Theatre folk love this Onion article in which audience members are horrified to learn that the performers are coming into the audience. We laugh because we both love and hate when we're instructed to do this and we also laugh because we know it's true. Audiences, for the most part, hate this.
But there is another class of theatre audience, which also secretly (or not so secretly) LOVE it. That's why shows like Third Rail's Ghost Light (yes, we know, it's confusing — that is a SHOW, we are a COMPANY) and Punchdrunk's Sleep No More exist. That's also why we created the MURDER or MOVIE STAR LEVEL of our G.E.T. Funding fundraising rewards.
With a donation of $100 (or more), that special class of audience member who likes to be INVOLVED in the production, to feel it happening around them, to be swept up in the excitement can find themselves dead on stage.
Those who choose MURDER will G.E.T. killed* on stage during Gingerbread Grindhouse. You choose the performance, we choose the method of your demise. This comes with a slew of other perks, including a Ghostlight T-shirt.
But death isn't for everyone. So for those who would like to be involved in a less deadly way, there's always the MOVIE STAR route. That way lies the ability to choose a movie for us to perform as part of our Live Reading Series with the option to join us for the rehearsal and performance process. This choice also comes with a fancy Ghostlight tote bag to carry your script around in.
So while the audience members of Benedum Center for the Performing Arts in Pittsburgh may be panicking about their horrifying breach of the fourth wall, our audiences will be reveling in the gore and glam of theirs.
*This is acting. No real audience members will be harmed during the production of this play.
