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Chop’s Diner an interactive dinner theater experience

Chop the chef (center) and waitress Flo (left) interact with guests at a performance of The Haunt in 2024. The characters will return to Chop’s Diner this weekend for an interactive dinner theater experience at the Metrowest YMCA Outdoor Center. FILE PHOTO/JOHN CARDILLO

The Metrowest YMCA is bringing back a fan-favorite scene from its annual performance series The Haunt to create an interactive, horror-themed dinner theater experience that begins this coming weekend.

Chop’s Diner, which will take place at the Y’s Outdoor Center in Hopkinton, will bring guests into a haunted, 1950s-themed eatery that is hosting a 50th reunion for Deadwoodville High School. The 90-minute dining experience features a three-course meal and a production that Bartt Pinchuck, executive director of the Outdoor Center, called “very interactive.”

According to Pinchuck, the Y’s nutrition department will be cooking and serving a southern comfort food menu. He said that as dinner is being served, performers will be moving around and interacting with guests as other set pieces are happening. There will be two seatings a night on the last two weekends of October. The first night of shows is Friday. All proceeds from tickets benefit the Metrowest YMCA.

“It goes to help support our annual campaign, which provides financial assistance to the community for our programs and services,” said Pinchuck. The funds support things like camp scholarships, memberships, the Nourishing Nook at the Y’s Framingham campus and its LIVESTRONG program, he noted.

Unlike past years, this theatrical experience will not be run in partnership with the Hopkinton Center for the Arts. Pinchuck said the inspiration for the production, which relies on the work of 30 volunteers, came from the reception in past years to the Chop’s Diner portion of The Haunt.

“This is very much centered on improv and interaction,” he explained. “[The diner] was the standout scene for that in years past.”

Pinchuck praised the skills of the actors in the scene, including the ones who play the main characters: waitress Flo and Chop the chef. “Their ability to improv and interact with the guests is what led us to choosing this scene,” he said.

The executive director added that the performance will take place inside a heated pavilion and seating is limited to 70 per show. He also advised that the performance is intended for guests ages 12 and up.

— NICK SCHOFIELD

Latest News

The Community Preservation Committee on Thursday kicked off its review of funding requests for fiscal year 2028, which include the Center School and Pyne Field projects.

At its meeting Thursday night, the School Committee heard from district principals about improvement plans for each school.

Crews are set to begin demolition on the two rear additions of Center School at the beginning of November.

Contractor Amorello will be out this week to treat crosswalks all along the Main Street corridor.

MassDOT has planned a ramp shutdown at the I-90/I-495 interchange in Hopkinton overnight on Tuesday.

Town meetings tonight include the Commissioners of Trust Funds (5), Board of Health (6) and Planning Board (7).

Photo of the Day

A participant checks out the trophies before the start of Saturday’s Michael’s Run at the Town Common.

PHOTO/JERRY SPAR