By Sophia Voss Guest Writer
I had the privilege of seeing ECC’s Night of the Living Dead: Live last week and it was amazing. The show was directed by Grace Austin who has been working with ECC’s faculty for 20 years now. She previously directed one of my all-time favorite shows at ECC, She Kills Monsters. This play was just as up close and personal, with seating directly on the stage and characters moving around and interacting with the audience. It added a life like feeling putting you on stage with the living dead.
The play featured returning actors David Dennis (as Ben), Jules Knight (as Harry), Sarah Scharfenberg (as Barbara), Conner Aubuchon (as Tom), Natalie Peoples (as Judy), and Mia Wallen (as Helen). Grace Austin could not have picked better actors for these main roles. The performance was phenomenal, and the special effects made the scene come to life.
My favorite scene by far is when Helen and Harry rip apart their daughter’s undead body and the guts fly everywhere all across the stage. My second favorite part was when I was sitting in the front row and one of the zombies held out the bloody manikin head filled with brains to me. The performance was shocking and breathtaking. I have never seen something so thrilling at ECC yet and I was so happy to be there to experience it!
ECC never fails to disappoint me with their plays and every performance is better and better. I look forward to seeing more of our returning leads and am excited to see more new actors in the oncoming plays.
The next showings are Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge! (Dec 12, 2024), The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical (Feb 20-23 2025), Baskerville: A Sherlock Holmes Mystery (May 1-4, 2025), and Once Upon a Mattress (Jul 23-27, 2025). If you are interested in audition dates are open to everyone and can be found on ecctheatre.com.
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