Drama After Dark returning to Huntington Gardens this Halloween
The Guild of St. George acting troupe is bringing Drama After Dark: A Night of the Macabre with Poe and Gorey back to the Huntington Botanical Gardens for Halloween 2015. This series of short, ghoulish vignettes had been performed annually at the location since 2003, but a scheduling conflict in 2014 resulted in a move to the Victoria Gardens Cultural Center (along with additional performances during that year’s Night of the Living Zoo at the L.A. Zoo). The return to familiar territory is a welcome one, as the gardens and buildings around the Huntington Library provide numerous atmospheric settings, which help transport audiences into the worlds of Edgar Allan Poe and Edward Gorey; in fact, merely walking from one play to the next becomes a mysterious adventure, thanks to the minimal light (provided by candles) in the outdoor setting.
During the course of the evening, audience members will see up to six out of the ten or more performances, which aare staged simultaneously at various sites throughout the grounds. Most performances are outdoors (chairs provided), and visitors need to walk quickly from location to location without getting lost in the dark if they want good seats.
Most of the performances take the form of one-person dramatic readings, which works especially well for Poe’s first-person narratives, which end up sounding like the crazed confessions of homicidal maniacs. The Gorey storeys are more tongue-in-cheek, with multiple actors reciting demented limericks. Titles include “The Pit and the Pendulum,” The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Masque of the Red Death,” and others.
The event takes place on October 24, starting at 6:30pm The Huntington Library, Art Collection & Botanical Gardens are located at 1151 Oxford Road in San Marino. Tickets are $45 for Huntington members, $55 for non-members.
Get more info in our calendar listing for the event.
Click here to read Hollywood Gothique’s Drama After Dark 2013 review.
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