This was to be Phantasmagoria‘s first live performance in about 2 years. John DiDonna the company’s founder took every imaginable precaution to keep his cast safe during rehearsals. A custom build HEPA filter with a large fan recirculated air in the rehearsal space and all the cast was vaccinated.

Performances were scheduled on a train and they were told that everyone would be masked on board. When the cast arrived they found that few were masked among the train crew and audience, so the performers had to walk.

John let me know that the theater they were performing at in Orlando required vaccination cards and photo IDs. Therefor I felt relatively safe to venture out and experience live theater again.

I knew the Shakespeare Theater required vaccination cards since I had just sketched Every Brilliant Thing. For some reason I figured Phantasmagoria was at the Shakes. When I got there the folks in the ticket booth were confused. Phantasmagoria was not at the Shakes, it was downtown at the Dr Phillips Performing Arts Center. We still had about half an hour before curtain time so Pam drove like a New York taxi driver to try and get us there on time. Downtown traffic near the Arts Center slowed to a crawl. Pam realized that it was Pride weekend and some event must be slowing things down. A car broke down in front of us and I decided to hop out into traffic and run to the theater to pick up the tickets. She managed to valet park and we met in the lobby.

I have had my vaccination card in my wallet for the past 6 months assuming someone would ask for it eventually. I gave it and my drivers license to the security in the lobby. The government in their wisdom used cheap disappearing ink on the vaccination card. It was more that a challenge to read the faint ghostly lettering. My intrepid guards checked it under a flash light and managed to pick out my name and some dates. One joked that she got to put o her Nancy Drew hat. Panting, we got to the theater entrance with moments to spare.

An usher pointed out our seats which were in the center of a row with everyone pressed shoulder to shoulder. A guy had his mask off in his lap and when asked by the usher to put it on he pointed at his drink. I suddenly realized that I wasn’t comfortable shoving my way into those seats, even if these folks were vaccinated. We stood in the aisle and debated. There was an empty row behind the one the usher wanted us to press into, so we decided to wait until the lights went down and then we sat behind the masses. We were still only a few feet from the couples in front of us but at least we were breathing down their necks rather than the other way around. Behind us was an open row. We caught our breaths behind our KN95 masks. The house was dark, so I could not see the marks I put on the page.

The performance was awesome. I was impressed by the projections that played with each macabre story. The idea behind Phantasmagoria is simple. They are a troupe of Victorian storytellers whose stories become all too real, and once a story is begun, it must be finished, regardless of the consequences. I think my favorite story was Edgar Allen Poe‘s the Fall of the House of Usher. Between stories there was dance and fire choreography. John performed as a fabulous demon barber with his outlandish outbursts of laughter. Puppetry played a part as the cast battled a huge 10 foot high Golem.

It was inspiring to see live theater again. It was so nice to get lost in the Victorian horrors to forget for a moment the everyday horrors of this pandemic.