No encores. No curtain calls. No audiences. That stir-crazy silence of theaters commemorates 2020, the scariest year ever. But what about the ghosts that haunt theaters? 

Tonight the Danielle Georgiou Dance Group (DGDG) answers that question. The glamorous ghouls of Theatre Three return in The Bippy Bobby Boo Show: 2020 Call-In Special to haunt the internet with a live-stream performance. 

“We started to dream about ‘Well, what would the ghosts say about COVID and a pandemic? And how would they adjust to that?’” said Danielle Georgiou, artistic director of DGDG. 

For six nights, the group will stream an interactive performance with ghosts in a 1960s musical variety show. Online audience members will also get to call-in titular ghost Bibby Bobby, played by Justin Locklear, and tell him Halloween jokes and yell their scariest boo.

Ghost Bippy Bobby, played by Justin Locklear, producer of Danielle Georgiou Dance Group. Photo: Justin Locklear

The show first premiered in October 2019 at Theatre Three. It followed a storyline of Theatre Three’s beginnings in the 1960s and the ghosts who have taken residence since then. The ghosts performed plays they’ve watched throughout the 50 years of the theatre.

“It was an exploration of ghosts wishing they could be actors on stage too and basically saying, ‘never stop making theatre because ghosts want to dream too’,” Georgiou said. 

Now, the ghosts have a lot to say about the state of the world. 

The Bippy Bobby Boo Show: 2020 Call-In Special will also have an Election Day special dedicated to the voices of ghosts and the exploration of choice. 

“Because it’s a Halloween show, we realized we have the opportunity to perform a show on what is really in 2020 the scariest day of the year, as opposed to Halloween,” Locklear said.

The Halloween musical is the second production for DGDG during the pandemic. The first was The Savage Seconds, a dance-theatre experimental film.

The cast of “The Bippy Bobby Boo Show: 2020 Call-In Special.” It starts Friday, Oct. 23. Photo: Justin Locklear

The cast of the special includes William Acker, Elaina Alspach, Danny Anchondo Colby Calhoun, Ruben Carrazana, Kelli Howard, Cory Kosel, Nick Leos, Monet Lerner, Justin Locklear, Beck McDonald, Sarah Mendez, Omar Padilla, Marti Etheridge-Schweitzer, Trey Pendergrass

Georgiou said the live-stream show is a completely new experience.

“We’ve never really done something where the audience wasn’t in the room with us to have that immediate response,” Georgiou said. “For all of us, we think this is funny — I hope it is?”

Got a tip? Email Mia Estrada at mestrada@kera.org. You can follow her on Twitter @miaaestrada.

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