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Guild Hall Celebrates Halloween

October 28, 2020

To celebrate Halloween, Guild Hall of East Hampton is serving up two very different performances—one to bring smiles to its youngest audience members, and one to strike horror into the hearts of those bold enough to venture forth.

Award-winning puppeteer Liz Joyce is bringing Liz Joyce & A Couple of Puppets: Minkie’s Halloween Adventure to the John Drew Backyard Theater for two live performances on Saturday, October 31, at 11am and 1pm.

Joyce believes that puppetry is the gateway to theater, and that this art form breathes beauty and life into storytelling. She founded the beloved Goat on a Boat puppet theater in Sag Harbor in 2001, and her delightful twists on traditional fairy tales and other familiar stories have brought her international fame, including a UNIMA citation, the highest award in American puppetry. She has frequently brought her sell-out shows to the Guild Hall stage.

In this slightly spooky 25-minute performance, geared for kids ages three to seven, Minkie the monkey, Douglas the blue dinosaur, and a few scary creatures join up for a Halloween adventure which explores themes of sharing and friendship.

After the show, each audience member will receive a take-home puppet-making kit, including a pre-recorded lesson with Liz Joyce, and a special Halloween treat from Citarella.

Costumes are welcomed. Each $30 ticket covers one full lawn circle, which can seat two people. All circles are distanced six feet from each other. There are 23 tickets available for each of the two shows. More details can be found on the John Drew Backyard Theater FAQ page at the Guild Hall website.

Come back to Guild Hall after dark, if you dare, for an hour of sheer socially-distanced dread with STAGE FRIGHT: Four spine-chilling tales woven in the moonlight on All Hallows' Eve.

Directed by the John Drew Theater’s Artistic Director Josh Gladstone, who previously created Guild Hall’s popular Ghouled Hall immersive events and co-produced, with Kate Mueth, The Haunt at Mulford Farm, which ran on Main Street for several Halloweens in recent years, this performance is bound to provide a terrifying treat for audiences ages 11 and up. 

A small company of costumed actors—featuring Gladstone, Mueth, Vanessa Walters and Trevor Vaughn—will read short tales of the macabre from the stage of the John Drew Backyard Theater, complimented by eerie sound, mystifying lights, haunting projections plus some truly startling surprises. Stories by Septimus Dale, B.C. Bridges, Richard Matheson and Neil Gaiman.

ο»ΏIt’s recommended to bring your own beach chair for the backyard pods, and perhaps a blankie large enough to cower under.

 Tickets for Stage Fright are $45 per lawn circle, which can seat one or two members of a quarantine pod. There are seven available performances: Thursday, October 29, 7pm and 9pm;

Friday, October 30, 7pm and 9pm; and Saturday, October 31, 6:30pm, 8pm, and 9:30pm.

For more information and bios, visit www.guildhall.org.