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bdungey New user 64 Posts |
If this belongs better in the Crypt - please let me know!
Hoping to brainstorm a little here - if you all can pardon the frequency of my posting. I'm just now vocalizing a project that I've been putting together for quite some time. If the nature of this post isn't permitted here, please feel free to remove. This is quite a novel, but I'm genuinely interested in feedback. So, I've got what I think is a great theme for a presentation. Late into the war, five nurses assigned to Forward Casualty Station 4 were tasked for 'bedding' incoming patients. That is, they were in charge of escorting new patients to available beds and sounding a hand bell to alert litter bearers to the deceased for removal and burial. That is, until the bell stopped ringing in Condren. A log book detailing the goings on of the bedding staff shows pages of names marked 'deceased' before a clear and definitive end. On a day in the fall, Nurse Marie Anne's name marks the final entry before several more pages of empty lines. The dead stopped. I've come upon these items and this story, I'll say, via my wife's aunt, who knows I collect militaria. I've got a sleeve of WW2 themed tattoos to boot. I'd like this presentation to ask the following questions; were Nurse Marie Anne and her team witches? What darkness could they have bartered with to stop the suffering in their station? --- The names and places here are designed, but based on real Canadian wartime nurses and their service. I'm aiming to bestow several feelings through this presentation. The story of Nurse Marie Anne and her sisters will be a love letter to duty and compassion. The summoning of her, however, should feel very 'real'. Even though her spirit is the epitome of kindness, the bending of our plane and hers should leave participants feeling as though they've genuinely connected with the spirit realm. Environment over effect. I'm not a 'magician' here - I'm just escorting the participants through a catalogue of artifacts, feelings and the puzzle of life and death. --- I have quite a few elements to look forward to here. Particularly, the use of a Ces@rel Spirit Bell to 'confirm' the presence of Nurse Marie Anne. Second to that, however, I have an opportunity to create a really interesting prop. I'd like to create the 'log book' with perhaps hundreds of entries spanning a year or so of deceased patients. A stark opposite to the glaring, open pages that follow Nurse Marie Anne's final entry. Those entries would be handwritten on pages bound to a formal military cover. Aged appropriately, of course. Here's my first question for the group - what comes to mind for using this book as a means to produce some of the feelings above? I thought that participants could blindly select one of several envelopes (or military-esque packages of some kind) containing headshots for each of the five nurses. Using Equivoque, I feel like there's a pretty organic force to get Nurse Marie Anne selected. Then, perhaps the log book could be used as a book test of some kind. Maybe toward getting a participant to identify her name, the name of a patient or bed number. Do any of you have any resources toward how I could design that? I feel like this log book could hold some amazing results - what do you think I could bring to participants with this? The log book, with the stark and clear final death noted with pages of empty entry spaces ahead of it really gets my imagination going. Another idea I'm fitting in that I'd like to validity test here - After the nurse is selected, story told and artifacts offered for study, I have a dubious idea. I'd like to pay a voice actor on Fiverr or Reddit to play as the nurse in her old age. Interviewed by a grand daughter and alluding to the 'sacrifice' made to enable such a powerful response - that no more should die under her and her nurse sisters' care. I'm going move that audio file to a tape. I'm going to use a shoebox tape recorder to play the tape - sold that it's from her estate. I'm going to take that shoebox tape recorder apart and hide a small bluetooth speaker in it. Somehow - not sure how yet, but thinking a 'steering wheel remote' would do it - this speaker will play audio later in the night. Especially if the audio is altered to be chopped and slowed - I think this could work well with a 'click and hiss' tape recorder sound effect preceeding the music. In the dark, is that too much? |
Joshua J Inner circle 1014 Posts |
I would maybe do the equivoque routine with who the sacrifice was rather than the nurses. Or maybe a multiple out instead. I would suggest less is maybe more here and focus on the story having the impact rather than lots of digital effects. If you're having audio or a bell ring make it incidental rather than the focus. Some people will hear, some won't but they'll talk about it after. Sending a PM of another idea.
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Joshua J Inner circle 1014 Posts |
This is my version of Killer Elite by Andy Nyman based around WW1 soldiers. 4 went into the war. Only one came home. Good emotional impact and usually add that I'm glad they selected whoever they did as they were my great grandad on my mothers side. If they hadn't picked them I might not be standing here to show it you. Not a piece I use very often but it always gains a good bit of interest. People usually have some vague family stories of what their family did in the war and I enjoy hearing these personal stories as it gives a chance to connect with audiences more than the trick does. I reckon you could do something similar around the sacrifice or the nurses.
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Joshua J Inner circle 1014 Posts |
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The Curator V.I.P. Beware Vampire, I have 3908 Posts |
Princess Mary's box, nice!
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Joshua J Inner circle 1014 Posts |
Sadly no chocolate though. I bought this one many years ago when I did the battlefield tours. My dad still has my great grandfathers. He was an artist and my aunt has the sketch books from the war time. We've been looking to get them reproduced for a number of years but haven't convinced aunt to part with them to allow it to happen. I'd love to add some copies of the sketches to the set but she is very protective over them.
https://artuk.org/discover/artists/benner-william-18841964 |
Garrad Elite user 446 Posts |
I thought maybe slightly larger index cards that were the soldiers medical records
On the front they would have their names, age, rank, treatment, injury etc On the back would be release info, if they lived or died, were they sent back to the front line o home to re-cooperate, time of death. You could then use these for an out of this world style living and dead test. You could also perform a book test style routine with them. Force one who might be patient zero as in the first to survive or the last to die. Force a card and have them select on a watch a time and it matches the time of death Etc etc Regards Garrad
You might say reality is the result of complex negotiations between the observer and the observed. But that is simply a point of view.
Many Thanks Garrad |
Joshua J Inner circle 1014 Posts |
Do you know Jim Critchlow's the fallen? Might be of interest to you. There was another similar WWI routine about the same time but can't remember who put it out.
https://www.penguinmagic.com/p/S14090 |
Garrad Elite user 446 Posts |
Thank you, that does look interesting.
Regards Garrad
You might say reality is the result of complex negotiations between the observer and the observed. But that is simply a point of view.
Many Thanks Garrad |
Garrad Elite user 446 Posts |
Out of stock and discontinued though.
I might hunt for it elsewhere
You might say reality is the result of complex negotiations between the observer and the observed. But that is simply a point of view.
Many Thanks Garrad |
The Magic Cafe Forum Index » » The spooky, the mysterious...the bizarre! » » Brainstorming on new presentation - The Nurses of Forward Casualty Station 4 (2 Likes) |
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