Mourning Doll Playhouse's topics - tribe.net

Stay tuned my darlings...

LuuLuu — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:22:38 GMT

...there is much dark mayhem on the horizon...

Longingly,

Arabella

posted in Mourning Doll Playhouse - 1 reply

Nox Raqs rocked!

Kalila — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 15:04:22 GMT

Thank you lovelies for putting together yet another successful show. It was fabulous, as always!

posted in Mourning Doll Playhouse - 13 replies

Pixie is Sold Out!!!

LuuLuu — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 02:57:47 GMT

Pixie has let us know that she is completely booked for her Minneapolis stay, and she is thrilled with the amazing response you have all given her!

Thanks so much, we are so looking forward to her arrival!

--Arabella and Tansy,
Mourning Doll Playhouse

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Hello :-)

Nerissa — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 13:06:24 GMT

Just wanted to send Greetings from Yorkshire

Nicky x

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So Very Childlike, Really

Tansy Undercrypt — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 00:58:28 GMT

From an interview with Herrick Grimmer, Head Butler to the Redde-Chapel sisters:

"The ladies are delightful. Oh, some call them strange and keep their distance, but walk out one's door and try to avoid the brutish and intellectually tepid ... it is simply impossible.

For Mrs. Undercrypt's birthday, Mrs. Dreadpenny insisted on making the cake herself. It was unheard of! Madam in the common kitchen in her dress blacks wearing the cook's unpressed apron! (He shakes his head.)

It was a red velvet cake ... frosted to look like an animal ... grey ... an armadillo, I believe it was. No candles or bows of icing. Mrs. Dreadpenny, presenting the creation, pulled a small cleaver out of her pocket and chopped the thing off at the neck - exposing the red cake beneath.

Mrs. Undercrypt squealed with happiness and they both erupted into endless peals of laughter. They're so very childlike, really. In the light ... (his voice trails off) ... their eyes ... (barely a whisper) ... the same yellow ..."

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The Best Laid Plans of the Living and the Dead ...

Tansy Undercrypt — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 19:07:55 GMT

... can come to naught, or so it would seem. Regrettably, Arabella and I have made the decision to CANCEL our "Raqs NOX: Beyond the Pale" gothla in October - not for any lack of interest or tremendous talent (because we had dark oodles of each), but because of venue problems. Although we feel that all of our dancers would rise to the occasion of "winging it" for the gothic cause, we firmly believe that it honors the art form to provide performers with ample time to prepare ... and an appropriate (or even delightful) venue.

Suffice it to say, we are getting down to The Wire here and have bad luck at every turn. Best, we think, to pull the plug and put our energies into some future stroke of midnight ... a February show we're currently calling "Raqs NOX: My Zombie Valentine". More on that from dear Mrs. Dreadpenny later on, as she will be coordinating and directing the show.

Thank you for your support and enthusiasm around "Beyond the Pale"; our apologies for the cancellation, but our hopes remain high that we will all meet again under the lights in the very near future.

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Dangerous Sweets

Tansy Undercrypt — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 00:21:04 GMT

Torn portion of a list left at Grandhall's Confectionary by Mrs. Arabella Dreadpenny:

Molasses
Bitters
Candied mint leaf

... (a dark smudge obscures the text) ... dipped and thickly covered, mandrake (again, the text is unreadable) ... like butterscotch ...

posted in Mourning Doll Playhouse - 3 replies

mourningdollplayhouse.com is Up and Running

Tansy Undercrypt — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 11:20:48 GMT

It was our intention to launch it by 9/1, but even the best laid plans succumb to Life In General. *nods* And so we have managed to launch the thing on 10/1. All is well. If you are not a frequent Tribe shopper, you may wish to consider bookmarking the site for updates. Everything posted there will be mirrored here and on MySpace. Ah, the tech, the glory, the sheer hell! *laughs* I complain, but I love it, of course - madly and completely.

Be well, dears.

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An Update on: Raqs NOX

Tansy Undercrypt — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 14:39:24 GMT

Dears, our dark and delicious scheming continues, but we have had significant difficulties in finding a pleasant (but not perky) location for the gothla. When the NW Casket Company would not return my calls, it set me on edge for several days (yes, there is such a place and, yes, I really did contact them). Recent brainstorming has resulted in a new and tempting possible opportunity, so that is being pursued.

Please continue to exercise patience in our regard; the hope is that we'll be able to announce firm particulars this week.

*gazes lazily into the clouded crystal ball*

posted in Mourning Doll Playhouse - 1 reply

Gothic Book Club

Tansy Undercrypt — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 15:25:31 GMT

Surely, there can be no greater use of one's idle time than pursuing thrills and chills of a literary nature - hauntings, harrowings, things that go so much more than "bump" in the night.

