New Deadly Nights Video

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News From Our Performers & Writers

Last night, we held our second edition of Fresh Blood at The Dressing Room Boutique & Bar, featuring plays by Trystin Bailey, Ria Hill, and Eric LaRocca. If you missed the fun - or you're just hungry for more - check out these upcoming events:

• Aleks Merilo, writer of Bloody Mary, will see Sanguine Theatre Company premiere his new play Exit 37, November 7-10 & 13-17. 
• Chelsea Holland is featured in M is for Mammary, a short film from the "The ABC's of Horror" competition, now available for viewing online.
• Adriana Jones will be singing in And You Were Wonderful, a new musical production, November 8-10 at the National Academy Museum.
• Molly Lisenco performs with her comedy group The Internet Disagrees With You, November 8 in Astoria. 
• Elizabeth Weitzen stars in We Might Be Superheroes, a campy-fun web series by Amusement Films.
• Lisa Huberman, writer of Ghost-Busted and Heart/Succor, will have her short Life Play read as part of New Light Theatre's Dark Room Series, November 14 & 15 at Access Theatre.

And, on the off-chance that you're in New Jersey and enjoy suspense plays, make sure you check out True Story by EM Lewis at Passage Theatre in Trenton, November 7-24.

If anyone has any short horror plays that are related to PROM, please send it immediately to: lapetitemorgue@gmail.com - The next edition of Fresh Blood will be on Wednesday, December 4, so check back for details, my little ghouls and goblins!

<3,
LPM

November Theme: It's Crazy!

Next month's Fresh Blood theme will be Lunatics & Lost Souls. Send us your short horror plays about mental illness, psycho killers, hallucinations, the institutionalized & the incarcerated. Please send your plays to lapetitemorgue@gmail.com by October 26; readings will be held November 6.

News From Our Performers & Writers

It's a busy time of year for La Petite Morgue's actors and playwrights! In addition to the latest installment of FRESH BLOOD on September 4 at Happy Ending, these are a few shows this month featuring familiar faces:

• Adriana Jones opens her one-woman show Vivien On the Rocks on September 5 at Theatre Row.
• Amanda Berry is performing in The Oedipus Project with New Light Theater, September 5-15.
• Lisa Huberman's LIFE PLAY premieres as part of the new competitive one-act festival at The Secret Theatre, September 6, 8, 13 & 15. Lisa is the author of Heart/Succor and Ghost-Busted, as well as an LPM guest-blogger.
• Joe Brofcak's I Can Build You will be presented by the Endangered Artists Sanctuary, September 11-15 at the Producers Club. You may remember Joe's plays In Sickness, Endless Tomorrows, and/or The State. I Can Build You is directed by frequent-Fresh-Blooder Yuriy Pavlish, and the cast includes Joe Caintic and Aaron Kapner.

I also want to mention that The Dead Dream Machine is playing September 18 - October 13 at La Luz. Make sure you check it out - us horror people have to stick together.

Are you involved with a show this month in the NYC area that you'd like us to mention? Drop us a line at: lapetitemorgue@gmail.com

And don't forget to submit your ghostly new short plays for FRESH BLOOD: Conversations With Dead People. The deadline to submit is September 21, and the selected plays will be read on October 2.

<3,

LPM

Upcoming "Fresh Blood" Reading Events

Hey, writers! You only have two days left to submit your short "Break-Ups From Hell" horror play for us to read at Fresh Blood on Wednesday, September 7. 

We're also accepting plays to read at Fresh Blood on Wednesday, October 2, when our theme will be "Conversations With Dead People". The deadline for that theme isn't until September 21. Even if you don't have a short horror play with ghosts in it just lying around, you still have time to write one especially for us!


We at La Petite Morgue are always accepting submissions for our Fresh Blood Reading Series, which takes place the first Wednesday night of each month at 8pm at Happy Ending Lounge. Please read our full submission guidelines and send your submission to: LaPetiteMorgue@gmail.com

And don't forget to join us for Fresh Blood: Break-Ups From Hell on Wednesday, September 7 at 8:00, which will feature In The Basement by Julia Rae Maldonado. You get to see our lovely acting ensemble read new works of horror, drink, and give us your opinion on the ones you'd like to see us produce. There is no charge for admission, and it's a great way to get involved in making horror happen in NYC.

