Tales from Camp Strangewood, Episode 3:
The Legend of Ghost Girl
Sparkhaven Theatre
by Hayley Spivey with Music and Additional Lyrics by Alissa Voth
Directed + Designed by Andrew Child
by Hayley Spivey with Music and Additional Lyrics by Alissa Voth
Directed + Designed by Andrew Child
Music Direction by
Alissa Voth |
Head Writer
Sloth Levine |
Title Animation by
Savannah Pryfogle |
Check out the visual inspiration for The Legend of Ghost Girl here.
Thoughts on directing The Legend of Ghost Girl...
The Legend of Ghost Girl was the third episode in Tales from Camp Strangewood, a series of Zoom theatre pieces. It was my first time directing for Zoom, and I wanted to put my late-ness to the form to work. As Zoom theatre took off, I was hesitant to work in the medium and even more hesitant to sit through works on the medium. Though an imperfect format, having worked on this piece, I feel the general disdain for Zoom theatre has less to do with the platform or format and more to do with the "quantity-over-quality" mindset with which these pieces seem to be produced. I found it to be a great challenge and hugely exciting to think about the ways the platform could lean on strengths of theatrical storytelling (like puppetry and live music), as well as filmic storytelling (specificity of locale, range in proximity, and intimacy with an audience). Hayley Spivey's script opened up a world of possibilities in regards to pop culture references, broad characters, and a playful zaniness that fit the framework of a weekly serial. For the visual world of the piece, I wanted to embrace the idea of establishing shots, which lead to the creation of five miniature set pieces with different capabilities. Some were constructed to allow access to the back so that they could be lit for shadow puppetry, while others required a toy theatre design with access to operate puppets through the sides or top. The first piece I built even incorporated a miniature Pepper's ghost illusion fashioned from a plastic tub. Not only did I want to visually convey this narrative in ways that embraced the capabilities of the platform, but I also wanted to evoke the brightly colored, eclectic world of camp arts and crafts. Many elements of the design centered around the question, "how would these characters visually communicate this information?" Because the story centers around a group of 11 year old girls, crayon drawings, scrapbook collages, candy wrappers, letters written home, and gatherings of toys became the medium through which forests, cabins, fires, and ghosts were conjured.