Haunted Mansion - Set Sketches

Greeting, Happy Haunts (and Foolish Mortals...) !

Well here, are some sketches for set Ideas, for my wee 'Story of Gracey Manor' Show pet project.

I am designing several peices to move around and can be used together, so that I can create the many differant scenes and places. These include the exterior of the mansion, a garden, a graveyard and a fairground as well  as the numerous rooms and halls inside the manion.

The first peice is the main interior peice.
It features a spiral staircase teisting around a town, which, when pillars are placed in front of it, create the exterior of the house.

The design draws from many differant aspects of the ride. The railings on the stairs are inspired by the railings on the exterior of the mansion in Anaheim, and the top of the tower is modeled on the tower from the Florida version of the ride. The stairs also use forced perspective to create the illusion of height.

The bricked area on the tower will be made of scrim, so that I can light it from behind. This'll be useful when creating the Attic Bride and Master Gracey/Ghost Host hanging himself.

Below you can see the behind of the tower.

The set will be spin round to reveal this side. This would be used for outside scenes, such as the Graveyard or the Garden, and for scenes in which a charatcers stands on a balcony, or in a bedroom or upstairs etc etc.

When the tower peice is placed behind a set of pillars it'll create the outside of the mansion....

Well, I hope you like what you see. Other set peices that im working on include, another staircase (which will form a mansion corridor and the ballroom), the main gates, as well as several smaller peices such as Cranvial tents, the graveyard (havent a clue how im gonna create that...) and the wedding/party.

In case anyone is confused, this is NOT a show that will go into production. This is an imaginary show that I am designing and writing. Its what I do. :D

Bye bye.

The Haunted Mansion - the Musical?

Now, for those of you that are new here (and lets face it, all of you are, since I just made this blog today..) you may not know it, but I am a theatre-person. [Audience gasps!]

I know - you may be shocked, terrified even, but its true. I am a huge fan of musicals and theatre and drama. In my spare time I write reviews for my local Arts Centre and design sets and costumes for shows thats I make up in my mind.  But enough of that -

A few days ago, (9/9/09) I was sitting in my room and listening to the Haunted Mansion soundtrack thinking about all the lucky people that had tickets and could make it to the 40th Anniversary event in the States.... when it occured to me. What if there was a show (not nessarily an all-danceing, all-star musical) of some sorts, that told the story of Gracey Manor, and tried to capture the atmosphere and origanality of the origanal ride thorugh drama?

Now no doubt many of you are thinking that this is a terrible idea. Just an easy way to kill and brutily murder a beloved peice of Disney History. No doubt you may have seen the short ''dramatic'' peice that was put on at the 40th Anniversary dinner (if not, see it here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odwsZMQP3aY ).

I personally think it was a bit naff. Sorry.

So I set to work on designing and creating a (hypothetical) show of my own.....mwhahahahahahaha!

Obviosly many many people have tried to explain the story of the Manor and how it became full of so many ghosts. The  story and plot that ive drawn up, is basically just hogde-podged from a serious of fan-stories, film-scripts and the storylines from the Phantom Manor, and frankly its a bit simple.  I'm an artiste - not a a playwright. If you have any ideas, please let me know.

Again, i'll be posting more sketches, plot ideas and script extracts as I go on. Its kinda becoming my own wee project.

Bye bye.