Gateway to lead Bellport Halloween Parade with a not-so-scary offer

Oracle’s Curse and Mr. Tickles Funhouse at Gateway Playhouse have already hosted about 5,000 visitors since opening on Sept. 25, said Gateway Playhouse executive artistic director, Paul Allan.

Allan is hoping more will come, especially kids, after Bellport Village’s Halloween Parade on Oct. 31. Gateway will lead youngsters enthusiastically dressed as goblins, superhero characters, and anything else imaginative.

“I’m planning on bringing a dozen actors, fun characters like Frankenstein, mummies, recognizable characters from the ‘Rug Rats’ TV show,” Allan said. “They’ll hand out coupons to the kids for the ‘Not So Scary Kids Adventure’ at half price. It has happy music and no scary clowns. It’s a fun walk-through with goofy characters, a pumpkin bounce, face painting and balloon animals, and they can come after the parade.”

Gateway will be up front among the regulars—that is, the Bellport Chamber, the Bellport Fire Department, village officials.

“It’s a real treat to have Gateway lead the parade,” said Bellport Chamber co-president LuAnn Thompson. “They are the star of Halloween, and this year the parade falls right on Halloween, and we couldn’t be happier. I’ve been planning the parade to get people involved with the village, closing the street and public safety. I spoke to Terry Tuthill, who is on the Gateway board. [Gateway’s] Michael Baker was also involved with this. We have music from Dan Haynes, who owns MVP Auto; he has a side business as a DJ and will be playing Halloween music to make it more festive.  It’s all things we can contribute, like a recipe.”

For the imaginative Halloween production,  Gateway staffers have literally been immersing themselves into the evening. “It’s scary clowns and maniacal music,” Allan said.

Clowns pop out in Mr. Tickles 3-D Funhouse, located in The Midway section, about a 10-minute experience with a dozen walk-throughs. Oracle’s Curse, entered through a door in the lobby to the little theater, has 40 areas, including a spinning tunnel, about 25 minutes.

“Mr. Tickles is fun scary,” said Allan. “The Oracle is just scary.”

Put on 3-D glasses before entering. They transform sights into floating floors, colorful, ghoulish scenes, and riots of color in vibrant greens, blues, purple, oranges and yellows.

As usual, there’s a macabre theme. With  Oracle’s Curse, it’s Sullivan Augur, who possessed the power to see into the future and died without passing on his gift to family members. “Thirteen of his descendants decide to unearth his grave,” said Allan.

Sullivan’s grave is in the basement. We’ll leave it at that as to what was done with his body.

Yikes!

“On any given night, 120 people are working,” Allan said. “It’s 75 to 100 professional actors and volunteers, 10 to 15 security, technical staff, automation and effects. There’s the timing of scares and different actors who appear. There’s a lot of coordination that no one sees to make it immersive.”

This journalist plodded through tentatively with Allan at noon, first through Mr. Tickles. The 3-D glasses provide sights with amazing effect; colors pop out with creepy figures and floors seem to float. There’s a humorous Under the Sea area with skeleton fish and buried treasure. “Michael Baker’s kids helped paint the walls,” Allan said of their handprints.

There’s also a skeleton rock band.

Thankfully, spooky and startling sounds were shut off, but in the Oracle area, crackling noises exploded in certain areas. Yes, I jumped.

Never knowing what was around a macabre bend, I prayed to my mother, my guardian angels, and just about every spiritual entity.

I did emerge unscathed. Allan said the whole staff thought up the themes.

Did they sleep nights, I wondered?

“People have said they’ve been coming to our Haunted Playhouse for 15 years and have never seen it this good.”

We’re convinced. But with Gateway’s expertise at making scenes realistic, just be prepared.