THERE ARE LARGE framed mirrors over the mantels of most fireplaces in the Old Consulate Inn.
But Sunday night, the mirrors will be covered, just in case uninvited guests don’t show up.
Literally.
The Victorian landmark overlooking Port Townsend Bay is the starting point of an evening of dramatis personae circling around the final performance of “Dracula” at Key City Playhouse.
A fundraiser for the public theater, the Halloween Eve package includes a pre-theater cocktail party at the Old Consulate Inn, the play, dessert at intermission and an invitation to the cast party after the performance.
There’s also a costume contest with prizes, but the guests will not be the only ones dressed to kill.
“I always wanted a haunted house,” said Nathan Barnett, “and now I’ve got it.”
Barnett and spouse Cindy Madsen are new owners of the inn, a three-story Victorian built in 1890.
With its corner tower, staircases rising to shadowy upper floors and a billiards room in the basement, it has enough Victorian ambiance for any vampire.
So when Key City decided to stage an adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel, which was published in 1897, Barnett knew he had to have something at the inn.
“It was perfect,” he said.
Volunteers from Key City arrived last week to add macabre touches inside and out.
On arriving Sunday evening, guests will pass under the covered arbor and onto the porch of the inn, guarded by a giant insect.
A note of caution: Don’t step too hard on the welcome mat, or you’ll wake whatever might be lurking near the entrance.
There is also the odd severed leg in the shrubbery, a Poe-etic raven in the entry hall, bats on the bannisters and an arm emerging from the piano.
A brick-red landmark on the hill above Sims Way, the Old Consulate Inn faces the lawn of the Jefferson County Courthouse, where the bell in the tower has tolled the fate of prisoners held in the basement, formerly the county lockup.
But the Old Consulate Inn has no ghosts, its owners said, just stories about the boarders.
One was August Duddenhausen, who was commissioned by the German government to act as the local consul, processing documents in his room at the inn.
Barnett, who is a writer, said he has dabbled in horror fiction and is writing a novel with a supernatural aspect.
He is also a musician — check out his collection of historic instruments in the entry hall — and is a dab hand with a sword.
That skill provided the link to Key City through Ben Rezendes, whom Barnett met at the farmers market this summer.
“He does historic fencing in ‘Macbeth.’ I do historic fencing,” Barnett said. “We talked, and he sent me Denise’s way.”
Denise Winters is the manager of Key City Public Theatre, which put on the Scottish play in Chetzemoka Park last summer.
For the lead in “Dracula,” Key City recruited David Natale, a professional actor from Seattle, then assembled a cast of Victorian characters.
Directed by Amanda Steurer, the production has received great reviews for hitting the right note — scary enough to sustain the tension, a twist or two to make you jump.
The inn will provide a suitable preamble to the play.
For sheer chills, however, the inn can’t match the scenario that Cindy Madsen and her sister cooked up when they were teens.
Cindy, a former winemaker and chef, grew up in a house at the end of a court in Los Altos, Calif.
One Halloween, she made a papier-mache cauldron with red cellophane flames, which when lighted by a flashlight looked real.
Her father supplied dry ice for smoke.
Dressed as a scary witch, Cindy stood over the smoking cauldron, beckoning the trick-or-treaters to approach and take a piece of candy from the pot.
“When they started slowly inching forward, my sister came around a corner,” she recalled. “She was dressed as a monster with a chain around her neck and tried to claw at them but was stopped by the chain.
“We had kids who would not come into our court for years.”
Barnett recalled the haunted house that he and his brother helped create on the top two floors of the Unitarian church in Kent, Ohio, where he grew up.
The church was in an old building, Barnett said, so it provided a suitable ambiance.
“Now I’ve got the real setting,” he said.
After the play, theater-goers will adjourn to the Alchemy Bistro and Wine Bar for the cast party.
The actors will be the judges for the costume party, awarding prizes for scariest costume, most artistic, funniest and best overall.
“Prizes include season tickets to Key City Playhouse and a night at the Old Consulate Inn,” said Cheryl Cashman, who provided the decorations and helped decorate the Old Consulate Inn with Abbie Greene.
Tickets for Sunday’s benefit, which starts with the cocktail party at 5:15 p.m., are $45 per person.
For more information, phone 360-385-7396 or visit www.keycitypublictheatre.org.
The cocktail party includes drinks and hors d’oeuvres. The cast party at Alchemy includes refreshments with a no-host bar.
Top off the evening by spending the night in one of the Old Consulate Inn guest rooms.
For information, visit www.oldconsulate.com/dracula.jsp.
And remember: When you’re getting ready for bed and can’t bring yourself to look in the mirror, it’s not a reflection on you.
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Jennifer Jackson writes about Port Townsend and Jefferson County every Wednesday. To contact her with items for this column, phone 360-379-5688 or email jjackson@olypen.com.
