Inside the Audition for a Haunted House Scare Actor: CLE Daily

🌤️ 58°; Cooler with clouds and sun

👻 A Halloween Eve Ghost Story From Athens County: In the 1850s, farmer Jonathan Koons built a log-cabin "Spirit Room" where visitors believed the dead played drums, guitars and accordions. Ohio Magazine looks back at Ohio's seance craze, which also helped lead to the Ouija board and, by way of a Cincinnati medium's son, the Magic 8-Ball. 

🎧 Put On Your Costume for a K-Pop Dance Party at the CMA: MIX: K-Pop Inferno takes over the Ames Family Atrium Friday, Nov. 6, from 6 to 10 p.m., with DJs Moobek and Hwarang and costumes encouraged, especially angels, demons and ghosts. Admission includes the exhibitions Ten Kings of Hell: The Afterlife in Medieval Korea and Spectacular Freedom: Andrew Wyeth and the Modern American Watercolor. 

🍳 Edwins Opens a Path Into Restaurant Jobs for Young People: In response to recent shootings in the city, founder Brandon Chrostowski announced a four-week culinary training and mentorship program Thursday for ages 14 and older, starting Monday, Nov. 9. It pairs hands-on cooking with job-readiness training, mentorship, grief counseling and conflict resolution, and Dante, Crispy Chic, The Club Room at Fidelity Hotel, Edison's Pizza and Geraci's have committed to hire graduates. Apply in person at the Edwins restaurant in Cleveland Heights or the Butcher Shop, 13024 Buckeye Road.

🏆 Cleveland Honors Its Artists for the 66th Year: The 2026 Cleveland Arts Prize went to playwright Chris Webb (emerging), papermaker Aimee Lee (mid-career) and collage artist Dexter Lee Davis (lifetime achievement), each receiving $10,000 at a Thursday ceremony at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Lee built North America's first hanji studio in Cleveland. 

ICYMI: Remember our look at Cleveland's local haunts? Cleveland Ghosts author Charles Cassady said mediums and tourists consider Playhouse Square the most haunted place in town, with so many spirits that ghostbuster Mary Ann Winkowski reportedly couldn't clear them out. 

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Today's Trivia

This peninsula on Cleveland’s near West Side got its name from a distillery built there in the 1830s.

Things To Do: Becoming a scare actor at Canton’s Factory of Terror takes more than a good scream.

By Lydia Koszegi

About 100 actors jump out of the dark at the Factory of Terror, one of the largest indoor haunted houses in the country, and getting hired is a months-long process. Cast manager Jenn Frank says about 75% of last season’s actors come back, and “it becomes like a family.”

• The Audition: Hiring starts in the summer with a background check and a first interview. Applicants then play improv games in front of four house managers, which Frank says is meant to gauge comfort with dialogue, not acting skill. After a second interview, each manager picks actors for a themed attraction, such as strong talkers for Massacre on Mahoning or creepy movers for The Forsaken Asylum of Dr Morbidius.

• The Workday: Training starts about six weeks before opening with improv and acting classes, and new actors tour the attractions while veterans try to scare them. On Fridays and Saturdays, actors check in at 3 p.m., get costumes and sit for 10 to 20 minutes of airbrushed, alcohol-based makeup.

Worth Noting: The Canton haunt also has five themed bars and a dance club. 

Read the full story.

Talk of the Town

The Maltz Museum is free all November. Admission is free Nov. 1 through Nov. 30 to Boris Lurie: Nothing To Do But To Try, more than 200 works by the Holocaust survivor and artist, most not shown publicly until after his 2008 death. The exhibition runs through Jan. 27, 2027, at 2929 Richmond Road in Beachwood, and reservations are open online. 

Cuyahoga County has lost nearly 9% of its SNAP enrollment in a year. Enrollment fell to just under 176,000 from more than 193,000 in August and September 2025, and the county's Job and Family Services director called the impact of federal changes, including new work requirements, "profound". Younger adults and families have been hit hardest.

Cleveland got more than 5,000 illegal dumping reports in the past year, but citations are down nearly 50% over six years. A proposal in a council committee would let waste collectors and Public Works employees issue civil citations, lower fines from $100 to $25 per item and put cameras in dumping hot spots.  