Until then - stay scary, New York!

<3, 
LPM

Add This to Your Psycho Beach Party Playlist

Guest Post: Overcoming the Desensitization of Horror Fans

Jacob Mielke is the author of the horror play The Sacrifice. This is his first guest post for La Petite Blog. 
 

I don’t know if you guys know this, but writing horror plays is kinda hard. It’s not so surprising, really. Just look at the horror genre in the film industry today. When was the last time you saw something truly scary? I’m talking “Oh my goodness I must cover my eyes and plug my ears lest this madness force me to evacuate bowel and bladder right here while I sob like a soap opera star watching Titanic” scary.

The last time I watched something that scary, I was fourteen. I was locked in a dark room in a dark house while The Grudge played on a TV that I couldn’t turn off or even turn down (Don’t ask). 

Today, I can watch that and worse with no problem at all. I am a victim of something far scarier than any horror movie…desensitization (Cue recorded scream of B-Movie actress from the fifties).

We horror fans have a (usually) inevitable result of our love of horror; we cease to scare easily. This poses a particular problem for people who specialize in entertaining audiences with horror (Like me, damn it); how are we supposed to scare an audience that’s already seen it all, heard it all, bathed in the blood of it all?

It’s ultimately up to everyone to find their own way of making it work but I have my own techniques that I’m willing to share with the world since so few theaters make good horror theatre and I can’t afford to drive to New York every month to see shows by La Petite Morgue (wink wink).

Technique # 1: Create characters the audience connects with and likes, place them in high-tension, suspenseful situations, then mutilate the shit out of them. Kind of self-explanatory, really. If the audience doesn’t like the characters, then there’s no reason for them to care whether they live or die, and all the suspense is gone. As Alfred Hitchcock once said: “There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.” So, loss of suspense is kind of a show-killer.

Technique # 2: Bloody blood all over the bloody place. Blood on the walls, blood on the floor, blood on the characters, blood in the characters’ hair, blood in the stage manager’s coffee and sometimes even blood on the audience. Don’t get me wrong, gore effects do not make or break a show. If something isn’t scary, blood won’t make it scary but if something is scary, then blood can help make it even scarier. No offense to the theaters who can’t afford blood effects, but some of the suspense and illusion is lost when the character carving unholy symbols into his body is doing so via his mad miming skills.

Technique #3: Audience participation. This is a controversial tactic and sometimes requires the signing of a release form but there’s no way to get an audience clenched up faster than to break the fourth wall a little and include them in the hijinks. Example: I once saw a show with actors planted in the audience. They slumped in their seats as if dead and were covered in dried blood. This alone was enough to unsettle people and almost no one wanted to sit near them. They also looked wildly uncomfortable when the corpses stood up and made their way to the stage. Boom, the audience is held in suspense before the damn show even starts. That was a masterful use of suspense. If it had been thought up by me, I’d say it was perfect.

Horror audiences just don’t scare like they used to. I remember a time when one could stage Dracula and people would be genuinely frightened by it. These days, Dracula is usually presented as more of a drama than anything else.

This Dracula is scary, but not in the way he intends.

You have to really work to overcome that desensitization. Show them something they’re not used to. Bring them out of their comfort zones. Do they expect to be scared by going to see a play and then sitting quietly in the audience until it’s over? No, of course not. So, make sure that’s not all they’re doing.

Guest Post: Good Girls Don't Write About Decapitations

Lisa Huberman is the author of the horror play Heart/Succor, which premiered at Fresh Blood in July 2012. Her monologue Easy Breezy Blood-Sucking was performed at Bloody Gore-geous Monologues in February 2013. -KP

The scariest movie I ever saw as a kid was The Little Mermaid.

