Sam Gwilliam - Actor - Miss Maggie's Toy Box

What is the Project?

Miss Maggie's is an original walk-through escape room commissioned by "Gloucester Welcomes Refugees" to the HNC & HND group at Gloucester College. with the requirements that it is made for Halloween and raised money for charity.

Strongly inspired by the franchise 'Five Nights at Freddy's' and many Escape rooms around Gloucester and Cheltenham, Miss Maggie's is a mix of walkthrough and escape room. Giving lore, frights and puzzles for the guests to endure. Lead by 'Nancy' The daughter of one of the owners and the detective who died trying to solve the mystery of Miss Maggie's.

The story follows two brothers Eddie and Ernie. The two owners of Miss Maggie's Toy Box, A very popular shop in the 60's. Driven by events such as Divorce and Death. Eddie and Ernie went insane and started murdering people out of anger for what their lives weren't. Eddie and Ernie never left Miss Maggie's, Alongside the Monsters they made.

You went to visit Miss Maggie's decades later, to solve the mystery of a missing detective. The question is. Will you Escape?

My thoughts of the Project?

When we first started this project I struggled to find my footing, I knew I was acting but my goal was to have a more vital role in development. This lead to me becoming the Set & Sound Designer. At first this was fairly daunting, but I managed to overcome those fears and find a new personal strength in backstage work. We were all given the task to develop our own characters in this project also. My character, Ernie originally was just the brother of CEO Eddie O'Driscoll. But after a discussion about our characters we came up with an entire story for Miss Maggie's Toy Box. When we finished the project I couldn't have been happier with the result. The class and I put together an experience with an in-depth story, characters with personality and relationships, an entire franchises history also.

Everyone's final thoughts of the Project:

Inspirations for the project?

Five Nights At Freddy's:

The Five Nights at Freddy's Movie greatly inspired the plot and characters of Miss Maggie's. Eddie, The owner of Miss Maggie's is strongly inspired by William Afton, The Owner of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. A man who's life was destroyed by his belief of Betrayal from his company partner Henry Emily. This sends him into a rage which leads him to killing innocent children and stuffing them into animatronic suits.

The character Nancy, Ernie's Daughter and Eddie's Niece, was also inspired off of a character from this franchise. This being Michael Afton, William Aftons son. This character was someone who wanted to release the souls of the people who were stuck in robot suits. The whole idea of Nancy being related to Eddie and Ernie didn't come along until later in development but we thought this would add more depth to the production.

Watch the Preview Here!

Escape Hunt:

Escape Hunt for me, Inspired the set design. I went to an escape room in Cheltenham from this company, the whole layout of the escape room and how the puzzles were presented greatly helped me understand what a good escape room looks like. This also helped me with how to move the guests from one room to other, with the hallways and more.

Link to the Official Escape Hunt Site:

https://escapehunt.com

Toys R Us:

Toys R Us influenced me with both the plot and setting. When Misty came up with the idea for the Puzzles, she originally involved toys in a toy factory. We then chose to expand this into an abandoned toy shop. The idea for the Teddy Bear Room, Train Room and Mannequin Room. Came from the whole concept of having different sections of the shop reference different popular toys of the time. Something I remember Toys R Us having, which to me. Made it stick out so much and give us the idea of different themed rooms.

Some photo's of Toys R Us:

What is Devising?

Devised theatre is as old as society itself’ a quote by Mike Leigh in the book of Devising by Jessica Swale. It is a form of acting that requires a lot of creativity and a bit of implementation. Actors use devising as a way to show their strengths by making their own performance based on a stimuli of their choice. This can range from a romance script based in the 1600's, or a Sci-Fi horror far in the future. The only limit is the Actor's imagination. Where a lot of companies usually get some sort of stimuli to work from, some smaller companies or acting groups might either choose not to use or might not even be given a stimulus and made to build from scratch. It’s a true test for Actors as it stretches their creativity even more than just character building. Alongside this, there is a process that actors can go through called The Five stages of Devising. A quote from the book ‘Drama games for Devising’ which says, ‘The following process is merely a suggestion, a starting point’, They bring up all of the aspects to do with those Five stages, They are as follows.

Preparation - Where Actors make sure they are physically prepared for the Performance ahead.
Generation - The art of writing and processing a performance.
Exploration - Where actors get together as their group and discuss the best individual ideas and use them to delve into their concepts to see which would work best for the overall group.
Distillation - the group have got a main idea for their project, its just tweaking it to make it just right as a performance.
Presentation - Where the actors perform their overall produced work with all their acquired techniques.

