Theater and Performance Studies BA Projects

Rebecca Husk

Artistic Project: The Waiting Game

Biographical statement
My name is Rebecca Husk and I am a performer, creator, and theme park enthusiast from Atlanta. In March, I graduated from UChicago with a BA in Philosophy and a minor in Theater and Performance Studies. When I’m not working on puzzles or puppets or “engaged in a fierce debate”*, I’m probably playing Dungeons and Dragons with my friends or bothering my cat, Echo, who was actually named after a Riddler henchwoman. Check out my past projects and upcoming works at www.rebeccahusk.com.

*According to my mother this is one of my hobbies. I don’t know what that says about me. (I usually win.)

Artistic Statement
I was working at UChicago on an alternate reality game when I offhandedly mentioned to my boss that my dream job was creating theme park queues. She said “how are you going to get there?” I laughed because obviously dream jobs are just dreams and not realistic careers. She said, “no seriously” and The Waiting Game was born. I am specifically interested in queues because, well, people wait every day. It’s something almost universally hated, yet there are people who actually enjoy waiting in some theme park queues because of the games and immersive decoration. As a designer, I wanted to experiment with an interactive waiting room to try and determine exactly what aspects of queues are most effective at capturing audience attention; I can use this information to create themed queues as well as influence more mundane waiting environments, from doctor’s offices to grocery stores.

One of my pet peeves is the phrase “now more than ever”; with that being said, now more than ever it is a *terrible* time to create a project where I take as many people as possible, put them in a small room for 30 minutes, and give them things to touch. Therefore, the physical installation of the waiting room has been delayed. However, I’ve loved working on this project very much, so attached is a powerpoint “blueprint” for my project – it’s a rough draft compared to the final room, and is primarily where I put all of my resources/inspiration photos. I plan on bringing the room to life as soon as safety allows; I believe seeing firsthand how people interact with different elements of the room will inform my future work in immersive events as well.

Until I can lock you in a room in person, please enjoy my slideshow! And if you ever feel the need to talk about theme park queues or Batman villains for hours straight, you know who to call.

Artistic Project
Mind Bender – The Waiting Game powerpoint presentation