The Louisiana Loogaroo
Overall Concept
Logline:
While the streets of New Orleans ring with the sounds of Mardi Gras and jazz, you must evade the clutches of a bloodthirsty hag waiting for an unlucky drunk to become her next feast.
Conceptual Overview:
Your hotel radio rings out with the message of another victim found drained of their blood in the street after a long night of partying. It’s the next in a list of countless others you’ve heard about since you first arrived in New Orleans. Though the regular festivities of Mardi Gras carry on, you know there is something dangerous prowling among the crowds on Bourbon Street.
As the day’s affairs continue, you notice a haggard old woman that’s been following not so far behind since you left your hotel earlier, but you shake it off convinced she could not be the gruesome killer that is plaguing the citizens of the city. There must be something else going on here…
You begin to wonder if the souls that haunt this timeless city are out for revenge. To protect yourself you venture to seek help from a powerful Voodoo Queen if only something else hadn’t gotten to her first.
However, after spotting the old woman again that night at a bar, you’re once again determined to see if she is the source of the killing. Peeling off into the dark streets, you think you too might meet an untimely end. Will you find yourself staring down death as you await your fate in the hands of a ruthless bloodsucking monster?
Scene - Int. Voodoo Shop
Show Elements:
Talent: Voodoo Queen (F); Old Hag/Loogaroo (F)
Scenic Design: Interior Voodoo Shop; 1940s style wallpaper covers walls; built-in shelves for potions, charms, and skulls; cut out for back door
Props/Decor: Portraits of unknown figures; ancient masks; glass potion bottles w/liquid and ingredients; charms; human skulls; cobwebs and dust; alter table; doily runner; homemade rosaries; assorted alter offerings; Virgin Mary statue; bulky bookshelf; spell books; voodoo dolls; thick velvet curtains; cauldron; round wooden table; two chairs; bones; roots; jars
Media/Audio: General Audio: African Voodoo Drum BGM; Point Source Audio 1: Thud of falling book; Point Source Audio 2: Bubbling cauldron
Lighting: Minimal warm lighting; Flickering candles; Special warm on Virgin Mary statue; Point Source 1: Green illuminating cauldron light
SPFX: Mothballs smell; large falling book; large animated/shaking chest; bubbling/illuminated cauldron
Notes: Book falls timed for every 5-10 seconds; Chest shake timed for every 3-5 seconds after book
Beat:
A cluttered shop of treasures. A book falls on a shelf further into the room. Something from inside a chest next to it shakes and pounds from within.
Moving through curtains, a pot bubbles illuminating a woman in the back corner. In front of the woman sits a hooded figure. The figure turns to reveal the face of the old woman and a neck laceration on the neck of the woman in the corner.
Design Narrative:
Entering into the Voodoo shop, we feel overwhelmed by the number of items that clutter the walls and floor. Straight ahead large curtains block the back part of the space. It is dark and dingy; dust and cobwebs consume many of the shop’s treasures. The smell of mothballs hangs in the air.
Flicking candles all around are the only thing that light our path. We notice the room is consumed by portraits of figures we can’t quite make out through the cobwebs. Ancient masks hang among the portraits: the shop’s owner hoping to ward off evil spirits. Shelves hang from every wall, filled with glass potion bottles of mysterious liquids and ingredients, charms, and human skulls.
On one side of us sits an altar adorned with a doily table runner. A mess of handmade rosaries, bottles, candles, and offerings surround a statue of the Virgin Mary, filling the tabletop. Our attention is pulled towards the thud of a large book falling on a shelf from the other side of the room. We look upward to find a bookshelf too big for the space, its shelves filled with spellbooks. On top of it perches a line of voodoo dolls. Sudden shaking and pounding from a suspected victim come from a large chest next to the shelf that scares us away and through thick velvet curtains.
We enter a space shrouded in darkness, even more so than the last. We turn towards the back corner hearing the bubble of liquid. Steam rises from a cauldron, a mysterious ingredient illuminating the mixture and the two figures surrounding it. They sit at a round wooden table. The table is littered with bones, roots, and jars preparing to be added to a future potion.
There’s a woman in the back corner who is almost completely obscured, with nothing but the wrap around her head seen. A hooded figure sits in front of her. The figure turns to greet you, revealing the horrifying face of the OLD HAG—and behind her the VOODOO QUEEN, her neck oozing blood from a fresh wound, sending us terrified out the back door.
Scene - Ext. Jackson Square
Show Elements:
Talent: Decaying Corpse
Scenic Design: Large wrought iron gates surrounded by stone posts on either side. Facade of St. Louis Cathedral; trees; weathered sign denoting: Jackson Square
Props/Decor: Spanish moss draped on sign/gate; leaves on ground
Media/Audio: General Audio: Haunting New Orleans Jazz BGM; Crunching of leaves; Whisper of voices; Point Source Audio 1: Talent triggered clap of thunder
Lighting: Moonlight; flickering street lamp w/warm glow; Talent triggered flash of lightning
SPFX: Heavy fog; rotting flesh smell
Notes: Performer triggers for Decaying Corpse
Beat:
Nighttime on faux streetscape; outside closed iron gates. St. Louis Cathedral can be seen in the distance behind a heavy fog. The whisper of voices comes from every direction. A decaying corpse emerges from the fog behind the gate, gripping its bars in an attempt to escape. It screams out as it’s pulled back into the fog.
Design Narrative:
As we stumble out of the shop door, we are halted by large wrought iron gates blocking our immediate path. It is nighttime now and a heavy fog has flooded the streets of New Orleans.
Trees around the gate obscure most anything at eye level beyond the iron bars. A weathered sign, that is barely clinging on above the gate entrance reads “Jackson Square.” Thick Spanish moss hangs over the sign, rendering the words almost impossible to read. Beyond the gate, we can barely see the hazy silhouette of St. Louis Cathedral, its three peaks emerging from above the fog.
Leaves litter the ground, crunching under our feet. It seems as if groups of people are whispering directly into our ears. The smell of rotting flesh is unmistakable to us.
The face of a DECAYING CORPSE emerges from the fog behind the gate, grasping at the fence in an attempt to escape. In the same moment, thunder and lighting cry out as if warning us to stay away. The corpse screams incoherently as something from behind pulls it back into the fog, as we discover a flicking street lamp that leads us away from the gates.