13 Superstitions Announced for NIGHTMARE: SUPERSTITIONS 9/24-11/7

By: Aug. 13, 2010
Get Access To Every Broadway Story

Unlock access to every one of the hundreds of articles published daily on BroadwayWorld by logging in with one click.




Existing user? Just click login.

Psycho Clan, the creative team behind NIGHTMARE, New York's most horrifying haunted house and AOL Cityguide's No. 1 rated haunted attraction in New York City announced today - Friday the 13th (appropriately), the 13 Superstitions that will pervade the House of Horrors September 24 through November 7 at the NOHO Event Center (623 Broadway, NYC).

They include:

Bloody Mary
Broken mirrors causes 7 years of bad luck
Cameras steal your soul
Don't open an umbrella indoors
Don't Say Macbeth in a theatre
Find a penny pick it up, if its head you'll have good luck
Friday the 13th is a day of bad luck
If a black cat crosses your path it is bad luck
If your ears are burning it means someone is talking about you
Never invert chopsticks into a bowl of rice
Rabbit's foot for good luck
Step on a Crack, Break Your Mama's back
Walking under a ladder brings bad luck

Under the direction of Creator and Artistic Director Timothy Haskell, NIGHTMARE: SUPERSTITIONS confronts the psychology of fear behind these various superstitions and forces participants into breaking a superstition only to suffer the immediate and horrible consequences. www.hauntedhousenyc.com

Visit this link to find out more about the show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-Kyka-kC6g

Superstitions have always been deeply ingrained in world history, even today when objective evidence is highly valued. Nearly all cultures, persons, in nearly all times, have held serious beliefs concerning methods of warding off ill or bringing good, foretelling the future, and healing and preventing sickness and accidents.

Visitors to NIGHTMARE: SUPERSTITIONS enter a surreal version of The Bloomingdale Lunatic Asylum, one of America's first psychiatric hospitals, now defunct. They are visiting the schizophrenic/manic-depressive wing that specializes in extreme paranoia. Its patients have voluntarily admitted themselves seeking protection from the danger they perceive is awaiting them because they broke a superstition. They feel that locked safe away between padded walls will keep anything bad from happening. They can be relieved of this burden and set free if the patrons break the superstition and accept the bad luck themselves.

The theatricality of NIGHTMARE: SUPERSTITIONS is unique by haunted house standards, said Mr. Haskell, "as there's a story and a through line that connects the whole event, but it's still very much a traditional walk-through attraction designed to scare the wits out of you." A second component to this year's NIGHTMARE will be a smaller, but equally demented haunted house called FUN HOUSE created by Nightmare co-director John Harlacher. Here, the Bloomingdale Hospital inmates are truly running the asylum in a demented carnival fun house that visitors will walk through before they experience the main attraction.

The NIGHTMARE: SUPERSTITIONS artistic team is led by Paul Smithyman (Production Designer) and Justin Haskell (Art Director). The rest of the team includes: Garin Marshall (Lights), David Roy (sound), Aaron Haskell (specialty props), Candice Thompson (costumes) and additional designs by Sylva Ventiko.
As in year's past, NIGHTMARE is including concepts from outside artists. This year the team has included room concepts by Eric Sander (playwright), Ariella Goldstein (former actor in house) and Bobby Ferrara (Bobby from the Bronx) who contacted the creator of the house two years ago and told him that he thought he could do better. Now Haskell is giving him his chance to prove just that! Bobby did attend Nightmare: Vampires last year and rescinded his previous comment, but not before Timothy Haskell formed a friendship with him and is still holding him to his previous challenge!

To buy tickets visit www.nightmarenewyork.com or call 212.352.3101. Tickets are $30 in advance/$35 at the door. VIP tickets are $60 and get you to the front of the line with no wait, and a Good-Luck Bag. NEW this year is the Super VIP for $100, which gets you to the front of the line, a Good Luck Bag, a t-shirt, two drinks and a backstage tour with the director after you walk through the event.

Website: www.NightmareNewYork.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/NightmareNYC
Myspace: www.myspace.com/nightmarehauntedhouse
Twitter: @TimothyHaskell
Visit Timothy Haskell's blog at www.iscareyou.com


ABOUT PSYCHO CLAN

Psycho Clan (Producer) is a division of Art Meets Commerce LLC, an entertainment company dedicated to special events, theatrical productions and new media marketing and advertisement. Its principals are Chip Meyrelles, Ken Greiner, Timothy Haskell, Jim Glaub, Laurie Connor and Kevin Keating.

Timothy Haskell (Director) recently directed the Off-Broadway hits Stitching (The Wild Project and The Elephant in Los Angeles), The Jaded Assassin (Ohio Theatre), Fatal Attraction: A Greek Tragedy starring Corey Feldman at the Classic Stage Company, Corporate Rock by Will Bennett (Blue Heron Arts Center) and the Paris Hilton spoof I Love Paris by Doug Fields also at the Blue Heron Arts Center. At 13 months, I Love Paris was one of the longest-running solo shows in Off-Broadway history. He also co-curated and produced the first ever Fight Festival at The Brick Theatre premiering his new work Last Life which later transferred to the Ohio Theatre. He is perhaps best known for creating and directing the cult hit Road House: The Stage Play, which transferred from Off-Off Broadway to Off-Broadway at the Barrow Street Theatre. Mr. Haskell is also the creator and director of the annual Nightmare: New York's Most Horrifying Haunted House, now in its 7th season.
Chip Meyrelles (Producer/Executive Director) has produced theater on and Off Broadway. His credits include The Lieutenant of Inishmore, FELA!, Ethan Coen's Almost an Evening, Bug and Orson's Shadow. He is the executive director of Art Meets Commerce.(www.artmeetscommerce.net)

John Harlacher (Co-director, NIGHTMARE: SUPERSTITIONS & creator of NIGHTMARE: FUN HOUSE) is an actor and director. Recent acting work includes the indie feature Love Simple, directed by Mark von Sternberg; Off-Broadway's Dog Day Afternoon, adapted by Francisco Solorzano; and the revival of Israel Horovitz's Rats. Both stage productions were produced by The Barefoot Theatre Company, of which he is a member. Directing work includes Cats Can See The Devil, written by Tom X. Chao; the Miami version of NIGHTMARE: GHOST STORIES, created by Timothy Haskell; and the feature film Urchin, which he also wrote. Released theatrically and distributed worldwide, Urchin was banned in Malaysia as a "threat to culture."



Videos