VILLAGE HALLOWEEN COSTUME BALL to Celebrate 50th Year at Theater for the New City

Theater for the New City will celebrate the 50th year of its Village Halloween Costume Ball with a night of performances, music, dance, aerial work, cabaret and food on October 31. The celebration will feature performers including Austin Pendleton and over 40 others across the theater's four-theater complex.

Fifty Halloweens after it began, Theater for the New City's Village Halloween Costume Ball is still conjuring up the unexpected. On October 31, TNC will celebrate the 50th incarnation of its famously eccentric East Village tradition with an extravaganza of theater, music, dance, aerial performance, cabaret, food and flamboyant costumes. A large outdoor festivity will be held from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM outside the Theater on East Tenth Street between First and Second Avenues (or if it rains, in a big tent), featuring performances and a costume competition for kids. The celebration moves inside into TNC's four-theater complex from 7:00 PM to midnight. There will be nonstop performances (by Austin Pendleton and over 40 others), ballroom dancing (to Art Lillard's Heavenly Swing Band and MisterPablo, a Latin Dance band), an aerial dance concert (by Caytha Jentin), and dining in a pop-up restaurant (The Witch's Cauldron) where for $5, guests can savor a complete dinner donated by local restaurants. The evening culminates in a costume judging with prizes at midnight. Admission is free for the outdoor program and $20 for the indoor festivities. Costumes or formal wear are required.

On every Halloween since 1974, TNC has transformed its theater complex and surrounding streets into a carnival of the unexpected, where neighborhood families, artists, and revelers come together for an evening of spirited fun, live music, and avant-garde theater. This extravaganza has been a point of origin for many of the City's most original entertainers. Six full-length plays have grown out of playlets written for the fest and it is probable that the theatrical movement in Performance Art began there. It has been a launching pad for such formative artists as Paul Zaloom, Alice Farley, Bloolips, The Red Mole, Penny Arcade, Basil Twist, Alien Comic Tom Murrin, Zero Boy, Charles Busch, Eduardo Machado, Moises Kaufman, Maria Irene Fornes and Phoebe Legere. Each year, many acts, skits, sketches, and skadoodles go on to become the basis of larger theater works.

The world-famous Village Halloween Parade began in 1974 as a production of Theater For The New City in collaboration with block associations of the West Village. The procession wound its way through the Village from TNC's second home at the corner of Jane and West Streets to Washington Square Park. In the Parade's second year, 1975, TNC won an Obie for the production. When organization of the parade was formally handed to the local block association in 1976, the event had forked into two parts: an informal parade of puppets for Greenwich Village children and a late-night dress-up ball for grownup villagers. Crystal Field wrote in 2001 in New York Theatre Wire, 'We had planned to have a later night Ball for adults (Gretel Cummings' idea, as I recall) -- a Village Halloween Costume Ball-- so that when the little ones slept, the adults could go dancing and partying in an indoor, more sophisticated set up. The ball has endured. We now serve a thousand to two thousand people with our four-theater 'Village Halloween Costume Ball.''

In 2020, due to the Covid shutdown, TNC maintained its Halloween tradition by presenting the entire event virtually. In 2021, it was mounted entirely outdoors. In 2022 TNC recaptured the event's intensity and traditional magic by bringing it back inside. The decision was made to count 2020 as a 'year uncounted' and to celebrate 2026 as the festival's fiftieth incarnation.

Part 1 - Outdoor Events, 3:00 - 7:00 PM, Admission Free

Attractions will include:

Variety performances by Carol Tandava, Arley Trice, George Belleci, Joe Bendik, and musical group Star '69.

Child Costume and others. Emceed by Mary Tierney.

Children's Costume Contest judged by Crystal Field, T. Scott Lilly and Terry Lee King. Winners will receive prizes.

