1. When she looked out the window afterwards, she was holding the note and looking at me. She took me in for the same 1:1 right after. (So it wasn't the 6th floor, but I loved finding out that there are indeed surprising ways to be bold here.)

I stuck around 5 for a while trying to find Suitcase Lady (who as it turned out had taken K up to the 6th floor as I was searching for her!) Eventually i got back to the lobby just in time for one of my favorite dances, the phone booth between Porter and Boy. I'd been wanting Porter's 1:1 for ages, and finally got it. I was moved and crying and my hand is still red. I went back up to 5 (just felt like it) and followed Matron and Shaw's mirror dance to the operating theater and watched Shaw's crazy possession. They headed down the stairs together. Black masks started to show up so I figured it was the end, so I followed them down and kept going to the 1st floor balcony, hoping I could get a walkout from Hecate or Porter, but neither happened. As a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square and we headed back to Manderley again, Madeline gave me a huge hug and bid me adieu. That's a walkout enough for me. <3 (Great dinner at Gallow Green afterwards with Jake, K, and R.) I don't know when I'l be back, but four 1:1s plus a longgg run-in with a gypsy should tide me over.