That’s weird, right? For most people it’s something like It or Halloween or the wood-chipper scene from Fargo. Straight-up horror never really appealed to me-- I guess I’ve always liked being different. 

As a plucky redhead with ambitions of being a singer, it’s not hard to see why I identified with the fiery, headstrong Ariel. Just like Ariel felt out of place in her undersea world, I felt out of place in suburban Ohio. Plus she had an irrational attachment to her collection of useless shit—a legacy that I carry on to this day, much to my dad’s chagrin. 

Looking back to the film there’s lot that’s cringe-worthy. Take awkward 90s-era racism with the red-lipped “blackfish” in the “Under the Sea” sequence. Then there’s the regressive gender politics. Unlike the sensible, level-headed Belle and the cool, acerbic Jasmine of later Disney films, who keep their romantic counterparts at bay with their wits, Ariel is kind of the worst romantic role model ever. Girlfriend is so boy-crazy she puts herself and her entire marine kingdom in jeopardy for the self-centered pursuit of a dude with whom she has literally never had a conversation.

Ariel refuses to take "He's just not that into fish," for an answer.

But while the film is not perfect, for me it’s also extremely primal. Despite the rousing, reggae numbers, the Kingdom of Triton is an extremely dangerous one. Not only does King Triton face constant threats to the peace from below the sea in Ursula the sea witch (whose death scene I’ve commented on previously), but also from the human world above. When arguing with Ariel about whether she should be allowed to go to above the surface, Triton cries something to the affect of, “Do you think I want my daughter snared in some fisherman’s hook?” 

Their whole conflict is meant to be metaphorical— in Ariel, we’re supposed to see the typical teenage girl struggling with her father about questions of prejudice and parental control. But for some reason, at six or seven, this image gripped me. And while the film itself never put Ariel in any real danger, Sebastian spends an entire song fleeing the knife of a French chef, and misses being devoured by Prince Eric’s manservant by a heartbeat. The idea that in another version of the story, Ariel— who I had come to know, love and-- could be captured by a fisherman and gutted and devoured like just another fish fascinated terrified, and disturbed me. 

Guest Post: The 10 Best Slashers in a Post-Scream World

Tyler Grimes is the author of the horror plays Meat (read at Fresh Blood September 2012) and 5D. This is his first Guest Post for La Petite Blog - hopefully, his first of many. -KP

On December 20, 1996 (when I was a lad of 6 summers) murder occurred in the horror cinema. With the release of Wes Craven and Kevin Williamson’s fast-talking, blood-spilling, eye-winking, Jamie-Kennedy-featuring Scream came the unofficial death of the “slasher film.” 

Craven, fresh off story credits in a long stint of increasingly absurd and inaccessible Nightmare on Elm Street sequels found Williamson’s script, which meticulously deconstructed the very genre Craven had made a name for himself in, and it was a match made in the underworld.  It followed high school student and local celebrity Sidney Prescott, as a costumed killer dubbed “Ghostface” begins to butcher his way through the Woodsboro High School yearbook, eventually setting his sights on Sidney. After famously killing off the film’s biggest star in the opening scene, Craven and Williamson let audiences know they were in for something they had never experienced before.

Only we weren’t. The true success of Scream is that we see nothing we haven’t seen before while seeing everything we’ve never seen before. The film works a lot like a puppet show. You can focus on the marionettes or you can follow the strings and focus on the person manipulating the puppets.  Borrowing from a formula first played around with in 1991’s There’s Nothing Out There, Williamson’s script poked fun at the tropes that had dominated the slasher genre since it first came into being with Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom. We have an innocent leading lady (Neve Campbell), an aloof boyfriend (Skeet Ulrich), a cutthroat reporter (the incredible Courtney Cox), bumbling detective (played brilliantly by David Arquette), an iconic killer, a great whodunit mystery, and other stereotypes that dominated the genre since it became mass-produced in the 70’s. 

