H. Russell Wakefield (1890-1964) was an English fiction writer known mostly as a master of the ghost story. His published works include They Return at Evening (1928), Old Man’s Beard: Fifteen Disturbing Tales (1929), Imagine a Man in a Box (1931), Ghost Stories (1932), A Ghostly Company (1935), The Clock Strikes Twelve: Tales of the Supernatural (1940), and Strayers from Sheol (1961). His best known stories are “The Red Lodge”, “The Thirteenth Hole at Duncaster”, “Blind Man’s Buff”, “‘Look Up There!’” and “‘He Cometh and He Passeth By!’”
And he might well have rated inclusion in this series (in fact, I’m sure he does) but that’s not why I’m writing today. I’ll be reading an adaptation of Wakefield’s story “Ghost Hunt” in Ghost Stories Live at Bar 82 this sunday. The story has been tweaked a little by the show’s organizer Russell Atwood, as well as myself, and it is directed by the highly smart cookie Patrice Miller.
Here’s all the dope:
You’re invited to the PREMIERE of a unique new LIVE show combining FACT, FICTION, & PHANTASMAGORIA
On Sunday October 30th, a brave assembly of actors, artists, writers, and puppets take the stage in the Backroom of Bar 82 and bear witness to being HAUNTED!
3 Tales of GHOSTS: One Classic, One New, One TRUE!
… GHOST STORIES LIVE!, the first of a new series of unique events premieres on Sunday October 30th, LIVE on stage in the Backroom performance space of Bar 82, 136 Second Avenue (near Saint Marks Place) in the East Village, with two shows at 8 P.M. and 10:30 to MIDNIGHT (Admission: $5 early show, $10 LATE SHOW).
Featuring:
– horror writer, Amy Grech (THE BLANKET OF WHITE) reading her NEW ghost story, “Rampart.”
-actor Trav S. D. performing in a dramatization of H. R. Wakefield’s CLASSIC story, “GHOST HUNT.”
-award-winning mystery writer S. J. Rozan (GHOST HERO) discussing the tradition of the Chinese Ghost Story.
-Blake Thompson relating in conversation his TRUE experiences growing up in a house haunted by the ghost of its former landlord.
-artist and performer Anastacia Goodin reading from PHANTASMAGORIA by Lewis Carroll (Canto II: Hys Fyve Rules).
And hosted by SidMarty Lovecraft puppet “Pugsley” the Fiendly Ghost
Produced by mystery writer Russell Atwood (LOSERS LIVE LONGER).
Plus much more: MUSIC….ghostly ART & PHOTO EXHIBIT….SPECIAL creature feature FX….BOOK SIGNINGS…and the RIDDLE OF THE 13 GHOSTS contest!!!!
This will be just the first in a every-other month event, the next GHOST STORIES LIVE! will be in December.