OutCast! Productions, LLC

Casino's and Mystery Weekends and Games, Oh My! :D

2011-02-20T09:06:00.000-08:00

Wow, it has been a long time since my last post! Time is just zipping by, with new events popping up, a renewed focus on marketing our Improv-Ability Games, Life... So we just finished what has been called one of the best Seward Mystery Weekends we have ever done! Over Valentine's Weekend, we had a mystery at the Seward Military Resort that was set in 1946 Seward, with costumes, story line, slang terms from that time and a wonderful audience who played very well with us. :) We are now under contract for another event, working with the company to get character details and advertising copy completed - the show is at the end of April, so we will be doing auditions soon, the writing of the show and start rehearsal in March or April, depending on actor availability.

In the meantime, we have 3 Casino Events this coming weekend! 1 Friday night and 2 Saturday night, which is quite challenging, but I think we are fully "cast" (or will be). One more evening of training for the new dealers, this week, and we will be ready. Since we began the Casino Events, we have done quite a few; 1 or 2 a month and we are adding dealers to our pool every time. This next one requires 16 Dealers Saturday night, alone.

The Casino Events are not real gambling; I feel like I have to make sure that is clear. In Alaska we have very strict Gambling Laws, and the company that hires OutCast! Productions makes sure that we work fully legally, following all the correct laws of the state. We work as dealers, playing the casino games for the guests, at events where NO money is exchanged, no prizes are given for playing casino, and it is just fun. The chips are not even called money, they are called things like "Clams, moolah, hearts"; to represent the Theme of the event. And the guests have FUN! People love to play games, and when there is no pressure or money involved, they really get to enjoy themselves with Black Jack, Roulette, 3 Card Poker, Texas Hold-em, Craps... we are enjoying being part of these events, and our actors enjoy the process and the people.

Well, this post has been pretty much Casino-driven... it is nice to get on and chat. I will try to be better about this in future.

We are revising our outcastproductions.com website, we have just made a new OutCast! Productions, LLC Facebook page, and are putting in photos, info and links, so check them both out. We are also working on the Marketing for our Improv-Ability games, so we can get them into the public eye.

Hope you are doing well, and I will talk with you again soon.

All the best, Elias

OutCast! is stretching its' wings!

2010-03-12T17:25:00.000-08:00

Dear Friends,

We here at OutCast! really enjoy creativity, working in collaboration with others, and finding ways that allow us to branch out and use our skills, while being true to our creative selves. Well, we just found another "branch"! A fellow thespian and Worker in the world of Art proposed a new way for us to work as Actors, add to our resume and learn some pretty up-town Skills. We are now working as a talent contractor for Casino Talent. These gigs train our Casino Dealers and then bring them into special Customer Service Appreciation events or parties where the venue wishes to have a casino event. We are all learning Black Jack, Roulette, Craps and Texas Hold-em and LOVING it! Our "Crowd Characters" are increasing our skills! We have 2 gigs coming up in the next few weeks, and anticipate numerous more in the future. Don't hesitate to contact me if you have any ideas for events, our characters, our creative world!

All the best, and more later, Elisa

2010-02-28T18:39:00.000-08:00

Our Valentine's Weekend Murder Mystery at the Seward Military Resort on 2/12-14 was GREAT! Our Audience had a wonderful time and they were such an involved, observant audience; we all had FUN! We have been asked to come back to the Seward Military Resort for additional events, and we are excited about being asked and plan to go back as often as they will have us. :)

We have finished the script and fully cast our newest upcoming Mystery at the Historic Anchorage Hotel on 3/20/2010. It is going to be a fun one, an overnight event set in the present, but directly dealing with the true Murder of Anchorage's first police chief John "Black Jack" Sturgus on 2/20/1921. We have a special guest, an author who has written a "tell all" book about who killed Sturgus, and she has invited all the relatives and grandchildren of Mr. Sturgus' associates way back when.... we are asking our audience to dress in 1920's style and help us figure out "who dun it".

check it out if you would like, at www.historicanchoragehotel.com. We are planning to sell out this event, so get in touch soon!

Talk with you all soon... I have words to say about some new work we are getting, work that has great potential to benefit ourselves, our actors as well as the groups who use this new service. More to come.... :)

Valentine's Weekend Mystery and other stuff!

2010-01-19T21:44:00.000-08:00

Hi, Friends,

Kim and I have been working hard on our next mystery, to be held in Seward, AK, at the Seward Army Resort 2/12 through 2/14; a TWO night Mystery! Pretty exciting! It has given us the opportunity to really dig into building a wonderful story, to add extra clues, and develop special teams to broaden the mystery experience: it has been wonderful!

We are now finalizing our cast, and will begin rehearsals within the week. This particular event is only available to members of the Military, as it is going to be held at the Seward Army Resort. That is one place I have always wanted to visit, and now, we get to do just that!

