THE CAST (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)
KATHY WOLF (Narrator) is new to the cast this year.
ILENE DYLLER (Marta) burst upon the scene as Madame DuVive in Séance at Midnight, reprising that role the following year in The Medium and the Message. She served as narrator for The Curse of Anubis and was Adler, the second-in-command astronaut, in 3001: The Shadow Planet.
MIKE REMSHARD (Zito) returns to the Efran Entertainment Group after several years in the Midwest. He began his career with the company doing sound effects for Aladdin’s Dream; the following year he stepped onstage as the Peasant Boy in The Enchanted Forest. Two years later, he again assisted backstage, this time preparing chemical effects for Rite of the Undead.
TIM VERDUIN (Professor Ludvic Lowe) was Perkins, the jittery astronaut, in 3001: The Shadow Planet.
PAT McMAHON (Golem) is in his third year of playing heavily disguised character roles, beginning with the Dementor in Hogwarts for Sale! and continuing as the Alien arm and miniature spacecraft puppeteer in 3001: The Shadow Planet. He is also an indefatigable member of our group’s setup crew.
THE STAFF AND CREW (in alphabetical order)
TIM ACKERSON (papier-mâché, painting, setup/teardown) has worked on the crew since he moved to Philadelphia in 2000. A friend for over 30 years, he is the only person on the current production (besides the Efrans) to have seen any of the decorated hallways in Rochester that started this tradition.
SUZANNE BOURQUIN (candy, crowd control, science magic) is one of our newest volunteers.
ANGIE COOPER (tapestry artist) also painted the exquisite hieroglyphic designs for The Curse of Anubis.
DANIEL EFRAN (assistant producer, associate director, scriptwriter, Golem construction) has been involved in all facets of the Halloween productions since 1974, most prominently directing and acting as well as designing sets and special effects. He starred as the hero in The Lost Temple of the Maya, made a memorable impression as the poignant yet violent Rat Boy in Side-Show Spectacular, and has co-directed and co-written most of the shows since 1988, doing much of the work long-distance, commuting and communicating from Pittsburgh. He has also written original music for several of the shows, created costumes, and been the videographer for a number of productions. Sometimes described as having a Cecil B. deMille complex, he was saying things like “All we need is a laser” (eventually borrowed from a physics lab for Space Pod) long before lasers were readily available for a few dollars at Staples.
ELSA EFRAN (associate producer) is primarily responsible for candy, catering, costumes, critiquing, crowd control, data, editing, errand running, graphics, painting, papier-mâché, publicity, research, supplies, and last-minute odds and ends. She is still hoping that someday there will be a Nobel Prize for gofers. The notion of basing this year’s production on the Golem myth came to her during a vacation tour of Prague.
JAY EFRAN (producer, director, scriptwriter) has been involved in stagecraft and magic since his youth. Little did he know that turning brown wrapping paper into “rocks” in order to create a witch’s cave in a hallway in Rochester, New York, in 1968 would lead to masterminding more than 30 years of Halloween productions. He is legendary for resurrecting a number of arcane ways of making people and objects appear, disappear, emit smoke, and burst into flames—often simultaneously.
JORDU SCHELL (Golem design and construction) created the Talking Head in 1985 and made memorable masks for Aladdin’s Dream, The Curse of Anubis, and Side-Show Spectacular. For 3001: The Shadow Planet, he designed, constructed, and operated the Alien. A native of Mt. Airy, he regularly returns from California—where he designs creatures for the movies and teaches sculpting—to assist with Halloween shows and enjoy the changing of the seasons.
MARK SCHENKER (sound effects) narrated A Knightmare to Remember and came into his own as Parkins the Butler in Séance at Midnight. Mark was the dry-ice wrangler for The Medium and the Message and has been a staple of our outdoor crowd-control force for many years. He is also the father of two of our actors—David Kornblith (Arthur) in A Knightmare to Remember and Molly Schenker (Krakkit the House-Elf) in Hogwarts for Sale!
MOLLY SCHENKER (illusion worker) debuted as Krakkit the Elf in Hogwarts for Sale! and has helped with porch duties in other years.
JOHN SIEMIAROWSKI (associate producer, head carpenter, head electrician) has been an indispensable part of our productions ever since he assisted with set design, construction, lighting, and special effects for Séance at Midnight. As Master of Electrical Wizardry, he has rarely heard a wild idea of Jay’s that he hasn’t been able to bring to life. His daughter, Leah, was a child ghost in Séance at Midnight and a damsel in distress in The Curse of Anubis. His son, Jake, made a cameo appearance as Harry Potter in Hogwarts for Sale!
BECCA STALLINGS (scriptwriter) joined the crew in 1998 as a prop-painting assistant and attendance taker. In 1999, for Side-Show Spectacular, she served as head plastering assistant, off-set Rat Boy wrangler, and attendance taker. She was one of the scriptwriters for Hogwarts for Sale! as well as an elf makeup artist. For 3001: The Shadow Planet, in true show-business tradition, she stepped into the role of narrator at the last minute to replace an ailing cast member. In addition to her scriptwriting role for Night of the Golem, she continued with her attendance-taking duties, including noting the departure time of this year’s “first sobbing toddler.”
Additional thanks for setup, teardown, technical assistance, and funding to:
Kiel Ackerson
Claude Bernhard
Kiki Bernhard
Rich Genga
Liz Hosey
Herschel Rubin
Alan Saslow
Jake Siemiarowski