Up until a month ago, Friday nights at Academy Theatre were reserved for Platinum Championship Wrestling. But when the evil EMPIRE took over PCW’s show, then shut it down in an attempt to kill the entire promotion, it left the theatre with some time to kill on Friday nights. Beginning Oct. 26 and running through Halloween night, Academy Theatre presents the Dark Harvest Haunted House, a chilling recounting of the tragedy that befell the town of Harvest many years ago after the arrival of a carnival sideshow filled with the grotesque and obscure.
The Dark Harvest Haunted House is celebrated with a series of events beginning with tonight’s Dark Harvest Masquerade Ball, featuring performances by the Thimblerig Circus, the City Gate Dance Theater Company, The Artifice Club‘s DJ Doctor Q, a costume contest and more. That’s followed by the Dark Harvest Family Festival on Oct. 27 and 28, featuring carnival games, face painting and a more family friendly version of the Dark Harvest Haunted House.
Although wrestling will not be part of the sideshow festivities, the spirit of PCW will always haunt Academy Theatre (at least for those of us still affected by the loss of what had become a Friday night wrestling ritual). But Dark Harvest offers a new Halloween tradition that includes an entirely different type of haunting.