Federal monitors say Cleveland police discipline is mostly working. Of 176 cases decided in 2025, 92.8% followed the city's disciplinary guidelines, but leaders didn't adequately explain their reasoning when dismissing a charge in 18.8% of cases. The monitors also flagged that dispatchers got harsher punishments than sworn officers.

Crocker Park is getting commercial condos. L7 Group broke ground Oct. 27 on Westlake Elevated, the first of four planned buildings, with nine units from 1,000 to 13,000 square feet at 28820 Ranney Parkway. Pre-sales to qualified buyers start in December, and the first phase is due in spring or summer 2027.

Development: Case Western Reserve’s $300 million science building is almost ready for its first researchers.

By Ken Prendergast, NEOTrans

The Roger E. Susi Interdisciplinary Research Building in University Circle is nearly finished, and about 300 faculty, students and researchers start moving in this December. The 189,000-square-foot building at 10900 Euclid Ave. is named for a 1977 Case Western Reserve University graduate who gave $50 million toward it.

• The Building: It’s three stories from the university commons side and five from the Martin Luther King Jr. Drive side, with wet, dry and core labs, bird-safe exterior glass and interior glass meant to get researchers talking to each other. Construction began in early 2024 after Yost Hall was demolished, and the Minnesota firm HGA designed it.

• The Research: Seven clusters share the space, including neurotechnology, neurorobotics, molecular therapeutics, advanced materials and manufacturing, and climate and ecosystem science.

Worth Noting: Donors gave $165 million in all, including $15 million from the Kelvin & Eleanor Smith Foundation last month, and the university’s century bond program matched the rest. Susi founded Iradimed, maker of an MRI infusion pump. The building is part of CWRU’s $2.5 billion Breakthrough Point campaign, the largest in its 200-year history.

Read the full story.

Things to Do: Looking for more fun this weekend?

🎸 BEAT: Belew/Vai/Levin/Bozzio Performing the Music of King Crimson (Friday): Guitarists Adrian Belew and Steve Vai, bassist Tony Levin and drummer Terry Bozzio play songs from King Crimson's Discipline, Beat and Three of a Perfect Pair albums. 8 p.m. (doors at 7 p.m.), Agora, 5000 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, agoracleveland.com

🎬 Claudio Simonetti's GOBLIN: The Ultimate Anthology Live (Friday): The Goblin composer marks the anniversary of the horror film Tenebre with a live score performed during a screening, then plays more Goblin favorites after a short intermission. 8 p.m., Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque, 11610 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, cia.edu

🎤 Spooky Jukey: Halloween Emo Night (Friday): Number 12 Looks Like You, Differences and Memory Lane play this Halloween party, which also includes a costume contest. 6 p.m., Mahall's 20 Lanes, 13200 Madison Ave., Lakewood, mahalls20lanes.com

🎻 Mahler's Fifth Symphony (Friday-Sunday): Petr Popelka conducts The Cleveland Orchestra in Mahler's Fifth. 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday, Severance Music Center, 11001 Euclid Ave., Cleveland, clevelandorchestra.com 

🧛 Addams Family Dinner Show (Saturday and Sunday): The Noble Theater Alliance serves up a spooky dinner show, with more performances Nov. 13-15. 6 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday, The Lodge at Geneva-on-the-Lake, 4888 North Broadway, Geneva-on-the-Lake, nobleartentertainment.com

See our full Things to Do This Halloween Weekend in Cleveland: Oct. 29-Nov. 1.

Yesterday's Trivia Answer 

This disc jockey, buried in Lake View Cemetery, worked in Akron and Youngstown before coming to Cleveland, where he’s known for popularizing the term “rock ‘n’ roll” and hosting the first rock concert at the old Cleveland Arena. Alan Freed

Check back Monday for the answer to today's question.

From the Editor

Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. Sunday, handing everyone one bonus hour.

Sleeping through it is a fine plan, but it’s also the only hour all year that comes with no obligations attached. Take a longer walk, linger over a second cup of coffee or finally call the friend you keep meaning to call. 

The trade-off is darker evenings, so soak up the daylight while it lasts. Set your clocks back before bed on Saturday, and spend the extra time well.

— Ron Ledgard, Managing Editor

Let us know what is on your mind at conversation@clevelandmagazine.com.

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