What separates Scream from the rest of the bunch is the character Randy (Jamie Kennedy), a know-it-all movie geek that epitomized 90’s culture. Randy is a big reason this movie works, because as the movie progresses he’s pointing out what would happen "if this were a horror film". This is also borrowed from There’s Nothing Out There, only done much better here. (Plus, Matthew Lillard in the last 20 minutes of the movie is sensational. Find me a more reckless performance that lands that well this side of a Nic Cage movie and I’ll give you $5!) Randy, and the film’s ability to be self aware, occasionally brings Scream into laugh territory, and to call the movie a horror comedy is not entirely too far off. Scream is steeped in Williamson’s genuine love for slasher films but like the Wizard of Oz, when the curtain is up and the man revealed, it’s hard to ever go back to the way things were. Such was the case with the slasher genre following Scream.

Randy explains the until-then-unwritten rules of horror cinema.

How do you make a scary movie when audiences now know all the secrets (Scream pulled in $173 million at the box office)? It was difficult and no slasher film will ever truly stand on its own in the post-Scream era, but this blog post will attempt to highlight 10 of my favorite slasher films to come out of the Hollywood machine since 1996.

Blog For Us!

We're recruiting bloggers! If you would like to write a guest post for La Petite Blog, drop us a line at: lapetitemorgue@gmail.com 

Possible topics include: 

• Reviews of horror theatre
• Posts about live horror events
• Reviews of haunted houses or horror attractions
• Reviews of horror movies, especially indie horror
• Reviews of horror TV shows
• Short features on - or interviews with - horror writers in any genre
• Recommendations within a sub-genre ("5 Ghost-Hunting Reality Shows That Will Actually Scare You", etc.)
• Zombie survival and preparedness
• We're open to your suggestions!

COMING SOON (to terrify you)

THE BEST OF FRESH BLOOD
April 5-7, Friday, Saturday & Sunday at 8pm

Alchemical Theatre Laboratory - Studio A - 137 West 14th Street

BUY TICKETS:

https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/9756573

Lovesick
Written by Christine Croyden
Directed by Chelsea Holland

Hold Still
Written by Kellie Powell
Directed by Shannon Lippert

Wolfsbane
Written by Shannon Lippert
Directed by Kellie Powell

Bloody Mary
Written by Aleks Merilo
Directed by Shannon Lippert

Starring:
 Eleanor Arculus
Trystin Bailey
Joe Caintic
Tim Elliott
Alex Hinson
Caitlin Johnston
Adriana Jones
Molly Lisenco
Joel Piper
Vito Trigo
Rachel Tynes
Amanda White

Coming Soon... Troma Takes Over!

My apologies that the next Top 10 List, Top 10 Final Girls will not be ready this afternoon. I will totally have it up by the end of this weekend. Unfortunately I'm a bit crazed at the moment with this:

As some of you know, I worked on Troma's Return to Nuke 'Em High this past summer and I'm so proud of the movie. We are looking to take it to Cannes and basically start an independent film revolution and kind of stick it to the uptight studio execs who will be at Cannes. If that kind of thing is your bag, please join us on Saturday at Culture Fix from 2 PM-2AM. Booze! Music! Stand-Up! Art!

If drinking for 12 hours is not your liver's thing, please feel free to come by any time between 2 PM and 2AM.

Hope to see some of you there!

5 Things To Watch on Netflix This Valentine's Day!

Whether you're single and bitter or coupled up and obnoxiously happy, I think we can all agree that Valentine's Day is kinda lame. Don't get me wrong, finding someone who tolerates and even loves your quirks and neuroses is rare and should be celebrated. But this celebration should occur organically, when the mood strikes- not when commercials and pop-up ads are forcing flowers and candy down our throats. That being said, I do love me some conversation hearts.

Like Kellie mentioned in her earlier post, she and I share a tradition of watching horror movies on Valentine's Day. This fun tradition started on a snowy Valentine's Day back in Binghamton, when we were both single, bitter and the recipients of two oversized stuffed crocodiles gifted to us by a non-single friend (an attempt to make us feel better about being alone, and instead caused us to feel more alone). Watching young, attractive, often annoying young people getting hacked up on the screen can certainly make a grumpy single feel better about their solo status, but it's equally fun to cuddle up under a blanket with your sweetie and watch something that gets both of your hearts racing. Here are my picks for what to watch tonight- these movies and shows can all be found on Netflix Instant!

