VILLAGE HALLOWEEN COSTUME BALL
Friday, October 31, 2025
Outdoor attractions (Free) 3:00 PM to 6:30 PM
Indoor attractions ($20) 6:30 PM to Midnight
Costume or Formal Wear are requested.
THEATER FOR THE NEW CITY
155 First Avenue (between 9th and 10th Street)
New York, NY 10003
Directions
Halloween spot from 1010 WINS:
NEW YORK — To celebrate the spookiest night of the year with art, music, and community spirit, Theater for the New City (TNC), 155 First Ave., will host its annual Village Halloween Costume Ball on Friday, October 31. A large outdoor festivity will be held from 2:30 PM to 6:30 PM outside the Theater on East Tenth Street between First and Second Avenues (or if it rains, in a big tent), featuring performances and a costume competition for kids. The celebration moves inside from 6:30 PM to midnight with nonstop performances, ballroom dancing (to Art Lillard’s Heavenly Swing Band and MisterPablo, a Latin Dance band), an aerial dance concert (by Constellation Moving Company), and dining in a pop-up restaurant (The Witch’s Cauldron) where for $7, guests can savor gourmet dishes donated by local restaurants. The evening culminates in a costume judging with prizes from 11:00 PM to midnight. Admission is free for the outdoor program and $20 for the indoor festivities. Costumes or formal wear are requested.
On every Halloween since 1976, TNC has transformed its theater complex and surrounding streets into a carnival of the unexpected, where neighborhood families, artists, and revelers come together for an evening of spirited fun, live music, and avant-garde theater. This extravaganza has been a point of origin for many of the City’s most original entertainers. Six full-length plays have grown out of playlets written for the fest and it is probable that the theatrical movement in Performance Art began there. It has been a launching pad for such formative artists as Paul Zaloom, Alice Farley, Bloolips, The Red Mole, Penny Arcade, Basil Twist, Alien Comic Tom Murrin, Zero Boy, Charles Busch, Eduardo Machado, Moises Kaufman, Maria Irene Fornes and Phoebe Legere. Each year, many acts, skits, sketches, and skadoodles go on to become the basis of larger theater works. It is also interesting to note that TNC originated the Village Halloween Parade as part of its annual Halloween Ball. The procession wound its way through the Village from TNC’s second home at the corner of Jane and West Streets to Washington Square Park. In the festival’s second year, TNC won an Obie for this parade.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
(as of October 4)
PART 1 – OUTDOOR EVENTS
3:00 – 6:30 PM
ADMISSION FREE
Attractions:
Variety performances by Bond Street Theater, Joe Bendik, Carol Tendava (Belly Dance), Arley Trice, Lily James Roberts, Vadim Astrakhan, George Bellici, Star 69, London Fog, Matthew Mendoza and others. Emceed by Mary Tierney and Rocco Nicholas.
Children’s Costume Contest emceed by T. Scott Lilly and judged by Crystal Field, Terry Lee King and Emily Pezzella. Winners will receive prizes.
Giveaway Table with gifts and racks of clothing.
The Red and Black Masque: an annual Medieval ritual ensemble theater piece which is performed by torchlight with audience participation. (6:00-6:20)
At 7:00 PM, the celebration goes inside the four-theater complex for food, fun, and exciting new theater works, culminating with a costume contest at 11:00 PM whose winners will each receive a bottle of Moet & Chandon Champagne and a year’s free pass to TNC.
PART 2 – INDOOR EVENTS
6:30 – Midnight
ADMISSION $20
CABARET PERFORMANCES (6:30 PM to 11:00 PM, Community Theater))
A succession of live, 10-minute performances staged in the Community Theater. Performing artists will be, among others, Richard West, Inma Heredia, Lei Zhou (directed by Mark Marcante), John Grimaldi, Hollie Harper, TNC’s Street Theater Ensemble, Carol Tendava (Belly Dance), Peter Dizzoza, JC’s Rat Cabaret, Alessandra Belloni, Wise Guise, Emilio Garcia and Fairy Tale Marionettes. There will be playlets including works by Stephan Morrow, Toby Armor and Joan Kane, and an excerpt of “Sartre and Simone” by William Cane, among others. At 9:30, there will be a scream contest run by Lissa Moira. Melanie Maria Goodreaux and Crystal Field are emcees.
