Count ’em: Four holidays, three celebrities, two harbors and one two-day local arts bonanza.
Monday, October 13 - Columbus Day / Indigenous Peoples’ Day
A 10 a.m. “family junk jamboree” offers something for the kids to do while school’s out. “Bring your curiosity, creativity, and your favorite kid(s) to MakeHaven for an afternoon of hands-on fun! During this special family meetup, we’ll dive into our treasure troves of wood and fabric scraps and see what magic we can make.”
Wednesday, October 15
The first copies of The Chaser, our new quarterly food and drink passport, hit the mail today. Daily Nutmeg Members will soon begin enjoying complimentary offers, valued at up to $170, from 13 of New Haven’s favorite bars and restaurants, spanning cuisines, neighborhoods and vibes: Anchor Spa, Armada Brewing, Blue Orchid, The Cannon, Gioia, Hachiroku Shokudo, House of Naan, John Davenport’s, Ordinary, RAWA, September in Bangkok, Stella Blues and Villa Lulu. (Not a member yet? Sign up today.)
After the post office closes, in conjunction with the exhibition Invitation to Engage: 60 Years of Long Wharf Theatre & Beyond, the New Haven Museum hosts costume designer Rea J. Brown and LWT community and company manager Vanessa Soto for a 6 p.m. talk to “discuss how their design process brought the characters, cultural themes, and superhero elements” of recent production El Coquí Espectacular and the Bottle of Doom “to life.”
Thursday, October 16
At 5:30 p.m. in Yale’s Humanities Quadrangle, the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies presents a screening of I Am Free ... But Who is Left? (2022)—which features firsthand survivor accounts from before and during the Holocaust—followed by a Q&A with the film’s director, Joanne W. Rudof.
The Claudettes bring their “fascinating new spin on American roots music”—where “blues and R&B are laced with punk spirit and film-noir moods to create the band’s singular ‘garage cabaret’ sound”—to Cafe Nine for an 8 p.m. bill opened by another genre-bending act: West Haven punk-folk-indie-rockabilly-swing band Wolf Harbor.
Friday, October 17
Only standing-room tickets remain for the Quinnipiac men’s hockey home opener—a top-10 showdown against the University of Maine—at 7 p.m.
Also at 7, actor Nick Offerman, who became a household name for his role as the woodworking, Scotch-drinking, sax-playing, government-hating government official Ron Swanson on Parks and Recreation, comes to College Street Music Hall, where he’ll once more play a woodworker, this time with no acting required. Offerman is on an unconventional family-oriented tour to promote his kid-oriented book, Little Woodchucks: Offerman Woodshop’s Guide to Tools and Tomfoolery, with this appearance promising “a mixture of candid conversation, hands-on woodworking demonstrations, singing, laughter, and all the wood-centered fun a woodchuck can chuck.”
Across the street at the Shubert, standup comic Nate Jackson, whose fame has blossomed in the opposite direction (from stage to screen), appears for a 7:30 standup show that, if his viral clips are any indication, will involve fast-on-his-feet crowd work.
Saturday, October 18
Co-presented by the COASTS Program at the University of New Haven, the Canal Dock Boathouse hosts “researchers from NOAA’s Milford Lab” for a 10 a.m. discussion of “how studying the health of natural oyster populations can guide restoration planning and support sustainable aquaculture in the Long Island Sound.”
Also at 10, the Guilford Keeping Society heads to Branford to lead a tour of Stony Creek Quarry.
At Erector Square from noon to 6 today and tomorrow, Erector Square Open Studios 2025 Weekend “offer[s] a unique opportunity for visitors to meet a variety of artists, designers, and craftspeople in their New Haven, Connecticut, studios, some of [which] are only open to the public during this event… Visitors can talk to the artists about their work, purchase artwork, see work in progress, and learn about the creative process. All ages can participate and be introduced to a variety of art forms and media, including painting, collage, sculpture, printmaking, photography, ceramics, dance, music and more.”
Timed for National Video Store Day, Best Video’s Best Fest!, a “physical media festival” with “vendors, music, food and a fun screening to close out the evening,” lasts from 1 to 9.
One day before an all-ages Family Fall Fest, Two Roads Brewing’s annual, 21+ Roadsmary’s Baby Pumpkin Fest, held from 4 to 10 and named for the Stratford brewery’s yearly fall-timed pumpkin ale, features food, entertainment (including live music and magic), pumpkin carving, a costume contest, a vendor market and a nighttime screening of horror suspense film The Ring (2002).
At 8, Yale’s Geffen School of Drama opens a weeklong run of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. “In the glittering world of 18th-century French aristocracy, security is an illusion, seduction is a weapon, and betrayal is inevitable. Former lovers turned ruthless conspirators, the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont play a dangerous game of desire and deception. But a shift in balance causes their carefully constructed façade [to] begin to crack, exposing the brutal cost of power.”
Sunday, October 19
From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m, a family-friendly Halloween Flea Market at North Haven’s Twelve Percent Beer Project promises “30+ local vendors specializing in vintage, home decor, oddities, jewelry, and crafts! There will be food trucks, special drafts and so much more!”
At 1 p.m., following a paired event held from noon to 4 yesterday at the New Haven Museum, Yale’s Beinecke Library celebrates Dictionary Day—timed for the anniversary, on October 16, of the birth of Noah Webster, a New Havener “best known today for his contributions to the standardization of American English through his dictionaries”—with a display of “primary source materials and publications documenting the life and work of Noah Webster, the Webster family, and the times in which they lived.”
Also at 1, Armada Brewing holds its annual Puppy Halloween Party, where a canine costume contest involves treats for all and prizes for the winners.
At 7, actor Charlie Sheen, who needs no introduction, comes to the Shubert for confession. “Fans will have the rare opportunity to see Sheen in an intimate setting, offering a behind-the-scenes glimpse into Hollywood stardom and the rollercoaster life of a true pop culture phenomenon.”
Written and photographed by Dan Mims. Image featurs visitors to Dexterity Press’s studio during Erector Square Open Studios 2023. Readers are encouraged to verify times, locations, prices and other details before attending events.
