Phantasmagoria Stumble Through

Posted on by Thor

This Phantasmagoria rehearsal was held at a dance studio in Winter Park. Walking in the back door, Phantasmagoria founder John DiDonna instantly made me feel right at home. In the front dance studio, actresses from the Tampa acting company were getting fitted for costumes. The rehearsal proper however was in the back dance studio. John had generously set up a chair in the corner of the dance studio for me.

Phantasmagoria is a Victorian Steampunk Horror storytelling group stationed right here in Central Florida. What I appreciated from the start was the love and respect every member in this company showed for each other, because everyone wore masks for the duration of the rehearsal. Things started off with dance rehearsals.At times members of the cast were almost in my lap since the room must have been a bit smaller that the stage they were preparing to perform on. Though this rehearsal was the first time all the numbers were being performed in order, the dances in particular seemed to flow effortlessly. At the end of the evening I learned that there had been nine rehearsal prior to this one. Then fight sequences were rehearsed to be sure everyone stayed safe for the darker and more violent scenes in the show.

What followed next was a full run through of the show. Actors were still, “on script” meaning they could hold the script to be sure they could see, and if needed read, their lines. John had described this rehearsal as the “Stumble through” but it went amazingly smoothly. The only time things stopped was when the many actors had to re-position themselves on the stage.

After the rehearsal, everyone sat on the stage floor for notes and a discussion. The show rehearsal had run amazingly close to the desired run time. Every actor and actress could bring up concerns to be addressed in future rehearsals. This was a true democracy with every member having a say about how things could run more smoothly.

Victorian Horror Troupe PHANTASMAGORIA brings to life 8 haunting works of terror from Edgar Allan Poe in Phantasmagoria XIII – “POE, Through the Tales Darkly”. The perfect “whimsically macabre” way to usher in the Halloween Season! ORLANDO PREMIERE at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts – October 6th, 7th & 8th.

50 Oldest Churches of NYC: Saint Augustine’s Episcopal Church

Posted on by Thor

Saint Augustine’s Episcopal Church is located at 290 Henry Street between Montgomery and Jackson Streets on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City.

The church began in 1819 as a mission near the old Grand Street Ferry run by students of the General Theological Seminary. Led by former mayor, Marinus Willett, the mission grew. It was organized as a parish in 1824, and construction began on All Saints’ Free Church (“Free” meaning free of pew rent), around 1827. It was built of Manhattan schist. Around this time “Mount Pitt” (also known as Jones Hill), near Pitt and Grand Streets, was being leveled, and some of field stone used was taken from there.

The design, a Georgian structure with Gothic windows, is credited to John Heath. The church was consecrated in 1828 by Bishop John Henry Hobart. Edgar Allan Poe used to attend on occasion during the church’s early years.
St. Augustine’s is one of the few remaining churches in the country to retain its “slave galleries,” small, hidden rooms at the back of the church designed in the 1820’s as seating for enslaved African Americans. It was there that enslaved people were placed sit out of sight of the white congregation during church services.
The churches wooden steeple with slate tiles was lost some time after 1934. In 1949, the congregation merged with St. Augustine’s Chapel of Trinity Church, then located at 107 East Houston Street, and the new combined congregation used the building on Henry Street. The parish became independent of Trinity in 1976.
It was added to National Register of Historic Places on May 6, 1980.