ARTS & LIFE
Wednesday, October 16, 2013 • Page 3 Editor: Kyle Mittan arts@wildcat.arizona.edu (520) 621-3106 twitter.com/dailywildcat
Congress’ extra Series of séances aims to see what’s hiding and settle legends of paranormal activity in iconic Tucson hotel
visitors
BY KYLE MITTAN
The Daily Wildcat
A
SAVANNAH DOUGLAS / THE DAILY WILDCAT
HOTEL CONGRESS’ ROOM 328 — the only room on the third floor that remained after a fire in 1934 — has been closed for the last 80 years. “The Room” invites 30 guests to attend a séance inside the room every Thursday night throughout the month of October.
Student finds outlet in Tucson theater
t nearly a century old, Hotel Congress has seen countless guests come and go — and it’s widely believed that some have never left. A series of séances on the hotel’s third floor invites guests to experience an area of the hotel that has remained closed off to the public for nearly 80 years. “The Room” aims to bring 30 guests into hotel room 328, and, with the help of local magicians The Brothers Macabre and Dr. Jonathan Arcane, find out if Hotel Congress has a few extra visitors. The event was inspired by the aftermath of a fire in 1934 that claimed nearly the entire third floor of the hotel — with the exception of room 328. Although no one was killed in the fire, the room remained unoccupied until recently, when the large swamp cooler that sat inside was removed, said David Slutes, the hotel’s entertainment director. The hotel is largely believed to be haunted, with some visitors finding strange figures in photos taken inside the hotel and others reporting sightings of a small girl on the second floor. As it has remained untouched since the fire, room 328 seems to carry an eerie presence for most who have been inside. “It’s weird,” Slutes said of the room. “You see how at one point it was a great room because it’s on the third floor … but it’s creepy. It’s super creepy because it’s just a lot of old stuff that hasn’t been touched for years.” The event brings 30 visitors inside the room, where the magicians lead an hour-and-a-half process to “channel the realm of the unliving,” said Kenny Stewart, one of the two magicians who make up The Brothers Macabre. The room, he said, serves as the “portal” to the other side. “Sitting in this room, basically we’re just sort of channeling those particular energies of people past,” Stewart said. “We’re basically conducting experiments.” Séances will be held at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m., and
attendees will be given a break for champagne and hors d’oeuvres during each show before returning to the room for the second half. With half the month and two events already past, Slutes said the response to the event has been largely positive. “Everyone’s come out and said it’s a really good event,” Slutes said. “I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that it’s fairly intimate. … You get to be in the place; you get to be in this room; you get to feel it.” Stewart wouldn’t provide much description of the “manifestations” that presented themselves in past events, saying that he would leave the “movements in the background” up to the audience’s interpretation. “I think there’s a level of uncomfortability — definitely a level of dark puzzlement,” Stewart said. “For ‘The Room’ at Hotel Congress, no two shows have been the same.” “The Room” is part of the hotel’s goal to add a historic twist to the events it hosts, Slutes added. “It adds context and richness to everything,” he said. “You add real depth to these events, and people go away with a more substantial experience. This place exudes it, and not to talk about the building and the place you’re in and having such a unique venue would be a shame.”
IF YOU GO WHAT: “The Room” WHEN: Thursday, 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. WHERE: Hotel Congress, 311 E. Congress St. ADMISSION: $35 advance, $40 door
— Follow Arts Editor Kyle Mittan @KyleMittan
‘Escape From Tomorrow’ a new look at Disney World Guerilla-style film like a bad acid trip to Tomorrowland BY ALEX GUYTON
The Daily Wildcat
PHOTO COURTESY OF GABI URIAS
THEATRE JUNIOR GABI URIAS currently serves as an understudy in “Buccaneers of the Caribbean,” a comedic dinner show playing at the Gaslight Theatre in downtown Tucson.
