Eastern Connecticut State University’s Department of Communication, Film and Theatre has announced four upcoming productions for the 2023–24 academic year. Season ticket bundles are currently available for purchase, allowing audiences to save up to 15% on the ticket price for each performance.

“We have an exciting season planned this year, which really features the full capabilities of the new Department of Communication, Film and Theatre,” said Kristen Morgan, department chair. “The season kicks off with an experimental play that combines live performance and filmmaking and finishes in the spring with our first fully produced student film. In between we explore the supernatural with a horror musical and a comedy about a restless spirit. We're looking forward to showcasing all of our student creativity and can't wait to get in front of audiences,” she said. 

“Blood on a Cat's Neck” by Rainer Werner Fassbinder will be performed Oct. 12–15 in the Fine Arts Instructional Center’s Proscenium Theater; Oct. 12 at 5:30 p.m. and Oct. 13, 14 and 15 at 7:30 p.m.  

The story follows Pheobe Zeitgeist, who has been sent to Earth to study human democracy, though she doesn’t understand human language. The story’s writer, Fassbinder, was active in theatre, developing experimental techniques which have come to be known as “anti-theater.” In plays such as this, Fassbinder forged his unique, always entertaining and sometimes uproarious blend of Hollywood melodrama, social criticism and avant-garde traditions. 

The production is directed by Professor David Pellegrini with choreography by Professor Alycia Bright Holland. Approaching this production as a dance-theatre-media combines both of their legacies and highlights their insights into the fragility of democracy — an imperative more urgent than ever. 

The program's second show, “Carrie: The Musical,” will be performed Nov. 30 – Dec. 3 in the Fine Arts Instructional Center’s Delmonte Bernstein Studio Theater; times to be announced.  

Adapted from Stephen King's 1974 novel, “Carrie: The Musical” follows a teenage outcast who longs to fit in. At school, she either goes unnoticed or is bullied by those around her. At home, she's dominated by her loving but cruelly controlling mother. On discovering that she has telekinetic powers, she uses them to get back at those who’ve wronged her. 

The production will be directed by student Liv Skerry. With a book by Lawrence D. Cohen, lyrics by Dean Pitchford, and music by Michael Gore, “Carrie: The Musical” is the classic underdog story, with a twist. 

“Blithe Spirit,” by Noël Coward and directed by Professor J.J. Cobb, will be performed Feb. 27–March 3, 2024, in the Fine Arts Instructional Center’s Delmonte Bernstein Studio Theater; times to be announced.  

The story follows novelist Charles Condomine as he invites a famed clairvoyant, Madame Arcati, into his home to conduct a séance. Arcati, oblivious to Condomine’s scheme to use the séance as research for an upcoming book, summons the ghost of Condomine’s first wife, to the distress of his second. 

“Script to Screen: The Eastern 2024 Film Project” will be screened Apr. 26 and 27, 2024, in the Fine Arts Instructional Center’s Proscenium Theater; times to be announced. 

The project is an original production written, filmed and acted by students in collaboration with film Professor Brian Day. A small group of students will develop and complete the story and finalize the script during the fall 2023 semester. Student crews and actors will then spend a portion of the spring 2024 semester producing and editing an original film. 

For tickets and more information regarding the 2023–24 performances, visit the ticketing website.