Week 1: House Management & Running Crew

We're beginning the process of setting up the WPI Escape Room for the third year in a row and our group, consisting of Matt, John, Nikki, Ro, and myself, has been assigned to managing the Escape Room on the day of the event. Our primary responsibilities include:

• Assembling a script and costumes for the ushers and front of house
• Selling tickets and providing information in the lobby on the day of the Escape Room
• Leading groups into the escape room
• Monitoring the players during the room and providing clues when requested
• Resetting the room between runs

Since the bulk of our responsibility lies toward the end of the semester, our progress this week was relatively light. This week, we identified and opened a few key channels that we'll need to communicate along during this process.

First, we began communication with the Lobby Design and Writing Crew. Since part of our responsibilities includes the creation of a script and the design of the costumes, it's important that we interact closely with this team in order to ensure that the material we develop fits within the story that they've created. This week, we received an outline from them and will use that to inform our first drafts of the script.

Next, we opened a dialogue with the Marketing team in order to discuss the schedule and how we'll be tracking reservations. One of the major things that we requested from them was the ability for guests to be able to view what time slots were available from our site. We feel that this will allow for easier access to information not just for our customers, but also for our team members at the desk.

Finally, we started the conversation about the costume budget with the production team. The only real money that our team needs is to cover any costs for costumes that the House Managers and Ushers would be wearing. We don't have any specific numbers yet, but we've let them know so that they can take it into consideration during the allocation process.

In the upcoming week, we'll be starting work on some rough drafts of the script given the outline we've received from the Writing team. We're also going to begin looking into some early costume designs, as well as assisting in determining the look and feel of the lobby. Looking forward to a fun and exciting experience creating this room!

- Erik Cerini