Creepy Theater Under the Night Sky

Watch plays with a creepy bent in and near an Altadena mausoleum

Without a doubt, Los Angeles is a city that is pretty darn comfortable with the Great Beyond.

Which is funny, given our famous rep for being youth-focused and torn up over another day passing (meaning another day of growing older). There may be some truth to that, but we're also a place that regularly ventures into our cemeteries and haunted buildings for arts and cultural events -- all without so much as an "eek."

We do, in fact, like being among graves, it turns out. LA, youth-obsessed? Au contraire, world. Judge us not.

Wicked Lit is a prime example. The annual presentation of eerie vignettes involving glowering baddies and pointed teeth does not happen in a traditional theater setting, but rather at the Mountain View Mausoleum & Cemetery in Altadena. And we do mean in the cemetery; all plays are presented under the moon and stars.

You want atmosphere? This is atmosphere.

So popular has Wicked Lit become that they now regularly need to add more nights -- which they've just done. The series will run through Saturday, Nov. 10.

There are also three new adaptations on the table -- or, er, the lawn: M.R. James' "Count Magnus," F. Marion Crawford's "The Dead Smile," and Johann Ludwig Tieck's "Wake Not the Dead." They're all world premieres, and they've all been adapted by Unbound Productions Co-Artistic Directors Jonathan Josephson, Paul Millet, and Jeff G. Rack. (Unbound being the company behind Wicked Lit.)

Tickets range from $45-$55. Oh, and do we need to say it? Wear shoes that won't be wicked to your feet. You'll be walking outdoors at night, and sometimes within the mausoleums themselves, so think sensible, not scary.

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