35th Annual Village Halloween Costume Ball

Nonstop theater, a costume competition and ballroom dancing will bewitch the East Village in Theater for the New City’s 35th annual Village Halloween Costume Ball.

This unique festival continues as a grand coming-together for everyday New Yorkers and artists alike. A carefree fall tradition, it celebrates
the creativity that comes with the season.

The one-night fiesta takes over all four of TNC’s theater spaces, plus its lobby and the block of East Tenth Street between First and Second
Avenues. Customarily over 1,400 wildly-clad celebrants gather for dancing, dining, showing off costumes and viewing acts from the
cutting-edge of Cabaret and Theater. Admission is $20.00; costume or formal wear is required.

Big-Band Dance orchestras take over the large Johnson Theater. These will inclue Maquina Mono (The Monkey Machine) and Hot Lavendar Swing
Band, an all-Gay and Lesbian 18-piece orchestra. The Johnson Theater will also have aerial acts by Constellation Moving Company and Suspended
Cirque.

With its Witches’ Cauldron, the event can justifiably claim to have downtown’s most sensational Halloween cafe. The Community Theater of TNC becomes an atmospheric grande buffet for the event, with a variety of American and international delicacies available at peoples’ prices. Holiday dishes are contributed by neighboring East Village restaurants,
some with celebrity chefs. You can gobble couscous from a coffin lid beginning at 7:30 pm while enjoying spine-tingling performances by
performance artists, songwriters, poets and variety artists including Evan Laurence, Arthur Abrams, George Bellici, Norman Savitt, Richard
West, Ellen Steier, Peter Dizozza and Gary Height. The space is designed
by Donald L. Brooks with lighting design by Alexander Bartenieff.

Outside, there are bluegrass and jazz bands including fire eaters, jugglers, storyweavers and stilt dancers, all free to the public and a gift from TNC to its neighborhood. Inside, there is theater all evening. The House of Horrors, designed and run by David Zen Mansley, will be a time machine in which travelers are put through a maze and duly
horrified. At the Champagne Bar, libations will be served by vampire Richard Weber, who will awaken periodically for the task.

Doors open at 7:30 pm and indoor entertainment begins at 8:00 pm. There will be two continuously-running cabarets. Outdoor entertainment, free
to the public, will start at 4:30 pm. Outdoor entertainment is capped by “The Red and Black Masque,” an annual Medieval ritual show written by
Arthur Sainer, scored by David Tice and directed by Crystal Field which is performed by torchlight.

The annual costume judging begins at midnight with the “Monsters and Miracles Costume Parade,” as all revelers are invited to march past a
panel of celebrity judges. Winners in twelve individual categories will receive one-year passes to TNC and a bottle of Moet and Chandon
champagne. Attendees will be judged in such categories as “Most Magickal,” “Most Botoxed,” “Most Corporate Socialist” “Most Warren
Buffeted,” “Most Global-Warmed,” “Most Untaxed Millionaire,” “Most Tweetful,” “Most Bailed Out,” “Most Netflicked,” “Most Hydrofracked,”
“Most Economically Recovered,” “Most Tea-Potty,” “Most Solar-Powered,” “Most Outsourced,” “Most Marc Jacobs,” “Most Underprivileged,” “Most
Debt-Reduced” and “Most Drone-Attacked.”

Celebrity judges will include
Bina Sharif, Misha Shulman, Jane Catherine Shaw, David Willinger, Garland Lee Thompson, John Gilman, Robert Heide, Rome Neal, Romiro
Sandoval, Sabura Rashid, Chino Garcia and Crystal Field (Chief Justice).

The performers’ list, in formation as of this writing, includes: Penny Arcade, Mark Marcante, Andre Brown, The Love Show, Lissa Moira, The
Bambi Killers, steve ben israel, Shane Baker, Liat Ron, Bob Dahdah, Len Alevante, Cobu Dance and Drum, Epstein and Hassan, Eve Packer, Joe
Bendik, John Grimaldi (NY Lyric Circus), Kevin Martin, Zero Boy, Lei Zhou, Levanah (Belly Dance), the band Liv I Culture, Margo Lee Sherman,
Michael Vazquez, Norman Savitt with Susan Mitchell, Paganini Apparition, Robert Fitzsimmons, Star 69, Michael Lee (Man of Magic), The Wycherly Sisters and TNC’S Street Theater Company.