‘ESCAPE’ ARTISTS
Mini-golf creators add mini-escape rooms
Puzzled: A player marks a high-tech magic circle while trying to solve the haunted house
mini-escape room. Photo by Stefano Giovannini
COURIER L 44 IFE, DEC. 14-20, 2018 24-7
The best reads
— handpicked by
some of the best
Bklyn bookstores
Greenlight Bookstore’s pick:
“Everyday Dorie,” by Dorie Greenspan
I really like Dorie
Dorie
ookjust
Greenspan’s cookbooks
— and not just
usucus
because there is usually
a strong focus
art
h
rt
-
on the dessert part
of the meal, though
that does not hurt
her cause! Her latest
effort, subtitled
“The Way I Cook,”
does not stint on
tasty chocolatey
treats, but it also
deals elegantly with
th
the other courses. And she balances
the just right amount of storytelling with excellent
instructions. “Everyday Dorie” is a dream compendium of
meal ideas that are both sophisticated (in taste) and straightforward
(in execution).
— Alexis Akre, Greenlight Bookstore 686 Fulton St.
between S. Elliott Place and S. Portland Avenue in Fort
Greene, (718) 246–0200, www.greenlightbookstore.com .
Word’s picks: “The Corrections,”
by Jonathan Franzen
It is easy to forget this,
but “The Corrections” is —
among many other things — a
Christmas story. Harrowing
ing
and deeply astringent, it nonetheless
necof
captures, with piercing
accuracy, the feeling of
y
e
returning from the big city
to a small hometown for the
holidays.
— Mike Lindgren, Word
126 Franklin St. at Milton
Street in Greenpoint, (718)
383–0096, www.wordbookstores.
com .
Community Bookstore’s pick:
“Tell Them of Battles, Kings, and
Elephants,” by Mathias Enard
Enard’s latest novel is a
dreamlike evocation of 16thrical
16thcentury
Turkey. A historical
fiction that is full of strange
ange
inventions, it follows the
artist Michelangelo as he is
lured away from Rome and
nd
the Pope to Constantinople.e.
While designing a bridge
e
for the Sultan Bayezid,,
Michelangelo whiles away
his hours in an uncanny
reverie — a state you
will also find yourself
in while reading this
charming novel.
— Samuel Partal,, Community
Community
Bookstore 43 Seventh Ave. between Carroll Street and
Garfield Place in Park Slope, (718) 783–3075, www.commu -
nityb ookst ore.net .
By Julianne Cuba Take a mini-escape!
The owners of a piratethemed
miniature golf course
in Red Hook have launched a new
adventure: a trio of tiny escape rooms.
Each of the three chambers — decorated
as a space station, a haunted
house, and an abandoned ancient
temple — holds five people at a time,
and visitors have just 25 minutes to
get out. The shrunken version of the
popular game rooms, which typically
give groups of up to 12 people an hour
to solve a series of puzzles, lets people
try the escape room experience without
making a big commitment, said
the owner of Shipwrecked.
“It’s for people who have never
done it before to kind of dip their
toe in,” said Ryan Powers, who lives
in Greenwood Heights. “It’s much
easier to go in and get a taste for
it — you don’t have to commit to an
hour-long experience or being with a
bunch of strangers.”
And if the 25-minute sample gets
you hooked, the other two escape
rooms are waiting right there, said
Powers.
“If you like doing the first one, you
can hop in and do other the other two
if you want,” he said.
Powers and his co-owner, who
both have a background building
Broadway sets, built elaborate
lagoons, islands, and an 18th-century
town for the mini-golf portion of
Shipwrecked, but they chose to ditch
the pirate theme for the ’wreck rooms,
in order to provide some relief from
the nautical immersion.
“It’s for people who come here
who don’t like pirate-themed things,
and want something to do as well,”
said Powers.
Creating the abandoned temple
room gave Powers an excuse to
include an Indiana Jones skeleton,
he said, and adding a spooky — but
not gory — haunted house area was
a no-brainer.
“We definitely want a haunted
one; come Halloween that is going
to be super popular. Our haunted is
more fun-haunted than gory-haunted,”
he said.
The miniature escape rooms
involve some special effects and theatrical
lighting to really challenge
visitors, said Powers.
“There’s a lot of technology
involved, rather than just a lock and
key — we like technology,” he said.
For now, the three mini-escape
rooms are only open Friday through
Sunday, but eventually will be open
six days as week, the same as the rest
of the mini-golf course, said Powers.
He advises making a reservation in
advance, with at least one other participant.
Escape Deck at Shipwrecked
621 Court St. at Bay Street in Red
Hook, (718) 852–4653, www.shipwreckednyc.
com. Fri, 3 pm–midnight;
Sat, 11 am–midnight; Sun, 11
am–10 pm. $19 per person ($85 for
five people).
By Bill Roundy What the Dickens?
The classic Charles
Dickens story of the miser
Scrooge, Tiny Tim, and the Ghosts of
Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to
Come is cropping up all over the borough
of churches this weekend!
First up is a stage adaptation of “A
Christmas Carol” from the Heights
Players. This musical version is performed
in modern dress, and with
puppets stepping in to portray the spirits.
You can catch it on Friday night at
8 pm at the John Bourne Theater
(26 Willow Pl., between Joralemon
and State streets in Brooklyn Heights,
www.heightsplayers.org), with more
shows Saturday at 8 pm and Sunday
at 2 pm. Tickets are $20.
On Saturday, the show becomes
a feast for the ears at “A Radio
Christmas Carol,” starting at 2 pm
at the Brooklyn Public Library’s
Brooklyn Heights branch (109
Remsen St. at Henry Street in Brooklyn
Heights, www.brooklynpubliclibrary.
org). Theater 20/20 adapts the story
into a free one-hour radio play, with
actors speaking lines and foley artists
providing the sound of clinking
chains and moaning ghosts.
Leave the kids at home on Sunday,
when you head to the mimosa matinee
from Drunk Restoration Comedy,
which turns Dickens into a daydrinking
game. Inebriated performers
will read an extremely-abridged
version of “A Christmas Carol,” while
the audience — and the actors —
drink at certain cues. You can get
boozy with Scrooge for $10 ($8 in
advance) and the show starts at 2:30
pm at Littlefield (635 Sackett St.
between Third and Fourth avenues
in Gowanus, www.littlefieldnyc.com).
Drinks will cost extra.
Then zip across town to Bushwick,
for a screening of “The Muppet
Christmas Carol,” starring Michael
Caine as Ebenezer Scrooge, Kermit
the Frog as Bob Cratchit, and appearance
from Fozzy Bear, Miss Piggy,
and Sam the Eagle in supporting
roles. The charming film starts at
6:15 pm at the combination bar and
theater Syndicated (40 Bogart St.
between Thames and Grattan streets
in Bushwick, www.syndicatedbk.
com), so you can keep your buzz
going. Tickets will cost you $7.
Here we go a-‘Carol’-ing
Ghost buster: Stephen DeFluiter plays
Ebenezer Scrooge in the Heights Players’
production of “A Christmas Carol,” playing
on Dec. 14, 15, and 16. Pam Wagner
/www.ship-wreckednyc.com
/www.word-bookstores.com
/www.word-bookstores.com
/www.word-bookstores.com
/www.commu
/www.ship-wreckednyc.com
/www.greenlightbookstore.com
/www.ship-wreckednyc.com
/www.heightsplayers.org
/www.brooklynpubliclibrary
/www.littlefieldnyc.com
/www.syndicatedbk