The community has been patiently awaiting a plethora of haunting events to make the most of October. What better way to kick off the spookiest month of the year than a collection of gothic horror stories?
Theatre Du Mississippi (TDM) is Winona’s Community Theatre group that has provided Winonans with plenty of fun events and performances throughout the years. This month, they’ve dazzled Winona with a themed event, featuring community members reading their chosen gothic horror stories.
Lacey Korb, a long-time board member of TDM, helped plan and was also a story reader at the event. “We did one of these for Edgar Allen Poe a couple of years ago, but I wanted to bring it back because everyone loves a good old fashioned gothic horror story kind of a night,” Korb said.
There were many readers who took turns reciting scary tales, enchanting the audience with a variety of handpicked stories and poems. Patrick Sheehy recited “The Bottle Imp” by Robert Louis Stevenson, a story that he read when he was a child. “I remember reading this as a kid and thinking it was a rather fascinating story. It has quite a twist to it…” Sheehy said.
“I’ve been doing community theatre for 50 years. It was one of the first things I looked for when I moved down here. I was very pleased to find Theatre Du Mississippi,” Sheehy said. “It’s different types of theatre for different types of audiences and different interests. Applause to TDM for being open to doing such a wide variety of performances and that’s really cool.”
TDM has recently started utilizing Winona’s Historic Masonic Theatre, an auditorium chalk full of history and glamour. Its old timey charm is sure to capture the hearts of any theatre enjoyer that steps inside. For this event, the theatre was oozing with ambiance from the historical furniture to the purposeful dim lighting.
“I think this place is really cool. I think this place will be an extremely cool performance venue. I mean this is really truly a theater,” Sheehy said.
In December, Theatre Du Mississippi will be hosting a Christmas radio show, reviving an old TDM tradition. And then next year, TDM will perform the original one acts, written by those who submitted to the one act play competition.
Events like gothic horror story telling and future events of the like show just how impactful theatre can be to the local community. “Theatre is very important because it’s the way we can express ourselves in this otherwise dark, dark, dark world,” Korb said.
Beyond TDM providing light in a dark place for many people, there is definitely an impact felt when there is no way for people in a community to express themselves on a stage. “I think personally that every community should have a community theatre,” Sheehy said. “Community theatre fills a niche that is extremely important to the vibrancy of this community.”
TDM is eager to keep fostering a welcoming and accepting community theatre and is excited to see what the future holds for future shows put on at the Historic Masonic Theatre. They hope to continue to offer fun events and further help connect the community with theatre-related activities.
