With Halloween around the corner, the Center for Puppetry Arts continues its tradition of bringing something positively ghastly to its stages.
It’s “The Ghastly Dreadfuls,” the Center for Puppetry Arts’ annual Halloween show featuring a wide array of puppetry styles, music, dancing and acting. The show is vaudevillian, divided into several short pieces.
“We’ve read hundreds and hundreds of ghost stories,” said Jon Ludwig, one of the creators of “The Ghastly Dreadfuls. “We have some that are straight-out scary, some are more spiritual, some are more mystical and some are funny.”
“And outright silly,” added Jason Hines, the other creator.
Because of some of its devilish humor and puppet gore – like the dismemberment of a deceased daughter – the show is for mature audiences only.
And that dismembered daughter? She is part of a new skit called “The Horrific Experiment,” which is based on a 1902 script the pair found from the acclaimed horror theater in Paris called the Grand Guignol.
“They did really horrific stories and it was a lot of psychological drama,” said Hines.
Ludwig continued, “It’s very lurid; usually the stories had a lot of sexuality to them, always something horrible happens in the end, blood, guts, people fainting. We’ve not had anyone faint yet.”
Ludwig and Hines also perform during the show. Ludwig is Simply Dreadful, and Hines is Catly Dreadful.
The Center for Puppetry Arts has four more performances of “The Ghastly Dreadfuls” this year, Wednesday through Saturday at 8 p.m.
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