History of Devising?

One of the earliest known forms of devising in theatre goes back to the 1500’s with commedia dell'arte which translates to “Comedy of the professionals” this form introduced the ideas of stock characters.

These characters were often thrown into different scenarios in which they would have to act accordingly to the set scene. This is where the idea of using stimuli to influence scenes mainly originated from. A very predominant aspect of Devising today. The scenes were usually based on one of the stereotypes, such as Love or Money. In modern day devising however this is widely expanded upon by using stimuli for a much wider range of media.

Stock characters were always the same, some of the most distinct ones are:

The Lovers - Two characters that were overly in love with each other or themselves.
The Master - An older wealthy grouch who believes everything belongs to him.
The Servants - Sly and Mischievous characters who believe they are lesser.

These character stereotypes greatly influenced one of the most well-known and popular playwrights William Shakespeare. A good example of this is in ‘Romeo & Juliet’ where the main characters are a good representation of the ‘Lovers’, there are many other examples of Shakespeare using stock characters, one of these is in Taming of the Shrew.

Joan Littlewood, was born in South London on the sixth of October 1914. In the 1940's-1950's she had a groundbreaking technique which influences modern theatre to this day. Her training techniques greatly focussed on the character themselves outside the base script. This is known as Improvisation. At the time this was fairly unheard of and an unusual technique for theatre. Another new idea in theatre was to make performances purely based around the middle class archetype. This opened new doors for Joan Littlewood as this would bring in more audiences who could 'relate' to the shows they are about to see. In modern theatre this is also a strongly used archetype in musicals such as 'Flowers for Mrs. Harris' and 'Back To The Future: The Musical'.

Commedia dell'arte is still a huge influence in the modern theatre world. Pantomimes are a great example of this. Only expanding on this however by having a lot more stock characters. A lot of these include:

The Hero
The Villain
The Dame

These Characters are also usually played by actors of similar descriptions, thus fitting the stereotype of each individual character. The characters are used in mainly fairy tales. Such as ‘Aladdin’ or ‘Cinderella’. This is a good example of how commedia dell'arte expanded and influenced the wider range of theatre.

Below are some examples of the Commedia Dell'arte Workshop we took part in:

Production Process:

Practitioner Workshops:

Laban Technique

Laban is a technique where the actors can use physicality and vocality to help make a character unique. originally used for dancers choreography in the 1940's, it slowly made it's way to acting half a century later. A very useful technique for character creation/development. The main way to differentiate the techniques are by focusing on the core movements, such as speed, weight, direction and flow. The different character Archetypes are also known as 'The Eight Efforts' These involved specific character structures such as:

Press: Sustained movements, Direct, Their Flow is Bound, Heavy Movements

Wring: Sustained movements, Indirect, Their Flow is Bound, Heavy Movements

Punch: Quick movements, Direct, Their Flow is Bound, Heavy Movements

Slash: Quick movements, Indirect, Their Flow is Bound, Heavy Movements

Float: Sustained movements, Indirect, Their Flow is Free, Light Movements

Glide: Sustained movements, Direct, Their Flow is Free, Light Movements

Dab: Quick movements, Direct, Their Flow is Bound, Light Movements

Flick: Quick movements, Indirect, Their Flow is Free, Light Movements

Complicite Technique

Complicite is a technique that we used to help us improvise scenes where all the actors are in an enclosed space, but have to act as if they were far apart. We did this on a small stage in two groups of three. This is a useful skill for us also because we can learn to use smaller spaces more effectively and give an illusion to being for example, at different parts of the world.

My Personal Strengths and Weaknesses:

Strengths:

Consistency - A personal strength of mine is being able to stay in character for a fairly long time, Both Movement and Vocally. In this piece I didn't find characterisation to be much of a problem, This was because of all the character development behind the scenes that expanded my knowledge on how to act as Ernie O'Driscoll. In other performances I've always found methods of keeping consistency for the characters I am portraying. A good technique for this is Laban. I used the technique of the "Eight Efforts" as seen above, as a way to develop my physicality of Ernie, In which I ended up using the "Dab" Movement technique. I also used the character development portion to adapt from this and create stories for the character I am playing. These stories will usually be something you wouldn't be seeing the character do. This can be the smallest of scenarios to the most extravagant. I've always been intrigued by playing different characters so throughout the years I've honed my characterisation and kept pure consistency throughout.

