Oct 25, 2002 2 min read

BROWNSVILLE – The Thompson House Restaurant in Brownsville plans both tricks and treats for its guests on Thursday, Oct. 31, when the 64 Crayons Theatre Company will present “The Vampire Game” as interactive Halloween dinner theater. Dr. Hildegarde DeLancre, a world-famous occult scholar and collector of supernatural oddities, will greet diners as they assemble for the 6:30 p.m. dinner buffet, but Count DeMorte, the guest of honor, will not join the assembly until just after the meal when someone invites him to cross the threshold.

“It’s all in good fun,” said Chef Kiernan McVey, who decided this seemed like a good opportunity to experiment with dinner theater at his restaurant.

“The 64 Crayons Cultural Center has done some pretty successful theater right here in the Thompson House on the third floor so we thought we’d bring them downstairs to see what happens.”

The company of veteran actors includes Emily Lapisardi as DeLancre, Alfred Struble as DeMorte, Jack Goodstein as the archeologist Mortimer Thurston, Jacqueline Lapisardi as the celebrated psychic and medium Madame Helena Petrovna Ouspenskya and Fred Lapisardi as Inspector Edward Blunt of Chelsea Yard.

“Nobody expects Shakespeare at a dinner theater,” Goodstein explained, “and they’re not getting it here, either.

“They like to get involved, to do silly things and to have plenty of laughs, and that’s what we expect to give them,” he said.

“We throw in the usual murder, but they get a slap stick neck-biter batting about the room snatching up victims, too.

“It’s a game,” Struble said. “The ones I collect have so much fun being on the vampire team they want to do it forever. Or at least during the game.”

Everybody has a chance to take part either as a vampire or as a guest working through the puzzles and clues to discover how to send the Count back where he came from.

The admission price of $30 per person includes the dinner buffet, show, tax and gratuity.

Dinner begins at 6:30 p.m., and though the cast will interact with the dinner guests, the play starts after the meal.

Reservations are required and may be made by calling The Thompson House Restaurant at 724-785-4744.