By Barrett White
It was 1988 and the AIDS crisis had not yet peaked. The future was uncertain and frankly, terrifying. While some might freeze when faced with such unimaginable adversity, others organize. Houston owes it to the minds of those like Tori Williams, who, in 1988, helped conceptualize Halloween Magic. What began as a dinner party in the late 1980s would grow into a large theatrical production in the early 1990s—an endeavor that has since raised over $1 million toward fighting HIV/AIDS in Houston’s LGBTQ community.
“I gather a group of people together to help start organizations like [Halloween Magic]. My strength, my skill is developing a really good team. My own talents are—whatever, but I know people who are very talented, and my talent is to get them together,” says the ever-modest Williams.
The event has been incredibly popular over the years, bringing satire and unabashed nonpartisan political humor to Montrose, Houston’s gayborhood. The themes have ranged from A Streetcar Named Montrose to How to Succeed in Montrose without Really Trying, using celebrated Broadway musicals as inspiration for their queered hijinks.
Halloween Magic director Ann James. Photo courtesy Halloween Magic.
At the helm of this year’s production, the cleverly named Kinky Re-Boots/Making America Kinky Again, is a star in her own right—theatre veteran Ann James. An international force, James has staged over 100 productions while wearing various directorial hats in Amsterdam, Shanghai, Dallas, and Houston. With a personality that beams as bright as her smile, she relishes in the opportunity to bring Magic’s living text to life. To her, fundraising isn’t glitz, glam, and a night on the town—it’s deeply personal to her identity as a staunch LGBTQ ally. “When the AIDS epidemic hit, we lost 14 people in our drama department alone within about 18 months,” recalls James, who was a student at Sam Houston State University at the time. “I remember it in crystal clear definition, what that did to my community.”
While pursuing her theatrical dreams, she would spend her downtime as a massage therapist for AIDS patients. “I never, ever had the inkling to listen to the stigma that was attached to this disease,” she says. At only 19, an advocate for change was born.
Halloween Magic, born of necessity in Houston’s own backyard, ran through the ‘90s before taking a hiatus. In 2016, however, the Halloween show was brought back from the grave as a biennial production. Gary Rod, Halloween Magic co-writer offers, “All in the Family, Good Times, The Jeffersons, and Maude are all being considered for television re-boots this year. Everything old is new again, right? So in crafting this year’s script for Halloween Magic, we decided to capitalize on old favorites rumored to be re-booted, focusing specifically on Designing Women, Roseanne, and Golden Girls.”
“The show opens on Halloween night at the White House,” Rod says of Halloween Magic’s opening scene. “It’s a costume party! While a terrible storm is raging outside, inside, Melania’s medical absence makes way for Ivana to come in and take over hosting for the evening. The guests, Designing Women and the Golden Girls to name a few, prove to be a mixed bag of ‘nuts’ causing hilarious confrontations with The Real Housewives of the White House: Melania, Ivana, and Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Clearly, everywhere you turn, the situation is continuously fraught with confrontation.”
“The songs are very creative and wonderful, very poignant, and directly related to our relationship with the White House,” James says. “People are going to have a lot of fun. They’re going to recognize a lot of the characters on the stage—it is a bipartisan production,” she adds with a grim laugh.
Halloween Magic would not be what it is without “spicy Cuban spitfire” Venezuela Maria Concepcion de Los Angeles Valdez Vallejo Gonzalez. With a wig teased to the heavens, a colorfully beat face, and the fashion of John Leguizamo’s Gladys, she is brilliantly brought to life by Gilbert Joseph Perez.
True to its roots, this year’s Halloween Magic show will benefit some of Houston’s top HIV/AIDS service organizations, including Lazarus House, Legacy Community Health, The Montrose Center, Omega House, The Oral History Project, Pet Patrol, and Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church.
Kinky Re-Boots/Making America Kinky Again, the newest Halloween Magic satire, will have its world premiere on Saturday, October 20 at 7:30 p.m. at Resurrection Metropolitan Community Church (2025 West 11th Street). An encore performance will be held on Sunday, October 21 at 4 p.m. To purchase a table, call 713-256-3880. To purchase individual tickets, visit www.halloweenmagic.org.
