Stephanie
Baird
Overview
- Produced by:
- Happenstance Theater
- Dates:
- October 08 - November 02, 2025
- Run Time:
- 1 Hour, 15 Minutes
- Intermission:
- No
- Theater:
- Showing in Theater
- Tickets:
- $44 (incl. a $4 fee) | 59E59 Members: $30
Show Info
Devised by Happenstance Theater
Under the Co-Direction of Mark Jaster and Sabrina Mandell
With Stephanie Baird, Gwen Grastorf, Mark Jaster, Sabrina Mandell, Sarah Olmsted Thomas and Jay Owen
Dreadful Episodes is a hilarious and virtuosic theatrical collage adorned with live music and physical comedy, inspired by the art of Edward Gorey and others, Victorian reverie, ill-fated romance, calamitous croquet, and the dangers of windy cliffs.
These dark comedic vignettes include precocious children, a séance, and other fancies that will transport you to a world where unseen dangers cause laughter. Join us this autumn when the veil is thin to enjoy all things witty and macabre.
A post-performance talkback will be held on October 22:
Jewish Grief in a Theatrical Context
Join Happenstance Theater in conversation with Rabbi Melanie Levav, Executive Director of The Shomer Collective after their 10/22 performance of Dreadful Episodes for a talkback about grief, death and humor.
Join us when the veil is thin and the spirits are out to kick off your Halloweekend festivities. Show up in your spookiest, scariest, Edward Gorey-iest costume to the October 31 performance! The Happenstance Theater Ensemble will be choosing the best costumes of the evening, with winners walking away with special prizes. Plus, anyone that arrives in costume will receive a free drink at the E:Bar!
Photo Caption: Gwen Grastorf, Mark Jaster, and Sarah Olmsted Thomas in DREADFUL EPISODES
Photo: Leah Huete
Photo Caption: Mark Jaster in DREADFUL EPISODES
Photo: Leah Huete
Photo Caption: Sabrina Mandell, Sarah Olmsted Thomas, Gwen Gastorf, and Stephanie Baird in DREADFUL EPISODES
Photo: Leah Huete
Photo Caption: Sarah Olmsted Thomas in DREADFUL EPISODES
Photo: Leah Huete
Photo Caption: Jay Owen, Sarah Olmsted Thomas, Mark Jaster, and Sabrina Mandell in DREADFUL EPISODES
Photo: Leah Huete
Photo Caption: Sarah Olmsted Thomas, Gwen Grastorf, Sabrina Mandell, and Mark Jaster in DREADFUL EPISODES
Photo: Leah Huete
Photo Caption: Stephanie Baird in DREADFUL EPISODES
Photo: Leah Huete
Photo Caption: Mark Jaster, Sarah Olmsted Thomas, Gwen Grastorf, Jay Owen, and Sabrina Mandell in DREADFUL EPISODES
Photo: Leah Huete
Producing Company
Happenstance Theater
Happenstance Theater, founded in 2006, is a professional company committed to devising, producing and touring original, performer-created visual, poetic Theatre. Our ensemble has been developing work together since 2012. We are eclectically skilled artists who craft all aspects of our pieces from concept to realization. Under the Artistic co-Direction of Mark Jaster and Sabrina Mandell, we harvest imagery from the past and re-contextualize it in performances that address the universal themes of mortality and the ephemeral. With the simplest means - humor, whimsy, music, silence, text, physical comedy, object manipulation, vulnerability and generosity - we seek to elevate the moment when the performers and audience meet, to lift the encounter beyond the daily and pedestrian into the realms of dreams, poetry, and art. Meaning is often found by happenstance. Happenstance Theater is a Co-Op Resident Company at 59E59 Theaters.
Read more at: www.happenstancetheater.com
Reviews
"A master class in elegant silliness and adroit timing"
"Button your boots, tip your toppers, and prepare for a parade of the odd and ruthless. Happenstance is a delightful tonic for the times." – Theater Pizzazz
"If your Halloween tastes lean more Tim Burton than Charlie Brown, it could scratch your spooky season itch" – TheaterMania
"Intentionally macabre and totally terrific"
"Do yourself a favor and see Dreadful Episodes" – T and B on the Aisle
"Uproariously funny"
"There is devilish fun to be had, especially whenever co-director and performer Mark Jaster arches a sly eyebrow – few can do it better." – The 100 Word Review
"A fiesta of madcap macabre, a delicious mashup of the weird and fanciful"
"The precision and the split-second timing is breathtaking–the artistry of the physical comedy on display here almost otherworldly." – Nite Life Exchange
"Delightful, droll, and laced with a deadly wit" – Lighting and Sound America
"Menace delivered with a silk-gloved hand"
"It is physical comedy elevated to an art of eerie precision, a dance of doom so meticulouslly arranged that one half expects the ghost of Edward Gorey to be seen applauding from the wings."
"A finely distilled elixir of melancholy wit and sepulchral beauty... One leaves the theatre feeling–how else to put it?–exquisitely haunted." – Theatre Beyond Broadway
"The smart and talented performers of Happenstance have seized on our love of things dreadful and awful and presented them in a simultaneously ominous and laugh-out-loud funny way, and done so very successfully." – Hi! Drama
"This production manages to present us with some frightful images of danger and death mixed with a visual wittiness that also leaves us no other choice than to chuckle at the misfortune of others." – Arteidolia