This Week in New Haven (October 30 – November 5)

A fter a bevy of Halloween celebrations, including two 26th annual ones, it’s not three whole days before Thanksgiving and Christmas are dancing like visions of sugar plums in our heads.

Monday, October 30
For the 26th time, Curious Goods New Age Shop (417 Campbell Ave, West Haven) hosts its yearly Samhain/Halloween Celebration, inviting guests to enjoy “a costume contest, rituals, rites and a [potluck] feast,” plus an “aura cleansing, meditation and gifts,” from 7 to 9 p.m. $10.

Tuesday, October 31 – Halloween
If you want to give your canine friends a treat, A Dog’s Life (75 Hamilton St, rear, New Haven) obliges with its next annual Halloweenie Party. Featuring costume, trick and “play dead” contests, the hosts promise “goodie bags for the dogs [and] light refreshments for the humans,” while “friendly” dogs with proof of rabies vaccination can enjoy “off-leash time in our indoor playground.” 6:30 p.m.

For bipeds only, local bars and clubs have you covered. Starting at 8 p.m., JP Dempsey’s (974 State St, New Haven) hosts a Halloween Karaoke Party; starting at 9 p.m., Vanity (144 Temple St, New Haven; $10) hosts a dance party DJed by Victor Calderone; and starting at 10 p.m., BAR (254 Crown St, New Haven) hosts its 26th Annual Halloween Dance Party.

sponsored by

New Haven Symphony Orchestra presents Beethoven's Symphony No. 9

Wednesday, November 1
Still wondering what happened during the 2016 election? Yale assistant political science professor John Henderson might be able to help. At noon today in the Institution for Social and Policy Studies (77 Prospect St, New Haven), Henderson presents “Ideology, Group Affinity and Electability: Assessing the Competing Preferences of Primary Election Voters,” a research paper whose findings, he says, “shed new light on the competing factors that voters balance when nominating legislative candidates and clarify the relative importance of policy and group affinity in these decisions.” Free.

Thursday, November 2
You’ve only got a few days left to see the world premiere production of Fireflies, closing Sunday, November 5, at Long Wharf Theatre (222 Sargent Dr, New Haven; 203-787-4282). Both dramatic and comedic, it takes a seemingly narrow story in small-town Texas and makes it feel encompassing and profound, with top-notch acting from the likes of Tony Award winners Jane Alexander and Judith Ivey.

In New Haven at least, as one play closes, another opens. Opening tonight at Erector Square (315 Peck St, New Haven) is Social Consciousness Theatre’s presentation of Pulitzer winner Topdog/Underdog, “a darkly comic fable of brotherly love and family identity.” Featuring “Lincoln and Booth, two brothers whose names were given to them as a joke, foretelling a lifetime of sibling rivalry and resentment,” the play wonders about “the way we are defined by history.” Staging through November 19, tonight’s showtime is 8 p.m., with tickets costing $20 for most and $10 for students.

Friday, November 3
Opening at 5:45 p.m. and going ’til 9, Wine On9 features holiday-themed wine and/or fun at two-times-nine businesses and organizations arranged in and around New Haven’s Ninth Square. Powered by curated selections from The Wine Thief (181 Crown St), each venue has different site-specific themes—like “vintage cocktail party” at vintage clothing shop Civvies (845 Chapel St), “German holiday” at G Café, “photo booth fabulosity” at the New Haven Pride Center (84 Orange St) and “Christmas in the kitchen” at Fletcher Cameron Design (91 Orange St, New Haven). Tickets cost $20 at the door or $18 in advance, and everyone’s first stop of the night should be Baobab Tree Studios (71 Orange St), where ticketholders register and, we expect, receive wine glasses and maps.

In ECA’s Arts Hall (55 Audubon St, New Haven), local aerial dance and circus school Air Temple Arts asks audiences to take “a quick hop in the DeLorean for an ’80s-themed extravaganza” today and tomorrow at 8 p.m. Tickets to the show, which mashes up “aerial silks, MJ, contortion, Prince, Chinese pole, Run DMC, Flashdance, acrobatics, Footloose, The Clash and more,” cost $20 ($15 for students). Oh, and “your best ’80s finery [is] highly encouraged.”

Saturday, November 4
Yesterday and today at 7:30 p.m. in Morse Recital Hall (470 College St, New Haven; 203-432-4158), Yale Opera presents two different programs of Opera Scenes, costumes and all. The first showcases choices from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, Massenet’s Cendrillon and Puccini’s La Bohème, while the second features selections from Humperdinck’s Hansel und Gretel, Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos.

Sunday, November 5
William Frucht’s Machine Memory gets an opening reception today at City Gallery (994 State St, New Haven; 203-782-2489) from 2 to 4 p.m. Freshly opened on Thursday, the 10-photograph exhibit “[evokes] memory, decay, familiarity and strangeness” via haunting post-industrial imagery including the photo above.

Written by Dan Mims. Image shows detail of a photo from Machine Memory, William Frucht’s upcoming exhibition at City Gallery. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations and prices before attending events.

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Dan has worked for a couple of major media companies, but he likes Daily Nutmeg best. As DN’s editor, he writes, photographs, edits and otherwise shepherds ideas into fully realized feature stories.

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