The Livingston Street Studio was decorated for Halloween. I worked at the Shakespeare Theater as stagehands for Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors and Corduroy. When set for the play, Come From Away, was broken down a bunch of long foam pieces from that set were re proposed as tombstones. The foam already had wooden backing and supports on the back which could be used as stakes to get the tombstones to stand in front of the haunted house. There is a nice, abandoned planter that runs in front of the Livingston Street Studio. The planter area is overgrown with weeds, but for an abandoned cemetery, that was a great look. My hope eventually it to turn that area into a food garden. In one night, dozens of tombstones were painted.
My roommate was the master designer of the display, and the initial theme was going to be Dogula, which would have depicted the adorable pup Boo-Boo as Dracula. My roommate had an entire box filled with magical Halloween themed decorations and lighting. We started by taping up some plastic sheets with black cats printed on them for bedroom windows. When the room light was turned on the cats became visible from outside.
Next, a spiderweb was added to the center window and a sheet was hung behind it with a nebula pattern projected for some mystical lighting effects. For my studio office on the corner, hand crafted red and yellow window decorations were crafted using a Cricut machine which was used to cut bats and pumpkins from black vinyl. I cut out a Dracula castle by hand with scissors and vinyl scraps were used by my roommate to make tree branches.
On Halloween day giant pumpkins were printed out. The display needed refinement right up until sunset when ghouls started to roam the streets.
In front of the entry door under the carport, a rusty old cauldron was moved that was found in the backyard. In the cauldron, a fog machine was placed along with some witch’s legs. Fog would rise from the cauldron which was lit by a demonic red spotlight making it look like a witch was being cooked. A dilapidated wooden fence which was probably destroyed from a recent hurricane added to the horrific effect of an abandoned haunted house.
A giant stainless-steel bowl was put on a small table for the candy.
Halloween morning candy was purchased from Aldi. I have purchased candy in the past to hand out in other neighborhoods I had lived in, but no children ever showed up. The Eola Heights studio is just 2 blocks north of Lake Eola, so there was some chance that children might show. I decided to get one big bag of candy. My roommate was more hopeful and got about 5 bags of candy.
While I was sketching, I had my back to the street. Any trick or treaters would have to approach me from behind. That might have been unnerving for some. One little girl creeped up on me and shouted Boo! I acted frightened and surprised and offered her candy which was still in the Aldi shopping bag. I rushed inside to let my roommate know that we were getting trick or treaters. One of the solar lights from the cemetery was used to illuminate the candy in the bowl.
At first the plan was to sit back under the carport, but I was already out in the driveway since I was sketching so we set up there. My roommate then set up a radio which played Halloween themed music like Thriller and Ghost Busters. The music brought in multiple hordes of trick or. My roommate was great at guessing who the costumed guests were dressed as. There was so much delight in the simple act of sharing candy and complimenting the handsome and beautiful costumes.
At first my roommate was very strict about insisting that the trick or treaters only take on piece of candy. As the crowds thinned, we started asking them to take 3 pieces of candy. The young ones started arriving zonked out like zombies since they were overstimulated and experiencing a sugar crash. A car parked in front of the house and a crew of ghouls piled out and swooped in for candy and then rushed back to the car.
Then silence. We could see crowds of ghouls walking towards Lake Eola but they were not walking down our street. Joy started to turn to disappointment. There was still plenty of candy left over. There was one Kit Kat in amongst all the fruit gummies. I snitched that last Kit Kat but blamed a tiny, adorable superman in a muscle shirt for taking it.
At 10pm we packed up. Boo-Boo, who was dressed in a black cape like Dracula was getting antsy. He needed to go for a walk. We both heard loud music coming from Lake Eola so we decided to walk towards the sound. Walking around the lake we passed to many killer clowns and girls dressed in tight costumes would coo at how adorable Boo looked. His high collar made him look like a dignified aristocrat who might suck your blood.
We followed the music to it’s source. Washington Street in Thornton Park was closed for a ticketed bar crawl. Everyone was in costume and festivities were just getting under way as crowds of killer clowns and sexy video game characters lined up to get through security. It was a golden sketch opportunity but I had already done my sketch for the night.
On the walk back to the Livingston Haunted House, BooBoola got even more attention. Overall, it was such a pleasant Halloween night.