The Red and Black Masque: an annual Medieval ritual ensemble theater piece which is performed by torchlight with audience participation. (7:00)

At 7:00, the celebration goes inside the four-theater complex for food, fun, and exciting new theater works, culminating with a costume contest at 11:00 PM whose winners will each receive a bottle of Moet & Chandon Champagne and a year's free pass to TNC.

Part 2 - Indoor Events, 7:00 - 11:00, Admission $20

Cabaret Performances (7:00 PM to 11:00 PM)

A succession of live, 10-minute performances staged in the Community Theater. Performing artists will be, among others: Austin Pendleton, Richard West, Yip Harburg Rainbow Troupe, Stephan Morrow, John Grimaldi, Carol Tandava (Belly Dance), Michael Christian, TNC Street Theater Enemble, Inma Heredia, Peter Dizzoza, Alessandra Belloni, Emilio Garcia, Asher Cohen ('Egg Eats Chicken'), JC Augustin, Fairy Tale Marionette and Wise Guise.

Scripted works by Toby Armor (directed by Joan Kane), Briana Bartenieff, New Yidddish Rep and Stefan Morrow, among many others.

Scream contest hosted by Didi Champagne. (9:30 PM)

Emceed by Melanie Maria Goodreaux.

Ballroom Dancing:

Art Lillard's Heavenly Big Band, a 17 piece swing orchestra performing an extensive repertoire of songs from swing to samba to jazz ballad to Bossa Nova with a swinging singing soloist (8:00 - 9:30)

Aerial Dance with Caytha Jentin, performing high over the crowd in exciting new challenges to eye and ear (9:30 - 9:45)

Mr. Pablo's Latin Dance Band, a five-piece fusion band with vocalist, mixing Salsa, Samba and Flamenco with Rock, Reggae and Funk (9:45 - 11:00)

Dining in the Witches' Cauldron

Downtown's most sensational Halloween cafe, featuring a variety of American and international delicacies at peoples' prices ($5 for a full dinner). Holiday dishes are contributed by neighboring East Village restaurants, some with celebrity chefs. Guests can gobble couscous from a coffin lid beginning at 7:00 pm while enjoying spine-tingling performances by performance artists, songwriters, poets and variety artists including: Mimi Block and Rome Neal, Smokey Stevens, Lei Zhou, Pamela Enz, Zero Boy, Sylvain Leroux, George Belleci, Marilyn Horan, Sarah Lilly, Ellen Steir, The Head Peddlers and Elliot Crown (7:00 - 11:00).

Monsters and Miracles Costume Parade

The annual costume contest hosted by Crystal Field. All costumed attendees are invited to march past a panel of celebrity judges. Winners receive one-year passes to TNC and a bottle of Moet & Chandon Champagne. Attendees will be judged in such categories as 'Most Politically Relevant,' 'Most Gluten Free,' 'Most Uncompromised,' Most Non-AI,' 'Most Visionary,' 'Most Presidentially Honest,' 'Most Oxygenated' and 'Most Likely to be Extinct.' Judged by Melanie Maria Goodreaux, John Gilman, Sabura Rashid, Terry Lee King, Joe Battista, Crystal Field, Phillip Hackett and others.

Vaudeville Performances

Vaudeville in The Womb Room (Basement Cabaret Theater). Performers include Star '69 (band), Larry Litt & Eleanor Heartley, WillieAnn Gissendanner, Sue Horowitz, New Yiddish Rep, Joe Bendik, Claude Solnik, Lei Zhou, Rocco Nicholas, Terry Lee King/ Billie Little and Danielle Aziza (8:00 - 10:00).

Lobby Events

Performances by Cobu (all-women Taiko drum group), Hellsouls, flute-playing goblin Kahley Mitchell, tap dance with Laraine Goodman and The Mad Tappers, Fish Pond (casting for giveaway gifts), Fortune Teller Penny Diora (free readings), Champagne Bar served over a coffin with a live vampire inside.

Halloween Decor

Murals painted by Olga Castillo, Gilma Diaz, Sean Finnerty and many others.

Music News

Get the latest news, discounts & more