‘The Ghastly Dreadfuls’ returns with more spooky puppetry

Featuring ghoulish puppetry and music, "The Ghastly Dreadfuls" is back at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta for its 10th season, Wednesdays-Saturdays through Oct. 29.

The show is the brainchild of Jon Ludwig, artistic director, and Jason Hines, resident puppet builder. Even though it’s entering its 10th season, it almost ended for good at one point.

“We technically retired it for two years, but so many people were clamoring for it to come back that we just said, ‘OK, we’ll do it,’” Ludwig said.

The show went through multiple versions early on, namely the "Spooky Puppet Horror Show." However, the show as it's now known consists of multiple ghost stories with an added vaudeville twist, incorporating music and dance.

The show utilizes different artistic styles of puppetry to tell its stories, from marionettes to raw puppets to shadow puppets.

There will be a new story this run-through titled “The Horrific Experiment: A Grand Guignol.” The French horror theatre “Grand Guignol” heavily inspires this new tale.

“The Horrific Experiment” is about a doctor and his assistant who gruesomely attempt to bring the doctor’s deceased daughter back to life.

“It’s very melodramatic — (the Grand Guignol) are not known for great literature,” Hines said with a laugh. “But they’re great at effects, which were horrific by the time’s standards, and even by today’s it’s pretty horrible.”

There is a beer and wine bar that will be open before the show and during intermission. Tickets are $18.75 for members and $25 for nonmembers, and the show is restricted to those 18 and up. Each ticket also includes entry to the Worlds of Puppetry Museum.

Although the show mainly consists of spooky puppets and ghouls, those terrified of clowns won’t get off scot-free.

“There is a character that is a clown, and he does ‘get’ them in the end,” Ludwig said.

For the AJC's review of last year's show, click here.