So significantly this spooky period, I’ve expert more than two dozen haunted residences and scare zones among Universal and SeaWorld’s Halloween situations — not to mention experiencing down hordes of zombie clowns at Scream n’ Stream — and all that was prior to Oct had even begun. If you’re craving an All Hallows celebration, but you might be hunting for a thing far more innovative than leap scares, treat your self to one of these eerily ingenious theatrical encounters.
HORROR IN HEADPHONES
In current decades, I have followed Phoenix Tears Productions on revolutionary immersive journeys at the Fringe Festival, in cyberspace, and even (back again at the begin of the pandemic) inside a suburban garage. But previous week’s media preview of Horror in Headphones — the most up-to-date audio-based experience from producer-director Mallory Vance and author Megan Markham — took me on the longest vacation but, all the way to Santa’s Christmas Tree Forest in Eustis. Courageous souls who make the trek can embark on two distinctive tales, both of which entail going for walks through the woods carrying wireless headsets as live actors pantomime to a slickly produced pre-recorded soundtrack.
In The Resurrection, I adopted Gwen (Leanna Bailey, voiced by Callie Wills), whose hobbies consist of necromancy and feeding on spiders, on a pleasurable flashlight-lit stroll by a sylvan glade that’s supposedly stalked by a serial killer. The tour starts out campy, as Gwen gushes about her non-living, nonbinary lover, then turns violently gory in the inescapable twist ending. Next, Camp Alkeridge took me on a temporary hayride to a haunted summer camp, exactly where counselor Grace (Megan Markham, voiced by Claire Hoeg) assures guests that the famous Alkemesh Monster is absolutely nothing to get worried about … right up until the moment she’s eviscerated.
Of the two displays (which are separately ticketed), I felt Camp Alkeridge was much stronger, thanks to the intelligent real-crime podcast that kicks it off and an interactive conceal-and-look for second in the center. Both of those could use bigger blow-offs to conclusion their twisted tales, and neither exploits the pores and skin-crawling dimensional seem effects Phoenix Tears applied to this sort of good outcome in past year’s Infected. I am not specified both on their personal are well worth recommending the 45-furthermore minute drive from downtown Orlando. Nevertheless, if you merge them each with the bundled petting zoo, pumpkin patch, and beer backyard garden providing foodstuff and personalized cocktails, Horror in Headphones delivers a entire evening’s leisure which is a tempting choice to the concept park haunts. (as a result of Oct. 30 phoenixtearsproductions.com)
NOSFERATU
It can be scarcely been a month because creative director Donald Rupe’s Renaissance Theatre Enterprise secured its new house (thanks in significant portion to a donation from co-founder Chris Kampmeier) in the previous Orlando Ballet rehearsal corridor in the vicinity of Loch Haven Park. But you’d be forgiven for considering they’d been making out the venue for several years, primarily based on the richly textured environments their all-star roster of designers have wrought for Nosferatu. From the deck of a storm-lashed 18th-century sailing ship to a 1990s-period underground strip club to a moonlit clearing with towering trees, Nosferatu transports its patrons throughout time and house for an immersive encounter with the undead, showcasing some of the very best-executed aesthetics I have witnessed in numerous an Oct.
Rupe has crafted an first century-spanning mythology for Nosferatu that nods at F.W. Murnau’s 1922 film of the exact same title — alongside with Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, as very well as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Twilight and The Shed Boys — although introducing a mesmerizing new monster in the type of David Lee’s Max, a vampire king who communicates with echolocation clicks when he isn’t belting energy ballads. Max’s Renfield-esque minion (Blake Aburn) incants menacing exposition in between bouts of maniacal laughter, but the unfastened storyline is mainly moved ahead by choreographer Kathleen Wessel’s hypnotic fusion of athletic modern day steps with modern-day pedestrian and gestural movements, electrifyingly executed by associate choreographer Adonus Mabry and an uncannily fully commited forged.
I was thrilled proper from the get started by the daring theatricality of the opening ocean-sure act, and blown away when earlier concealed doors opened to usher us into the neon-soaked Club V (finish with a complete liquor bar serving cocktails all over the performance) for the 2nd. But it was the 3rd part of the night, when patrons ended up unleashed to explore several rooms throughout the building and discover unique vampiric vignettes, that cemented Nosferatu’s location on my listing of beloved theatrical frights. Only the grand finale remaining an unpleasant flavor in my mouth the ending’s blood-drenched orgy is aiming for transgressive eroticism, but observing Calvin Klein-clad performers writhing in what appears like strawberry Nesquik was rather unintentionally comedic. That closing misstep aside, Nosferatu’s chilling heights have me hungrily seeking ahead to devouring what ever Renaissance Theatre Organization may unleash on Orlando future. (by Oct. 31 rentheatre.com)
skubersky@orlandowekly.com