We are stepping up our Improvisational Game sales, with the introduction of our Naughty Night Bed Sack, an Improv game for the bedroom, just in time for Valentine's Day, even donating a copy to the ACVB Lunch next week... We are beginning our communication with local assistance organizations that work with children, to discuss donations or low priced sales of our Preschool Improv-Ability game, as well.

Finally, the quest to add Mystery events to our calendar goes on, so as you hear of folks that need small home party entertainment or large, conference events, let us know and we will introduce them to the wonderfully fun art of Mystery!

Terri at the Historic Anchorage Hotel is working with us again, to have a mystery event at her facility on the actual anniversary of John "Black Jack" Sturgus' murder! We are excited about the opportunity, and are having fun writing this one! We love early Anchorage history, especially anything about Mr. Sturgus, so we are happy to be part of this new event!

We are looking forward to an exciting, successful, eventful 2010, and hope for the same for you! More news later!

Murder Mystery update

2009-10-12T10:41:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,
I am currently working on the final casting of our upcoming Murder Mystery Collaboration with the Historic Anchorage Hotel this coming 10/30. This overnight event is going to be alot of fun. We are also doing the final bits of writing for our show, and are doing additional research, to make sure our information and our maps of Anchorage in 1920 are correct. I am working with the Anchorage Museum of History & Art to get archival maps of that era; pretty exciting! I LOVE working with historical information, and I really am enjoying building on the story of Police Chief John Sturgus' murder; Kim and I are quite curious about why certain persons were not questioned in relation to his death, as it is still unsolved to this day. Anchorage was a VERY small town in those days, everyone knew what everyone else was up to, so how could it have gone unknown for so long? Very interesting, curious story... anyway, back to work, doing the advertising, promotion, networking and email campaign! Talk with you later!

Our upcoming Murder Mystery!

2009-10-07T20:03:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends,
I am so excited! We are working with the Historic Anchorage Hotel (Anchorage's most haunted hotel), KFAT and 96.3 The Wolf Radio stations, to present a historical murder mystery! This event is based in Anchorage's 1920's history, with real people, real events and (we hope!) real ghosts! Our event is scheduled to begin on Friday, October 30, 2009 at 5 pm, with a no-host bar, heavy appetizers and the ability to meet and visit with some amazing historical characters. We are building our event around the death of Police Chief John "Black Jack" Sturgus, the first police chief of Anchorage, who was murdered in February, 1921, and his murder was never solved. Fascinating story, fascinating time in Alaska's history, and it will be wonderful to particiate, so contact the Historic Anchorage Hotel at 330 E Street, Anchorage, AK 99501, phones: (907) 272-4553 or (800) 544-0988

We are writing, casting and will begin rehearsals for our event very soon, and can't wait to show you our exciting event!

for more information, please go to: http://www.outcastproductions.com/October30MysteryFlyer09.pdf

the power of collaboration!

2009-06-01T13:05:00.000-07:00

Dear friends,
My first update is coming to you a few weeks later than I had wished, and I will work on increasing my communication. This has been an exciting couple weeks! We have done several collaborations since I last wrote, and are finding our place in the Anchorage community. As recent members of the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, we have worked with the Anchorage Chamber and Art Services North on their Clean Sweep Celebration, part of the Anchorage Clean Up Week, providing creative solutions and our creative team for the event. We were also asked to provide a workshop for UAA's Small Business Development Center Business Women's Breakfast on 5/27/09 on the power of collaboration, using improvisation and brainstorming to increase ideas, connections and collaboration options. We taught the approximately 50 women (and a few men) how to communicate, network and be more creative as a group. It was well received, and we were able to watch the fruits of our labor when several of those same women and men attended the Anchorage Chamber/ACVB/BNI Business Blender later that day at the Dimond Center. It was a great event, our workshop was well received that day, and we are looking forward to more great events! We have found that the more we work on creating relationships with the people we connect with, the more options there are out there for collaboration, for work, for recognition. We appreciate our contacts and have found wonderful people in the process! Keep on connecting with one another; you will find that it WORKS!

Hello!

2009-04-21T15:15:00.000-07:00

I hope my Blog-Beginnings find you enjoying life today. I am beginning a new blog, and hope to add to it weekly, adding information about what we at OutCast! are doing, about what I find interesting, fun, revealing or thought-provoking, or just a quick note to say hi. Please let me know if there is something specific you wish to hear about, or have discussed, and I will do my best to add that to our blog.

In the meantime, thoughts: every day is an opportunity to begin something, expand a project, begin a collaboration, increase knowledge, add to our health, finish a project and always always move forward, toward the goals we have set, toward the evolution of those same goals, knowing that we need to grow to live better, in every way. If you make one goal today, find another one to work on; if you miss a goal, find out why you missed and reach for it again. Keep moving forward, keep growing, keep strong, keep positive!