By Bob Bartlett The heebie-jeebies hit me as soon as I turn off the highway and onto a countrified road. A few winding miles later, I see the sign for Evans City Cemetery on my left and drive up a hillside road, steeper than I’d imagined, that takes me through an array of roadside trees, one of them likely the progeny of the ordinary pine Barbra famously hits as she rolls her brother’s 1967 Pontiac LaMans away from the ghoul hobbling downhill in hopes of a fleshy meal. I was nine or so years old when my aunt let me stay up on a Saturday night to watch Creature Feature and George A. Romero’s horror classic, Night of the Living Dead. I made it through the opening scene — shot in Evans City Cemetery in rural Pennsylvania, from where I write this evening — just long enough to see Barbra escape her pursuer and find shelter in the farmhouse she would never leave — before I hid under my bed and didn’t sleep for weeks. So began my love of horror and pursuit of that feeling of pure terror, found only in horror storytelling, that I experienced as an impressionable and nervous child. Playwright and producer Bob Bartlett beside a monument in Evans City Cemetery, seen in 1968’s ‘Night of the Living Dead.’ This fall marks the third spooky season that I bring a new horror play to the nation’s capital, following Lýkos Ánthrōpos and Mary Shelley’s Monsters, which recently enjoyed long runs at DC’s historic Congressional Cemetery. My latest, The Living Dead, a radically reimagined survival tale set in the world of Night of the Living Dead, opens on October 8 and runs for a month in an empty storefront at Chevy Chase Pavilion, steps away from the Friendship Heights Metro Station’s escalators. I’ve long craved a telling of the film for the stage that resisted the film’s perceived camp, so I’ve written one: a two-hander featuring Ben and Barbra from Romero’s film. Audiences should not expect to come and see Night of the Living Dead on stage — or stage blood and faux cosplay zombies; instead, they’ll be immersed in low-tech claustrophobia and, frankly, darkness — as I continue to explore my obsession with the impact of fear on the body. Horror, as a genre, works best when wrestling with the anxieties of its era, and Night of the Living Dead is no exception, even if a twentysomething Romero stumbled into its allegory of American chaos of the late 1960s, just as he stumbled upon the casting of Ben with the remarkable Duane Jones, the first Black actor to lead an American horror or sci-fi film, which had been exclusively the domain of white actors through its black-and-white post-nuclear heyday. Romero came to appreciate the historic casting of (now horror icons!) Jones and Judith O’Dea, whose Barbra regrettably lacks agency, which I remedy in my play, as well as the film’s cultural risks, especially the racial dynamic of a young Black man and white woman fighting to survive a night of mayhem while trapped together in an isolated farmhouse. I am a writer inspired by geography, so a couple of weeks before I head into rehearsal with director Marvin Brown and actors Bru Aju (Ben) and Camille Pivetta (Barbra), I’ve hit the road to retrace the steps of Romero, his co-writer John Russo, Jones, and O’Dea, who spent six months north of Pittsburgh filming in a farmhouse and the Evan City Cemetery. While the farmhouse is long gone, the cemetery is very much still around and operating. And it’s big — and creepy. I wandered the grounds for nearly an hour, hoping my lifetime of viewing the film would lead me to the markers made famous in the film. I gave up — and a simple internet search led me to the Blair headstone, on which Barbra’s brother Johnny smashes his head, and the monument to Nicholas Kramer and family to which Barbra desperately clings after her brother’s attack by the undead. And, of course, I did some writing in the cemetery — at dawn, dusk, and night — some of which may find its way into our production script. TOP LEFT AND ABOVE: The Evans City Cemetery in Evans City, Pennsylvania, where ‘Night of the Living Dead’ was filmed. TOP RIGHT: Still from ‘Night of the Living Dead’ showing Barbra at the same monument. (Color photos by Bob Bartlett.) Horror fans are enjoying a decade-long run of impressive film work from Jordan Peele, Ari Aster, and Ryan Coogler, among so many others. The same cannot be said of horror created for the stage, although Paranormal Activity has just premiered on Broadway after a run here at Shakespeare Theatre Company.  We’d never seen anything in American cinemas like 1968’s Night of the Living Dead, from its grim cinematic realism, unflinching view of the era, and cannibalism. My play The Living Dead more explicitly explores the turbulent period that birthed Romero’s film and our enduring fascination with the undead, as it immerses audiences in the terror of the zombie apocalypse, which has inspired horror creatives and fans for nearly 60 years. We want audiences who experience The Living Dead to have a scary, fun time — to think a bit about the importance and politics of the film — and wonder why we don’t have more horror on our stages. I hope you can join us this Halloween season. PS: If you’re afraid of the dark, this is the perfect evening of theater for you. Bring a date. Come in costume. The Living Dead plays from October 8 to November 8, 2026 (Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30 PM and Saturdays and Sundays at 2:30 PM), at the shops at Chevy Chase Pavilion, 5335 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, Washington, DC ​— steps from the Friendship Heights Metro Station. Tickets ($40 including fees) can be purchased online.  Running Time: 85 minutes. Some content may not be appropriate for children. Bartlett’s premiere of The Living Dead benefits from the support of Friendship Heights Alliance, which provides creative and cultural activations in Friendship Heights and has helped bring a variety of pop-ups, galleries, and cultural attractions to the neighborhood, including several programs at Chevy Chase Pavilion in partnership with owner Clarion Partners. ABOUT FRIENDSHIP HEIGHTS ALLIANCEThe Friendship Heights Alliance is a place-focused nonprofit working to support a more vibrant, dynamic, and inclusive future for Friendship Heights. The organization coordinates community building, public-space initiatives, neighborhood promotion, and partnerships among property owners, businesses, and residents throughout the Wisconsin Avenue commercial corridor. Since its founding in 2021, the Alliance has helped bring a range of pop-ups, arts programming, and cultural experiences to Friendship Heights. Learn more at friendshipheights.com or follow @FriendshipHeightsAlliance.  ABOUT BOB BARTLETTBob Bartlett is a playwright, dramaturg, and director known for producing site-specific work in unique locations throughout the Washington region and around the country. His recent plays include Mary Shelley’s Monsters, Lýkos Ánthrōpos, The Accident Bear, and Love and Vinyl. A three-time O’Neill finalist, Bartlett is an affiliated artist with the National New Play Network, artist-in-residence at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, and a member of The Dramatists Guild of America. He earned an MFA in Playwriting from Catholic University of America.  ...read more read less