c. 1919
Lucy Zollner is a “composite character” crafted to represent the many women who drove forward the Spiritualism and Theosophy movements in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This character draws from the life histories and performance elements of spiritualist mediums, including the Fox sisters, Eusapia Palladino, Florence Cook, and Jean Leckie Doyle, as well as the illusions documented by Harry Houdini.
This program is fully immersive. Each guest is assigned an identity of a real person who lived through the 1918-1919 Influenza epidemic, with a brief biography and your motivation for seeking out a seance. (I can provide identity cards in advance, or they can be distributed as program guests arrive.) The program is a 45 min theatrical seance, at which “spirits” will appear following historically-inspired illusions. Following the program, we will walk though a reveal and explanation of each illusion and have a q&a.
Program themes: World War One, the influenza epidemic, group psychology, history of the occult, Spiritualism, history myth-busting
Hedge Witch History 