(photo by Lukia Costello)

Torn Space Theatre’s Prom of the Dead at Dnipro

Torn Space Theater’s second annual costume ball and fundraiser, Prom of the Dead, will be “helled” October 22 at the Dnipro Ukranian Cultural Center, 562 Genesee Street, to roughly coincide with this spirited month’s culmination on All Hallows Eve.

Buffalo’s annual fascination with the eerie, macabre, and paranormally anomalous is honestly come by since much of the land the city is built on was once graves of slaves and soldiers, not to mention centuries of interred Native Americans. The moot profaning of sacred ground notwithstanding, the competition to top last year’s “King and Queen of the Dead” at the Ukranian Center is practicing their zombie moves with two weeks to go until the grand gala of ghouls strut their staggering stuff. This years outré occasion features local bands, DJs, performance artists, cash bar featuring fine Ukrainian beer and a truly unusual photo booth where couples may perpetuate their likenesses on celluloid doing the Transylvania Twist before the cameras of Douglas Levere and Lukia Costello.

Costello is one of the original residents of Art Space from its halcyon days in 2007. Growing up in Williamsville, she has settled—after many life adjustments as student, teacher, and artist—into a professional routine as one of the most sought-after commercial photographers in Buffalo. Along with shooting images for publication in local periodicals, she specializes in custom photography, and chic and sexy head shots for actors and musicians. Presently she is preparing an ambient installation for Prom of the Dead. “I want to create an interactive photo area and encourage the zombies to really come at me,” she says, “to engage the legions of Lucifer, having them charge the lens, as in Night of the Living Dead.”

Ms. Costello’s theatrical work is certainly excellent preparation for bringing the unheavenly host of necrofamilia to the garish summits of Beetle Juice-ian carnality.