The newest play on Broadway – “Paranormal Activity” has officially opened and is ready to send a chill up the spines of the audience.
Based on the film franchise, Lou and James believe that there house is haunted; only to discover it isn’t the house…
Strictly limited to a 20 week engagement, horror fans don’t have much time to witness the “master class in psychological terror”.
The play stars Cher Alvarez and Travis A. Knight with Shannon Cochran, and Eva Kaminsky; all but Kaminsky are making their Broadway debuts.
Fly Davis and Tony Award winner illusionist Chris Fisher have created the two story house with some ghostly activity.
Tasked with creating his share of unusual and spooky illusions; Fisher admits that he is not ammune to getting “spooked” himself saying, “just recently, I was rigging this flying effect at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford. The best time to rig [the effect] was at the end of the night. Everyone goes. The stage is empty. And I was flying this thing around when I felt this shiver go down my spine. And everything felt cold around me. And then, I heard this breathing, which got louder and louder and louder. And I was like, ‘I’m not staying.’”
The house becomes the site of electrical quirks, a séance gone wrong…very wrong, and ghosts.
A part of the creative process from the very beginning, the play was designed around Fisher’s illusions. Fisher notes, “you never want to see an illusion come in. Everything should feel natural, part of the set.”
He adds, “an illusion on stage crosses pretty much every single department. It’s automation, it’s props, it’s costume…it’s very much lighting. You don’t appreciate how integral sound is to an illusion. It can punctuate it so beautifully and make it so emotive.”
There are a total of 40 illusions in “Paranormal Activity” beginning with the creaking of a kitchen cabinet and moving on to screams of horror…and the ringing of the bell – twice!
Fisher notes that he enjoys watching the play over and over and can’t wait to see the audience reactions to the show.