Published Friday, October 25, 2002
few furry friends
By Sherris Moreira-Byers
Herald Staff Writer
A visit to see some ghouls and ghosts in a haunted theater will also help support 4-legged beasties and their veterinary care.
The Andover Haunted Theater, which can be found in the town square, will have visitors "tripping the light grotesquely" as they try to escape crocodiles, skeletons and man-eating pigs in the former movie house.
The 1916 building is owned by Lynn Niemi, also of Andover, and the ghostly project is how she supports feline friends in her Kitten Care and Rescue Center.
"The (rescue) project is very expensive -- paying for vet bills and the spays and neuters I do for other people," said Ms. Niemi, who also owns a piano business and teaches piano and percussion lessons. "The funds from the haunted theater goes back into the center."
Ms. Niemi has made the theater a haunted haven for the past five years.
"We describe it as 'The Sounds and Smells of Horror' because (the building) just smells old and spooky," she said.
With 15 to 20 volunteer actors, she has created such scenes of horror as "The Revenge of the Rain Forest," which is replete with alligators, snakes, gorillas and wild monkeys; "Ghost Piano in a Ghost Town," which re-creates a deadly saloon scene; and the "Bram Bones Library" for some creepy late-night reading.
"I also have 'The Return of the Deadman's Band,' which is
See SCREAM, page B-3