Searching for Peabody's Tomb a family Halloween adventure

There's a really cool Halloween activity starting next week which combines two of my favorite local organization: First Folio Theatre and Mayslake Peabody Estate.

The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County and First Folio Theatre invite performance fans, ghost seekers and history buffs to "Searching for Peabody's Tomb," an original interactive Halloween experience at Mayslake Peabody Estate in Oak Brook running Oct. 16 - 31 Wednesdays - Sundays.

If you haven't been to the Mayslake Peabody Estate, this is a perfect time to visit. Last year we saw First Folio Theatre's extraordinary production "The Madness of Edgar Allan Poe." The estate was as much an actor in the production as the people. It can be beautiful and creepy all at once.

Participants will follow the mansion's ghostly butler through historic Mayslake Hall in search of the spirit of F.S. Peabody, the coal millionaire who built the mansion in 1921. They may encounter spirits of Mr. Peabody's family, the mansion staff and the Franciscan monks who inhabited the estate for six decades. The show is not a typical haunted house but rather an eerie homage the history of Mayslake and the ghostly rumors that have attracted late-night thrill seekers for decades.

Tickets are $10 each and can be purchased online at firstfolio.org or by phone at 630-986-8067. Showtimes will begin every half hour from 7 to 10 p.m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays and from 7 to 10:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. Mayslake Peabody Estate is located at 1717 W. 31st St., 0.25 mile west of Route 83.