write scripts after that experience. Theatre junior Ryan Kinseth said he believes Urias’ music writing For Gabi Urias, the best places to and singing showcase her talent practice vocal harmonies for an up- and emotions. “She is very determined to get it coming performance are in her car right the first time,” Kinseth said. and around the house. The theatre junior is currently “She goes in 100 percent.” Although Urias takes her perforunderstudying for a role in “Buccaneers of the Caribbean” at the Gas- mances seriously whenever she’s light Theatre in downtown Tucson. onstage, Kinseth said that Urias is Urias is the first UA student in at a “goofball” backstage — a result of least four years to serve as an actor her bubbly personality. “She always has a good time and in the theater’s production. “Buccaneers of the Caribbean” plays around with everyone,” Kinsis a comedic dinner theater show eth said. Urias plays the that involves audiguitar and reguence interaction, larly posts videos The experience Urias said. She is of her musical understudying for challenges arrangements the role of Billie, me. Being an on her YouTube a young lady who understudy channel. falls in love with a makes me “Her videos captain and dishave a quirky, hungry to be guises herself as a unique spin,” said sailor in order to onstage. theatre junior Kel— Gabi Urias, be close to him. understudy in “Buccasie Williams, who The show will run neers of the Caribbean” has worked with through Nov. 10. Urias on various Gaslight perforUA productions. mances are a mix “She is a fireball full of energy, pasof old and new styles, Urias said. The Gaslight Theatre has been a sion and fun.” Most recently, the two have perlocal theater venue for more than formed together with the Tucson 30 years. “The theater is unique to Tucson. cabaret group “Musical Mayhem.” Expecting to graduate in DeFor out-of-state students, it is a cool cember 2014, Urias said she’s got Tucson thing to do,” Urias said. The opportunity to work with her eye on Toronto as a place to professional actors and entertain- pursue an acting career. She said ers at the Gaslight Theatre has she plans to keep an open mind taught Urias how to prepare herself and try a variety of disciplines. “I hope to experience as many for a role. “The experience challenges me,” kinds of theater as possible,” she she said. “Being an understudy said. “Musical theater, straight plays, devised theater, shows on makes me hungry to be onstage.” As a freshman, Urias performed controversial topics, classics, evin the UA Studio Series production erything.” “Short Attention Span Theatre.” For the show, Urias, along with — Follow Arts reporter Erin the cast, had to write her own Shanahan @ItsErinShanahan script, she said. She was inspired to BY ERIN SHANAHAN
The Daily Wildcat
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A man on vacation with his family at Walt Disney World has a mental break from reality as the park transforms into a menacing presence in “Escape from Tomorrow.” The film is unlike anything that’s ever been done before — for better rather than worse. The backstory behind the creation of “Escape from Tomorrow” is almost as interesting as the film itself. After the divorce of his parents, director Randy Moore spent a lot of time at Walt Disney World with his father. His relationship with his father broke down over time, and Moore eventually had a family of his own. When he took his children and his wife to Disneyland, he started to see the Disney theme park experience from a different perspective. Not only was the specter of the experiences he and his father shared present, but his wife, who is a native of central Asia and a foreigner to the Disney experience, found the park more disturbing than a psych ward. “Escape from Tomorrow” was filmed in both Disneyland and Walt Disney World, without the permission of the parks, as the producers feared Disney would not approve of the film’s negative, surrealist interpretation of Mickey and friends. The crew kept their scripts on their phones, and the actors rehearsed their lines and actions in hotel rooms, knowing they could not rehearse in the actual parks without drawing attention to themselves. The film was shot on small, handheld cameras, and after Moore filmed the movie, he edited it in South Korea to prevent anyone remotely involved in the Hollywood film industry from learning that he had shot a feature-length film in the Disney parks without Disney’s permission. Jim (Roy Abramsohn) is with his family, wife Emily (Elena Schuber) and kids Sara (Katelynn Rodriguez) and Eliot (Jack Dalton), on vacation in Florida at Walt Disney World. At the hotel on the morning of their final day, Jim receives a phone call and is told that he’s been laid off. His relationship with his wife already seems strained, but when they go into the park, Jim starts to have weird visions, and his erratic behavior increases the tension. After he and his wife decide to split up and each take one kid through the park, Jim starts to follow two French girls who can’t be older than 15. A continuous string of strange events then unfolds throughout the day. The main attraction of the film is the Bizarro World spin on the Disney parks, and the film delivers the guilty pleasure in perfectly disconcerting surrealist fashion. The opening point-of-view shot puts the audience in the perspective of a rider on the famous Big Thunder Mountain Railroad as it innocently chugs along. Then, the person directly in front of the camera is decapitated at the big drop in the ride. While going through It’s a Small World with his family, Jim has sudden flashes of the saccharine faces of the animatronic puppets turning demonic, with huge, sharp teeth and menacing eyes. The scene resembles the hallucinogenic boat ride in “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” more than the actual Small World ride. There’s a laundry list of similar distortions, but I don’t want to spoil some of the better moments. Needless to say, the whole park takes on a sinister life of its own, as if it’s all one big conspiracy. Unfortunately, at times, the film’s aimlessness induces a sort of lull. The film doesn’t follow an
MANKURT MEDIA
overarching plot so much as it simply wanders along, seemingly content to pick up different strands as they develop. If the movie is a theme park ride, then the end goes completely off the rails. Any sense of normalcy that the film had maintained (which is not very much) is completely jettisoned. It is certainly memorable, yet left many in the audience, myself included, scratching their heads. The film has something to say about the insincere nature of manufactured happiness and the unrealistic expectations it breeds, but the wacky ending makes the message difficult to parse. Dedicated, curious viewers might revisit the film for a second viewing. Destined to enter into the hallowed pantheon of cult films, “Escape from Tomorrow” presents “The Happiest Place on Earth” as hiding something much more menacing beneath. There are many more hits than misses, and the images here, like the nightmarish It’s A Small World, turn the home of everyone’s favorite anthropomorphic mouse inside-out. “Escape from Tomorrow” is currently playing at The Loft Cinema.
Grade: B
— Follow Arts reporter Alex Guyton @TDWildcatFilm