Weaknesses:

Physicality - A weakness of mine I would say is Physicality. As someone who isn't the most flexible or agile having to move in a specific way can be challenging for me. In Miss Maggie's I was very lucky to portray a character who moves like a normal human. But alot more slow and Direct. This is an example of Laban. As an actor if i'm needed to be a faster pace or even running and jogging I can do that with little to no struggle. But when it comes to more eratic and unnatural movements thats where I personally find myself struggling alot more. For Elijahs character in the escape room his movements are very low and very quick. I personally wouldn't be able to move like that for a performance as I don't have the core strength for those type of movements. As a way to try improve my versatility in physicality. I am going to try implement Ryan's, Misty's and Elijah's workshops to help with my core strength and implement that into future productions.

Confidence - A weakness of mine is definitely Confidence. I've always struggled with my confidence in the sense that I never believe that I've done enough or done what I should've correctly. It's always been a personal struggle of mine, In this escape room I can portray a confident character even though on the inside I get anxious that I've said something out of line. Thankfully however from the feedback I'd recieved this was not the case. As someone who has anxiety I sometimes struggle to get the proper confidence I need for some productions and even aspects of life. An example of this is when I was making the set for the production. Even though we had put safety tape on the floor to warn guests of possible trip hazards. There was always that back though in my head of 'What if someone tripped', It's those things that always get to me. My main way to improve confidence isn't actually done by myself. It's always the people around me. All of my friends and family are giving me genuine feedback on what I've done well and what I need to do. The constant fear of messing up is always met with someone I know coming and telling me that I'm doing okay or them just helping me.

My Personal Workshop:

Gestures Workshop

My Gestures workshop was to focus on how to implement hand gestures to a performance to help express your character. For me this is a personal weakness of mine, I say this because I've found in the past when i'm on stage one of my concerns is how to use my hands in a logical way that helps express the character. The workshop I created I hoped to both help my peers and myself in how to implement gestures effectively, by giving them scenes that mainly use gestures but with no words attached.

Meet the Cast:

Eddie O'Driscoll:

The Actor:

Ryan Thornton

The Character:

Eddie O'Driscoll is the CEO of Miss Maggie's Toy-Box and older brother of Ernie. A man who originally had the dream life. A company, happy daughter and more. To Eddie, the only way in his life was up. Until his daughter Maggie got lost in the factory and never made it out. Everything that made him happy turned him sour. Twisting his mind and shutting everyone out, leading him to insanity. Killing those who had what he lost.

The Inspiration:

Eddie was strongly inspired by William Afton from Five Nights At Freddy's. A character who murdered innocent children to try relieve his grief of losing loved ones. We thought that a plot-line with similar aspects would work well for an abandoned Toy Store/Factory. The Laban movement I saw that was used with this character was definitely Press.

Ernie O'Driscoll:

The Actor:

Sam Gwilliam

The Character:

Ernie O'Driscoll is the Co-Owner of Miss Maggie's Toy-Box and Eddie's younger brother. A man who found a woman he loved through the company he helped create. This lead to Ernie having a daughter that he cared for with all his heart, Believing that everything in life that brought him happiness stemmed from Miss Maggie's. He believed that company could do no wrong. After his niece went missing his Older Brother changed. Kept dark secrets he refused to tell him. Grating on him which slowly changed Ernie. Leading to his wife leaving him and taking Nancy with her. Everything that brought Ernie joy was gone. He was convinced to join Eddie on his murder spree. Ernie couldn't take it so he hanged himself, unfortunately due to his actions, Resting in the Peace was the last thing he was able to do.

The Inspiration:

Ernie was partly inspired by William Afton. The idea of having him murder a child and being forced to live after death was the main inspiration from Afton, But his personality and Intentions were all an original idea we came up with. The physicality I used for Ernie come from Laban and are known as Press, but in some instances however I ended up using Dab.

