The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
HAUNTED OPERA HOUSE TOURS BEGIN OCT. 22
Landmark Community Theatre is producing Haunted Opera House tours, Oct. 22-Nov. 7 at the Thomaston Opera House.
LCT is typically recognized as a regional nonprofit arts organization presenting year-round community theater productions. LCT has been dark because of COVID-19. The tours are the first activities in the Thomaston Opera House since that time. LCT has created plans for the tours that are in compliance with all of the CDC, state and regional guidelines for safe practices, according to a statement.
Two separate tours are offered for patrons to choose between each night. “Theatre of the Macabre” starts in the Crescent Gallery of the old firehouse. The event takes each tour group though a maze of theater-based haunts culminating in the Thomaston Opera House. Once seated, guests will be entertained by Juan Cardona Jr. on the Marr Colton Theatre Pipe Organ playing accompaniment for Halloween themed short films along with brief live entertainment by LCT members.
“Graveside Stories” begins at the Clay Street entrance of the building. “Tour groups will descend into the basement area of the original town hall and follow a path through the basement to the elevator. This tour will highlight replicated graves of residents that were once buried in the site of the Thomaston Opera House and old firehouse,” according to event organizers. “Patrons on this tour will actually be walking in the subterranean space where the bodies were buried some 140+ years earlier. Once through the basement, these patrons will also be delivered to the Opera House auditorium for the above-mentioned entertainment.”
All groups will be dismissed individually for the final leg of the tour where they will exit through the main clock tower stairwell to Main Street, “where they may experience final frights,” event organizers said.
The two tours will be uniquely different. Theatre of the Macabre will highlight tableaus from past or possibly future shows seen on the Thomaston Opera House stage or other venues throughout our region,” according to members. “The tours will contain lighting, sound and special effects along with actors in costumes and makeup using theatrical props and scenery to set the stage for Halloween themed entertainment. Each tableau will entertain whether you are familiar with the specific show or not. Patrons with show familiarity will have an extra layer of amusement as they experience the tours.
“Each group will have a costumed character tour guide ushering them through the displays. Each guide will be a unique character with their own story to tell; many of the guides will be recognized as past performers on the opera house stage,” members said.
“Graveside Stories will be very different from your typical ‘haunted’ event,” according to members. “It is intended to entertain. However, it is also part of local Thomaston history that should be observed and revered by current spectators. The stories included in the tour will be dramatized from actual local historical figures and events. Tour guides will also portray actual persons from that era.”
According to LCT, it is not commonly known that the Thomaston Town Hall/ Opera House and the old firehouse were constructed on the Northbury Burial Grounds, which was used for over 130 years between 1742 and 1875, the year Thomaston was established. In February 1882, the young town voted 130-6 in favor of relocating the burial ground to the old Woodlawn Cemetery (later renamed Hill Side Cemetery) in order to make room for a growing town center. Shortly after the vote, a local contractor was hired to move the stones and any remains to the new location.
In the summer of 1882, the Daily American published these sentiments: “Let us hope that the new site selected will be so hedged around by law and public opinion that it will indeed be their last resting place, immovable as the hills that surround and overtop their new abode.”
Tickets will be sold in small cohorted groups of family and friends. Cohorted group sizes will vary from 2-8 people. Only 12 groups will be allowed on a tour during each scheduled time slot. Admission is $15 per person for all ages. Tickets can be purchased at the box office or online at www.landmark communitytheatre.org. All patrons are encouraged to make their reservations early to secure a time slot for their group. For more information call 860-2836250 or visit the website.