SANFORD — Ghost ships are the stuff of legend, and if you find them intriguing, you’re in luck this month. You have the opportunity to sail on a Ghost Ship along the St. Johns River, once you board the Barbara-Lee Rivership for its first Barbara-Lee Ghost Cruise. While no ghosts were invited, this Theatre Dinner Show does feature performers from Phantasmagoria Orlando, that popular troop of spooky storytellers.
If you love the beauty of the St. Johns River, a fine four course meal, and an evening or afternoon of Halloween storytelling, this cruise is for you.
What is the Barbara-Lee Ghosty Cruise?
The Barbara-Lee sets sail from the St. Johns Rivership Co. port at 433 N. Palmetto Ave. in downtown Sanford. The 3-hour cruise sails along the picturesque St. Johns River. Dinner is served, and there’s a bar and drinks menu. And then there’s Phantasmagoria.
Since 2009, the Phantasmagoria performers have been arriving in local theaters every October to share creepy stories, so if you love getting into those Halloween vibes, this show is for you.
Phantasmagoria Orlando has a strong base of followers for its annual stage productions that recreate tales of horror, the macabre and the supernatural from classic literature. On the Barbara-Lee, four women in Victorian era dress serve as our dinner theater entertainment. The ship has a spacious stage area for the performers, who enjoy trapsing along the pathway between tables to talk directly with the passengers.
And they do have a marvelous way of recreating a chilling tale.
During the cruise, our performers reenacted two of literature’s most famous horror tales, Edgar Allan Poe’s sinister “The Tell Tale Heart” and Washington Irving’s atmospheric “The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow,” which is particularly fun as we follow poor nervous schoolmaster Ichabod Crane’s scary ride home on Halloween night, when the Headless Horseman gets quick on his trail.
The ladies also recount tales of legendary Ghost ships, and provide a fun, descriptive tour of homes in Central Florida that are rumored to be haunted.
In the meantime, the bar is open and the food is served hot and tasty. It makes for a most enjoyable afternoon.
When can you take the Barbara-Lee Ghost Cruise?
The Barbara-Lee Ghost Cruise dinner theater show leaves the port at 433 Palmetto Ave. in downtown Sanford for Sunday Dinners on Oct. 20 and 27. The ship boards at 4:30 p.m. and the cruise sails from 5-8 p.m.
There will also be Thursday Lunch Cruises on Oct. 17 and 24, which board at 10:30 a.m. and sail from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
On Halloween, there will be a special Oct. 31 Lunch Cruise that boards at 10:30 a.m. and sails from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and a Dinner Cruise boarding at 5:30 p.m. and sailing from 6-9 p.m.
To learn more, visit The St. Johns Halloween Theatre. For tickets or reservations, call 321-320-8466 or email info@stjohnsrivershipco.com.
To learn more about Phantasmagoria, visit them at www.PhantasmagoriaOrlando.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/PhantasmagoriaOrlando.
Phantasmagoria will also be performing at theaters across Central Florida this month for its newest show Grim And Grimmer tales.
What is Phantasmagoria’s Grim And Grimmer Tales?
This year, the recreated stories will include haunting tales from Poe, Henry James, humorous spectral appendages from Le Fanu, and a host of other classic and original tales. Phantasmagoria’s productions mix storytelling, dance, puppetry, and original music, along with illustrations and graphics projected onto the rear wall as settings for the individual stories.
There will be performances at Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday and Friday in the Alexis & Jim Pugh Theater. Phantasmagoria XV Grim And Grimmer Tales will also be scheduled in October for performances at Ocala’s Reilly Arts Center, The Tampa Theatre in Tampa, The Athens Theatre in Deland, and at the Bay Street Players Theater in Eustis.
What is Phantasmagoria?
Two words: Victorian Horror.
For every Halloween season since 2009, the Phantasmagoria troupe has been entertaining local audiences through acrobatics, music, dance, giant puppets, and, most importantly, by recreating classic tales of terror from the vaults of legendary horror writers like Poe, Mary Shelley and many others. Each year, there are new stories — not to mention new adventures for the circus-like performers themselves, and also sometimes new actors as well.
If you’ve lived in Central Florida over the past decade, that word Phantasmagoria needs no introduction. The troupe has been performing around Halloween, at the Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival, and more recently, around Christmas with their unique version of A Christmas Carol.
Michael Freeman is an Orlando journalist, playwright, and author of the book “Bloody Rabbit”. Contact him at Freelineorlando@gmail.com.
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