Last year, the large-scale theatrics of Halloween 313, a local Halloween celebration in Clinton Hill, closed the curtain after 24 years.

What began in 1994 in front of the former home of Janna Kennedy-Hyten at 313 Clinton Avenue turned, over the years, into an annual production that kept growing and growing. Volunteers from other neighborhoods began helping put on the show. It was part of a larger effort to keep Halloween safe for children, and became a destination for kids all around. At one point, the organizers of the event said, they had over 5,000 attendees.

But with the announcement that last year’s production would be the last at 313 Clinton Avenue, there was a desire to keep the tradition going, even if it meant changing the location.

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The Halloween 313 production in 2016. Photo by Fred Becker

“Several members of the group that produced that show for 20-plus years are actually Bed Stuy residents,” said Felicia Jameison, who is one of the volunteer producers. An offshoot of the Friends of Macon Library group launched Masquerade on Macon, and will be staging a new show called “Midnight at the Library.”

Jameison says the runtime is 15 minutes and involves a boy who falls asleep in the library on Halloween and wakes up to discover Rumpelstiltskin has brought forth all the villains out of the books and plans to terrorize the spooky streets. It will take place at the Macon Library, located at 361 Lewis Avenue, on October 31.

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Image via Masquerade On Macon

Nailah Manns, the president of the Friends of Macon Library group, is directing. The cast is made up of local kids and adults, along with volunteers. The show will be a stop on the 15th Annual Halloween Crawl map of neighborhood homes and businesses participating in Halloween festivities produced by the Stuyvesant Heights Parents Association together with other community organizations such as the Brownstoners of Bedford-Stuyvesant. The performance will take place at 6 p.m., with additional shows at 6:45 and 7:30 p.m.

Besides the location shift, not much has changed. “This is very much a local community effort,” says Jameison.

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