H alloween weekend is getting its own curated calendar later this week. Meantime, we’ve got more spooky vibes and a plastic pumpkin bucket full of visual, aural and performing arts.
Monday, October 23
Mitchell Library screens Haunters: The Art of the Scare (2017), a documentary “about how haunted houses for Halloween have spawned a controversial subculture of full-contact terror simulations,” at 6 p.m.
Tuesday, October 24
At Yale’s Schwarzman Center, Ash Fure’s “interactive sound art installation” ANIMAL: A Listening Gym promises an intense “workout for your senses,” either during self-led “gym mode” sessions starting today from 1 to 3 p.m. or live performances by Fure this Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 7:30.
Illeana Douglas, an actress with well over 100 credits whose face you’ll likely recognize if you look her up, is also, apparently, a film historian with a newly released book: Connecticut in the Movies. At 6 in RJ Julia’s flagship Madison store, Douglas will discuss Connecticut through the lenses Hollywood has trained on it since the advent of cinema.
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Wednesday, October 25
East Rock Brewing hosts a “cult classic Halloween movie”-themed trivia night starting at 6:30.
Outside in Pitkin Plaza, the weekly Movies in the Plaza series concludes its yearly May-to-October run with a screening of not-so-cult spooker The Sixth Sense (1999).
Thursday, October 26
At 4 p.m. at the Ely Center of Contemporary Art, Rebekah Church leads a workshop aimed at teaching you “how to turn your imaginary creature from an idea into a drawing,” with “all materials provided.” And three days later, on Sunday at noon, you can turn that or some other idea into a reality during a costume workshop led by Soule Golden.
The New Haven Preservation Trust’s 2023 Preservation Awards ceremony, “celebrat[ing] a landmark building on the New Haven Green, the creative adaptation of two factory buildings in the Dixwell neighborhood, and a renovated Italianate house on Dixwell Avenue,” happens from 6 to 7 at The Union apartment complex, which used to be home to The Union & New Haven Trust Company.
At 7:30 in Woolsey Hall, the New Haven Symphony Orchestra performs with Grammy-winning trio Time for Three, who “stand[] at the busy intersection of Americana, modern pop, and classical music, offering a blend of vocal and instrumental performances.”
Also at 7:30, the Institute Library’s Story Sharing Group present their 10th annual Tellabration. “Veteran and newer storytellers will share humor and poignancy… on journeys that may take you around the block or around the world.”
Meanwhile, at 8, Yale Cabaret presents Moonie, written and performed by MFA candidate Stefani Quo. Feeling the biological and familial pressure to start a family, Moonie, the play’s main and possibly only character, “is 30 and has decided to go on dates with 100 men this year. TODAY, SHE IS GOING ON HER 88TH!”
Friday, October 27
With Philadelphia-based “Renaissance band” Piffaro and soprano singer Sherezade Panthaki, Elm City Consort, a locally rooted group “dedicated to presenting imaginative and entertaining programs of early music,” perform a show of music from Shakespeare’s plays and days. The set, starting at 5 p.m. in the Beinecke Library, includes “music by Shakespeare’s contemporaries” as well as “dances and popular tunes from the streets and pubs of Tudor England.”
More recent historic music is the play in Morse Recital Hall, where, tonight and tomorrow night at 7:30, the larger-than-life voices of Yale Opera perform select scenes from the repertoire.
At 8, the Shubert celebrates The Rocky Horror Picture Show via “a screening of the unedited movie with a live shadow cast and audience participation.” Patricia Quinn, the actor who played the original Magenta, will reportedly be on hand.
Saturday, October 28
From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and 11 to 4 tomorrow, Westville Open Studios offers a chance to step inside 20 or so of the art enclave’s artist studios, alongside several gallery shows and, tomorrow at 11, the neighborhood’s annual Giant Puppet and People Making Mayhem Parade.
At 3 p.m., Haven of Hope, a church in Hamden, hosts a family-friendly Fall Fest promising “party snacks…, apple cider donuts, hot cider[,] hot chocolate, family-friendly games with prizes, pumpkin painting, and non-scary costumes!”
At 7:30 in Yale’s Humanities Quadrangle, “a prerelease screening of the Netflix film Rustin, an inspiring story based on the life and work of Bayard Rustin, close advisor to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and one of the most influential and effective organizers of the civil rights movement,” begins after a performance by Shades of Yale, a student a capella group specializing in “music of the African diaspora & African-American tradition.”
Written by Dan Mims. Image 1, featuring Illeana Douglas (right), from Goodfellas. Image 2, featuring Ash Fure, photographed by Steven Pisano. Image 3, featuring an installation live-painted by REO of HI Crew during a past Westville open studios weekend, photographed by Dan Mims. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations, prices and other details before attending events.