BALLROOM DANCING (8:00 PM to 11:00, Johnson Theater)
Art Lillard’s Heavenly Big Band, a 17 piece swing orchestra performing an extensive repertoire of songs from swing to samba to jazz ballad to Bossa Nova with a swinging singing soloist (8:00 – 9:30)
Aerial Dance with Constellation Moving Company, performing high over our heads in exciting new challenges to eye and ear (9:30 – 10:00)
Mr. Pablo’s Latin Dance Band, a five-piece fusion band with vocalist, mixing Salsa, Samba and Flamenco with Rock, Reggae and Funk (10:00 – 11:00)
DINING IN THE WITCHES’ CAULDRON (6:30 to 11:00 PM, Cino Theater)
Downtown’s most sensational Halloween cafe, featuring a variety of American and international delicacies at peoples’ prices ($4 buys you entree and dessert). Holiday dishes are contributed by neighboring East Village restaurants, some with celebrity chefs. Beginning at 7:00 PM, you can gobble couscous from a coffin lid while enjoying spine-tingling performances by performance artists, songwriters, poets and variety artists, including Smokey Stevens, WillieAnn Gissendanner, Pamela Enz, Miguel Loyola, Mimi Block & Rome Neal, ZeroBoy, Sylvain Leroux, Lili Barsha, George Belleci, Marilyn Horan, Sarah Lilly, Ellen Steir, Peter Welch, and The Head Peddlers. There will also be an excerpt from “Dune the Dunsical” (written and directed by Blake Du Bois and TJ Canlon) and a short play from the Mary Tierney Acting Workshop.
MONSTERS AND MIRACLES COSTUME PARADE (11:00 PM to Midnight, Johnson Theater)
This annual costume contest will be accompanied on piano by Peter Dizzoza. All costumed attendees are invited to march past a panel of celebrity judges. Winners receive one-year passes to TNC and a bottle of Moet & Chandon Champagne. Attendees will be judged in such categories as “Most Politically Irrelevant,” “Most 1984,” “Most Woke,” “Most Fake News,” “Most Stephen Miller,” “Most Unvaccinated,” and “Most Likely to be Extinct.” Judged by Terry Lee King, Joe Battista, Crystal Field, Andy P. Travis, Phillip Hackett, Lissa Moira, David Willinger and Jenne Vath
VAUDEVILLE PERFORMANCES IN THE WOMB ROOM (8:00 to 11:00 PM, Cabaret Theater)
Performers include Star ’69, Larry Litt & Eleanor Heartney, Bina Sherif, Sue Horowitz, New Yiddish Rep, Joe Bendik, Claude Solnik, Breaking the Trust, Lei Zhou & Peter Dizzoza, Rocco Nicholas, Terry Lee King & Billy Little, Sam Wiek, Danielle Aziza, and others. (8:00 – 10:00)
LOBBY EVENTS (6:30 to 11:00 PM)
Performances by Middy Streeter, Cobu (all-women Taiko drum group), Hellsouls, flute-playing goblin Kahley Mitchell, tap dance with Laraine Goodman and The Mad Tappers, Fish Pond (casting for giveaway gifts), Fortune Teller Penny Diora (free readings), Champagne Bar served over a coffin with a live vampire inside.
BACKGROUND
Since its beginning in 1976, TNC’s Halloween extravaganza has been a point of origin for many of the City’s most original entertainers. Six full-length plays have grown out of playlets written for the fest and it is probable that the theatrical movement in Performance Art began there. It has been a launching pad for such formative artists as Paul Zaloom, Alice Farley, Bloolips, The Red Mole, Penny Arcade, Basil Twist and Alien Comic Tom Murrin. Each year, many acts, skits, sketches, and skadoodles go on to become the basis of larger theater works. It is also interesting to note that TNC originated the Village Halloween Parade as part of its annual Halloween Ball. The procession wound its way through the Village from TNC’s second home at the corner of Jane and West Streets to Washington Square Park. In its second year, TNC won an Obie for this parade.