Announcing the formation of a Gothic Book Club: not for the faint of heart nor the delicate of constitution. Open to any and all who prize books that make the pulse race and make you breathless rather than bored. There is no shame in being a lover of horror writing, so let us bring it out of the shadows ... might as well rob ourselves of sleep in good company.

This is a low cost, low commitment book club. All titles selected will be available through the public library system (so no purchases are required), and we'll meet every two months. Our first Gothic Book Club meeting will take place in October, as is fitting for this sort of thing. We may meet in houses but, more commonly, coffee shops or tea rooms (so as not to inconvenience or disrupt our so-called normal lives).

Interested parties should post here on Tribe or send me a private message. *starts up the dark and tiny stairs to the attic*

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Pixie is coming...

LuuLuu — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 04:12:02 GMT

We of Morning Doll Playhouse are thrilled to have the amazing Pixie of Pixie Vision Productions here February 17th and 18th as our guest. Please see the event listings for details...it will be a glorious time for the sisters, and we invite you to join us.

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RAQS NOX: Beyond the Pale (A Gothla)

Tansy Undercrypt — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 02:12:04 GMT

"RAQS NOX: Beyond the Pale" begins our gothla series in earnest. Date: dangerously close to Halloween (soon); location: some place tremendous. Full details soon to be disclosed.

If you are interested in performing, please contact me or Nicole through Tribe, MySpace, or directly at: tansy@mourningdollplayhouse.com or arabella@mourningdollplayhouse.com.

Come to the dark side, my dears; we have cookies.

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Our Story Begins

Tansy Undercrypt — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 19:56:52 GMT

From the society pages of The Hallowyck Chronicle:

So it would seem that the house on Mourning Point is no longer abandoned – with the rumored return of Mrs. Tansy Undercrypt and Mrs. Arabella Dreadpenny, the former Redde-Chapel sisters, late last week after a number of years abroad. Personal calls to the house by day went unanswered, but many in Hallowyck report seeing lamps lit at the mansion after dark and the occasional strain of music and faint laughter drifting downhill toward the town. Calling cards left in welcome at the address have received very formal and gracious notes of thanks from Mrs. Undercrypt, written with care on exquisite French vellum.

Mourning Point House – frequently called Mourning Playhouse because of its ornate, fanciful architecture reminiscent of a doll's house – was the scene of a grisly tragedy for the sisters as children. Their father, the well-known Dr. Dorian Redde-Chapel, fell into a prolonged fit of hysteria brought about by a mysterious brain fever. Mad with hallucinations, Dr. Redde-Chapel savagely murdered his wife, Eugenia, and his two young sons, Halsom and Theodor, with a kindling axe from the fireplace. Alerted by neighbors who heard the screams of Eugenia, the police apprehended the raving doctor before his daughters met the same horrible end. Dorian Redde-Chapel was heard to shout something about his girls "lurking in the shadows" and "disappearing into the walls" as they led him away. Shortly after his incarceration, Dr. Redde-Chapel hung himself with one of his calf garters in his cell.

Tansy and Arabella were given to the care of their maternal aunt, the late Mrs. Beatrice Perroult of Halifax.

Tragedy would touch the girls again in their married lives.

Tansy Redde-Chapel married noted composer and occult historian Mortimer Undercrypt of Darkenning Lodge at the age of eighteen. After thirteen blissful years of traveling at the side of her husband and assisting him in his vast research projects, Mr. Undercrypt vanished. Although the most recent rumors claim that Undercrypt has been spotted emerging from a hermitage in the forests of Romania, local magistrates maintain that Mortimer Undercrypt met some foul but inconclusive end nearly nine years ago and have awarded his wife a substantial widow's pension from his holdings.

Arabella Redde-Chapel married Lord Duxon Dreadpenny of South Isle at the age of nineteen and settled in to the task of running his palatial estate at Greymere. As his second wife, Arabella did not receive the title of "Lady Dreadpenny", but accepted the more conventional "Mrs. Dreadpenny". After fifteen happy years of country life, Lord Dreadpenny did not return from his afternoon constitutional on a dreary day in March. Grey Lake was dredged, but no body was ever recovered from its depths or the surrounding forest. Much like the situation of her sister, Lord Duxon's disappearance was eventually deemed an unsolved homicide and Arabella inherited both his lands and his full assets.

Let us hope that the return of the Redde-Chapel sisters to Hallowyck is a happy one; with such losses behind them, surely the future of Mourning Playhouse will be as bright as the sun.

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