The first room on the tour of the Gulfport Murder House is the living room, but the characters aren’t exactly living. Courtesy of Tiffany Razzano
By Amy Diaz
If chainsaws, fog machines, flashing lights and creepy sound effects aren’t really your thing, the Gulfport Murder House might be the haunted house for you.
Presented by the nonprofit organization Wordier Than Thou, “Read No More” puts a literary twist on the haunted house experience.
Instead of walking through as fast as you can and clutching the hand of the unlucky soul next to you until your knuckles are white, this house insists that you take your time. And instead of screaming, you’re listening.
A tour guide leads you through four rooms in the house: the living room, bedroom, dining room, and kitchen because all the best parties end up in the kitchen.
Four short plays written by local authors are performed by local actors in each room. The three featured authors at the Gulfport venue, 3009 54th St. S., are Deborah Frethem, Erika Lance and K.L. Nappier.
Each play is a story of a murder that took place in a different decade. The tour guide provides context for the spooky legends accompanying the stories.
The plays are creepy and the actors are so close that you’re bound to be afraid –– at least you better be.
Two of the plays require you to stand up against the wall or in the corner of the room to watch the performance unfold.
In the other two, you feel like you’re part of the performance because the actors address you personally. They thank you for coming, say they’ve “been expecting you” and then tell you their scary story. And they make lots of eye contact.
Verbal storytelling is how Wordier Than Thou got its start in 2012.
Founder Tiffany Razzano felt that with plenty open mics for poets and musicians, fiction and creative nonfiction writers deserved an outlet too.
Part of her goal was to get rid of the capital “L” in literature and make it more accessible to everyone, whether for the authors sharing their stories or the people listening to them.
The literary haunted house grew out of a conversation Razzano had with friends years ago about presenting plays in each room of a house. Their first house wasn’t murder-themed, but the three subsequent houses were.
The houses have consistently been a success with the local community.
The Gulfport Murder House runs Oct. 26-27, with tours at 6, 7, 8 and 9 p.m. Advance tickets are $10 for each venue or $17 on the day of the show. Tickets can be purchased here.
