Ghastly Dreadfuls II

What a ghoulish evening at the Center for Puppetry Art! For two years I've been obsessively raving to family and friends about the Ghastly Dreadfuls. This year, I finally had the chance to show them what the fuss was all about at the new spooktacular Ghastly Dreadfuls' II: A Compendium of Graveyard Tales and Other Curiosities. We all had a blast. Puppet shows are such naturally macabre little things which make it a great way to spend Halloween night, totally immersed in the spirit of the occasion.

The adults only show, told in song, dance, and marionette, is as humorous as it is horrific. Partly inspired by the morbid wit of Edward Gorey, The Ghastly Dreadfuls features both original tales and adaptations of works from W.W. Jacobs (author of "The Monkey's Paw") and others. The Halloween performance featured some undead guests from Project Zombie Attack, strategically stationed to give you the creeps and to serve as judges for an intermission costume contest.

And for dessert, Blake and I dashed off to a midnight performance of Dracula at the Aurora Theater starring one of Blake's close friends as the title role. It was fantastic and I enjoyed it very much, in spite of the great efforts required to keep my eyes open. We ended up not getting home until 4 in the morning. Hungry and exhausted, I think I fell asleep before my head even hit the pillow.


p.s. I was a unicorn.

Find more beautifully crafted masks by Tom Banwell at his Etsy store.