MY BLOODY VALENTINE

While the 3-D remake was cheesy fun, it can't touch the original in terms of thrills and chills. There's so much that I love about this movie, but I think what I love the most is the incredibly effective, claustrophobic setting of the mines. This is the PERFECT movie to watch tonight as it takes place on Valentine's Day and much of the story revolves around a love triangle between a young woman, her mysterious ex and her new boyfriend. DRAMA! This movie has some seriously awesome kills and don't dare turn it off before the credits, because it contains one of THE most awesome songs in 80's slasher history.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ever since Chelsea and I went to see Texas Chainsaw Massacre together on February 14, 2004, I have tried to celebrate every Valentine's Day with a horror movie - often, with several. It probably began as an attempt to rebel against the established holiday by bitterly embracing my singledom, but I have continued the tradition even though I'm now in a relationship. (My fiancee loves zombie movies, so that helps.)

Several months ago when I wrote my Top 15 Horror Movies List, I included a little gem called Valentine. In my opinion, it is the perfect slasher flick to watch today - with a significant other, a good friend, or the stuffed alligator that your well-meaning friend gave you as a Valentine's Day pity gift. (He is eating a heart with his giant, pointy teeth!)

And remember:
"The journey of love is an arduous trek, 
My love grows for you as you bleed from your neck!"

<3,
LPM

Women in Horror Month - Fellow Ambassadors

I wanted to make sure to draw special attention to some of our fellow Ambassadors of Women in Horror Month:

• DarkMedia.com
• Bad Reputation - a UK blog which describes itself as "a feminist pop culture adventure" and includes recommendations of female horror writers, a petition to include more diversity in D&D manuals, and Things To Say about the Dead Island Torso Debacle.
• Women Who Love Horror Meetup - based in Brooklyn!
• Ax Wound Film Festival
• Zombie Grrlz - a podcast by "feminist chicks who love horror flicks"
• Horror Realm Con - takes place every March in Pittsburgh
• Dolls of Despair Radio Show
• Popcorn Horror - an app for bite-sized horror on your smart phone
• Girls Night Out - podcast by Charred Remains
• Sci-fi & Squeam - LGBTIQ podcast for horror, sci-fi and fantasy
• Sirens Call Publications - purveyors of dark and edgy fiction
• The Whorer - a punk-fem-queer approach to horror films

Want to Stage Manage "The Best of Fresh Blood"?

La Petite Morgue seeks a reliable and very organized Stage Manager for The Best of Fresh Blood, performing April 5-7, 2013. Five short (10-30 minute) horror plays will be performed, each with its own director and cast. The stage manager will be responsible for attending at least two rehearsals of each show, and coordinating production needs between the five directors, as well as stage managing the performances. A small stipend is negotiable. Please send a copy of your resume, including references, and any major scheduling conflicts between now and April 7 to: lapetitemorgue@gmail.com

Chelsea, Ava, and the Women in Horror Podcast

About 30 minutes in, hear Chelsea describe how she came up with the idea for La Petite Morgue and how we want to incorporate film and theatre elements in the creation of live horror, hear Chelsea and Ava talk about plans to expand beyond the borders of New York City, the role of women in the creation of horror, Bloody Goregeous Monologues, and the variety of things that people find scary.

http://womeninhorrormonth.podomatic.com

Quotes:

"Women make up so much of the audience for horror... despite that, men are still the ones producing [most of the] material..."
--Ava Rosenblatt

"We want to show that there is a way to put on horror that is also empowering."
--Chelsea Holland

If You Missed Bloody Goregeous Monologues...

For those of you who weren't able to attend last night's event, you missed one hell of a show. When the video is ready, you'll get to see some of the wonderful monologues, but in the meantime, here is my pre-speech. I'm kinda proud of how it turned out.