Nancy O'Driscoll:

The Actor:

Misty Coates

The Character:

Nancy O'Driscoll, the estranged daughter of Co-Owner Ernie O'Driscoll. Her mother never told her about the events that occurred at Miss Maggie's, all that she said was her father was a man she would be best not to have met. This convinced Nancy to find out what happened to her father that she never knew. She dedicated her entire youth to becoming a detective to solve the mystery of who her father was, Leading her to Miss Maggie's. All she knew was that her father Co-Owned Miss Maggie's, but when she found the truth. She was taken by Eddie, having her mouth stitched shut while she was awake. She was forced to stay in Miss Maggie's, As Eddie put it. Snitches get Stitches.

The Inspiration:

Nancy to me was partly inspired off of classical detectives such as Sherlock Holmes and Poirot, This was mainly in the way the character dresses and in some ways acts. Knowing the rules and solving the murder behind Miss Maggie's Toy Box. The character also is partly inspired off of Michael Afton from Five Nights At Freddy's, Not in personality but plot-wise, as both Nancy and Michael discover their fathers to have alot more character below their charming outside personalities. The Laban technique used for Nancy I would say is Flick.

Theodore:

The Actor:

Elijah Borges

The Character:

Theodore, was originally a worker at Miss Maggie's. Working in the stock rooms helping out Eddie and Ernie. A very dedicated worker who was there from the very beginning. Even when the brothers lost everything. Theodore never gave up. When Eddie started to decend into madness, his anger for Theodore grew, seeing as he had a daughter of his own, Margareth. Eddie decided to make sure that Theodore couldn't have something that he once lost. So when Margareth was at Maggie's. Eddie stuffed and suffocated Theodore's daughter, he then proceeded to pour hot wax on Theodore himself. Turning him into a mannequin.

The Inspiration:

I believe that the design idea for Theodore (Mainly known as the Mannequin) came from the creepypasta character 'Slender-Man' this is mainly for the shape of the character and no faced design. We thought that the no faced look would work really well as we could implement a primarily jump-scaring character. The idea to use Laban's Dab was all Elijah's original idea.

Margareth:

The Actor:

Hollyann Freeman

The Character:

Margareth is the daughter of Miss Maggie's worker Theodore. She doesn't have a strong connection to Miss Maggie's other than the fact her father works there. Theodore brought Margareth to Miss Maggie's occasionally, but on one trip they both discovered it would be an everlasting visit. Eddie stuffed Margareth into a plush crocodile, suffocating and hiding her in a place where no one would bat an eye.

The Inspiration:

To me, the character of Margareth is a mix of a few characters in media. One of these being one of the criminals from Scooby-Doo. The monsters in Scooby-Doo are usually a person in a mask scaring people away for something to get personal gain. This is a very similar kind of character to Margareth (More of a disturbing origin story however). Like Five Nights at Freddy's however, The animatronics move when the guard isn't looking. This is similar to how Margareth moves in the end of the first room.

The Jack in The Box:

The Actor:

Jay Greening

The Character:

The Jack in the Box is a very unusual character in Miss Maggie's. No one really knows where he came from. Some believe he was a broken toy from the assembly-line who gained a soul. While others think he was one of the other victims of Eddie O'Driscoll. Even to Nancy, the detective who came to investigate, Can't seem to figure out where the Jack in the Box is from, or who he might've been.

The Inspiration:

In my eyes the Jack in the Box is very reminiscent of The Peg dolls from Doctor Who. The dolls are victorian styled dolls who came to life, then started chasing whoever entered their toy mansion. I see the similarity because of the very heavy footed and limited movement. Alongside the offputting demeanor. The Laban style used for this character in my opinion was definitely Glide.

Laurie Anne Williams:

The Actor:

Charlotte Rich

The Character:

Laurie Anne Williams. A young girl who the first and only victim of Ernie O'Driscoll. Blackmailed by his brother to "help with his grief" Ernie decided to take his held in anger out on a young girl who came to Miss Maggie's long ago. Laurie Anne Williams frequented Miss Maggie's, as she loved all the different character rooms. The shop became her second home. Until one day when she was walking home alone. Ernie, in a fit of anger and despair Kidnapped her and tied her to the train tracks, killing her, as an attempt to relieve his pain. To this day legend has it the girls soul made her way back to Miss Maggie's. Some say to torment Ernie, others say because she wanted to play with toys for eternity. But no one knows.

The Inspiration:

To me one of the inspirations for this character is an old victorian wind up doll. The whole idea of a doll that moves slowly with one or two little voice lines always scared me when I was younger. It even scares me to this day. The Laban style I'd say was used here was definitely Glide.

Production Work