Q: What could make a bunch of present day rich techo-nerds leave screaming from a haunted house?
 
A: The idea came to me when we were getting our home equity loan approved to pay for some basement waterproofing. We hit a snag when an underwriter thought our house was for sale. Apparently, there were some hints about that on the Trulia web site. We told the bank to check out the house in person, and not base judgement from info from the internet. In frustration I told Debbie that for some, the internet seems to be more real then the real world.
 
Then it hit me, that the hook.
 
The geeks go insane from the house. Why? Our ghosts notice the idevices the geeks are using. They discover the novelity of possessing all those iphones and smartpads and tablets. Our geeks get freaked out by this invasion of their devices. Obiviously, anything in real life can be faked. Even an invasion of their powered devices. So they turn them off. But our ghosts still talk to each other and to the geeks even with the power off. That is just too much. The real world can be dismissed. But a haunted iphone? *That* is uber-creepy. And so our ghosts do their job too well--accidentily.
One other thing I was thinking was a way to inject a little drama into this musical comedy and to bring out the fact that this is a poor farm and not just anything. One of the main charactors is the last survivor of the original cast of characters (from Poor Farm: The Movie). That charactor is a "caretaker" of the farm. He can talk with the ghosts, and indeed enlists their help in saving the poor farm from being turned into a casino.
 
It could be John, our former loony. He is now old, and finds himself taking care of the old house. John is the last survivor of the our original cast. He and Bern can still communicate with each other and John longs to be with her.
 
So the "House on Haunted Hill" scheme is cooked by Sandra. The geeks go nuts. The plot fails. The lawyer delivers the news of no dough. There is nothing left to do. The ghosts, though,are excited because something is about to happen. The last scene before the finale is John quietly passing away.
 
Sad. The stage goes black. The theme music kicks in. The finale starts. The cast do their opening number. A much younger John rejoins Bern and the rest of the gang. Sandra comes up with the "Oceans Eleven" scheme. And John tells her no. He's been in that house for years and he's glad to be done with it. It's not important anymore. He was with his freinds. Its time for him and all the rest to move on. They are all together. And that was more important then some earthly old house.
 
A note on the names: I envisioned movie stars playing character roles. So John is John Malkovich, Bern is Bernadette Peters, and Sandra is Ms. Bullock.
 
Then they finish out the closing song, very similar to the opening. End. Curtain. Caberet Old Town here we come. It doen't have to be a sequel to anything. Just a musical. 
 
I've always like community theater. We also have an entertainment place here called "Mosley Street Melodrama." With some re-working and a lot of goofiness thrown I don't see why a parody melodrama couldn't be done.
So. We do a movie, a novel, a musical. Next is Poor Farm: The Franchise. T-shirts, mason jars of homemade jelly, cookbooks, a poor farm business management seminars,cookbooks and crafts, beer and moonshine, an iphone game "Poor Farm Tycoon", a clothing line, a poor farm almanac app, a "Dummie's Guide to Running a Poor Farm," and of course a PF logo. We will know we hit the big time when we get those QVC models in cotton sack dresses.
 
One last thought. Poor Farm: The Theme Park. Except we should leave out the zombies and the crazed farmers with pitch forks. There's always Halloween.
 
Terrifying, isn't it? --Later-- Wes