Good evening, and welcome to Bloody Goregeous Monologues. For those of you who are under the impression that we at La Petite Morgue can't spell, let me clarify something. It's not "Bloody Gorgeous" as in, British for "very pretty". It's a term of our own creation. It refers to beauty, but also, to fierceness. To blood, to gore, to guts, and to a willingness to delight in the darker side of life. We at La Petite Morgue felt that it was the right way to describe the female playwrights and performers we're celebrating tonight as part of Women in Horror Recognition Month.

When we put together our first Fresh Blood event, I asked a friend of mine to direct one of the plays. She politely declined, saying that, an activist against domestic violence, she couldn't be involved with a horror group, due to a moral objection. She wished us the best, but said that the horror genre is known for glorifying sexualized violence against women. It threw me for a loop. Because, yes, there are horror films that exploit women. But to think that a group - which is, incidentally, ran by women - can't do horror that isn't sexist, that isn't exploitative, and that is totally fucking scary and bad-ass and awesome...

I don't know about you, but I say, if you're not happy about how something you love is being done - DO. IT. BETTER.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Women in Horror Recognition Month, WiHM assists underrepresented female genre artists in gaining opportunities, exposure, and education through altruistic events, printed material, articles, interviews, and online support. WiHM seeks to expose and break down social constructs and miscommunication between female professionals while simultaneously educating the public about discrimination and how they can assist the female gender in reaching equality.

Top 10 Scariest Women In Film!

As many of you know, February is Women in Horror Month! La Petite Morgue is proud to be participating in WiHM with our Bloody Gore-geous Monologues event, tomorrow 2/2 at 8PM at Joria Productions Mainstage, 260 W. 36th St. Post Mortem (also known in some circles, as "after party") to follow at nearby Stitch Bar (247 W. 37th Street).

There is a $10 suggested donation- all proceeds will go to two very worthy causes: The Viscera Organization, a 501(c)3 that focuses on expanding opportunities for contemporary female genre filmmakers, and the Fund for Women Artists. In honor of Women in Horror Month, I will be posting a different "Top 10" list each Friday, which focuses on my favorite ladies of horror! To kick off the series, I wanted to focus on the mistresses of the macabre who have most terrified us over the years! That's right, I'm talking about the women who have starred in our nightmares. Move over Freddy and Jason- Hell hath no fury like a woman. These are my Top 10...who are yours?

10. Pamela Voorhees, Friday the 13th (played by Betsy Palmer) - Jason may be the face of the franchise, but it's really Mrs. Voorhees who got things started. There's something disturbingly realistic about the idea of a mother who kills to revenge her young son's death at the hands of negligent counselors. Mrs. Voorhees is the reason I never snuck off to have sex while I was supposed to be watching the kids during my own camp counselor days. Despite minimal screen time, Betsy Palmer gave an extremely memorable performance- I'm sure I'm not the only horror fan who thinks of her and her infamous line every Friday the 13th- "His name was Jason....and today is his birthday!"

9. Hedy Carlson, Single White Female (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh) -  I'm a sucker for a good (or bad) psycho stalker movie, and Single White Female is probably the best example of the genre. There have been countless rip-offs (*cough*The Roommate*cough) but none have been able to capture the magic that is Single White Female - and I believe that is because although the plot and dialogue may be campy, the acting is top-notch and the film is surprisingly relatable. We may have never had a roommate who killed our puppy or seduced our boyfriend, but I for one have had more than one roommate who crossed multiple boundaries with me. And I once had a roommate in college who dyed her hair the same shade as mine while we were living together- I changed dorms the next semester, just in case. Thanks, Jennifer Jason Leigh-you've ensured that I will never trust a random roomie!

Events in February and Women in Horror Month

LA PETITE MORGUE has two very exciting events coming up in February. We hope you'll join us on Saturday, February 2 at the Joria Main Stage for Bloody Gore-geous Monologues, and for the next edition of our Fresh Blood Monthly Reading Series, on Wednesday, February 6 at Happy Ending Lounge!