UCD dance troupe opens season with tricks and treats

Check it out

What: “The Haunt” at Wright Hall

When: Thursday through Sunday, Oct. 25-28, and Tuesday through Wednesday, Oct. 30-31; hauntings are every 15 minutes between 7:30 and 10:30 p.m.; dancing is from 7:30 p.m. to midnight

Where: Various locations in Wright Hall at UC Davis

Cost: $15 ($10 for dance only)

Tickets: Sold only at Main Theatre, Wright Hall box office before the show

Costume info: theatredance.ucdavis.edu

The UC Davis department of theater and dance’s 2012-13 season offers five productions, starting with “The Haunt,” a performance-based haunted house and dance party.

The season includes a new work by choreographer Qudus Onikeku of Nigeria, Granada Artist-in-Residence, and Euripedes’ “The Bacchae,” directed by stage and screen actor Barry McGovern.

Additionally, the department’s growing Institute for Theater, Dance and Performance offers unticketed productions and events that are open to the public with suggested donation only. The fall line-up includes “Fractalicious!,” produced by visiting artists Bryan Reynolds and Transversal Theater Company, and a staged reading of “Today I Live” by Susan-Jane Harrison, recently presented at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

The department brings Halloween thrills and chills with “The Haunt” at Wright Hall, am annual performance-based haunted house and costume dance party. This year’s theme, “A Twisted Fairy Tale,” includes interactive performance stages with start times every 15 minutes. Cast and designers are graduate and undergraduate students directed by pProfessor Bella Merlin and performance studies Ph.D. candidate Josy Miller.

A visitor’s journey through the haunted environments at Wright Hall will culminate in “A Twisted Fairy Tale’s” wedding celebration where guests may dance the night away in the Arena Theatre. Guests also may skip the haunted house and enjoy just the dance party.

Although dressing up is optional for “The Haunt,” this offers an extra layer of Halloween fun. Costumes may be rented in advance or through 7 p.m. on performance nights at Wright Hall’s The Enchanted Cellar.

This is a way for all ages to celebrate the Halloween season. Rated an eerie PG-13, it plays Thursday through Sunday, Oct. 25-28, and Tuesday through Wednesday, Oct. 30-31. Tickets are sold only at the Wright Hall box office before the show.

For costume rental appointments and information, contact The Enchanted Cellar at 530-752-0740 or rcfemling@ucdavis.edu.

The department’s second production of the season brings a familiar face to campus. McGovern is known to many for his roles in films including “Braveheart,” “Far and Away” and “Billy Bathgate.” He will direct the Greek tragedy “The Bacchae” by Euripedes where Dionysus, god of wine and revelry, aided by his wild Bacchae followers, locks horns with King Pentheus of Thebes in a violent power struggle of great confusion and madness.

“This translation of ‘The Bacchae’ by distinguished Irish poet Derek Mahon is very modern in tone and richly comedic without weakening the tragedy,” McGovern says.

“The Bacchae” opens Thursday, Nov. 29, and continues through Saturday, Dec. 8, in the Main Theatre in Wright Hall.