One week after the opening day of school comes Opening Night: Readings by Creative Writing Faculty, at 7 p.m. Thursday (Oct. 4) on the Wyatt Deck in the arboretum.

The event, free and open to the public, is sponsored by the arboretum and the Department of English.

The award-winning fiction writers and poets include Joshua Clover, Greg Glazner, Pam Houston, Yiyun Li, Joe Wenderoth and Alan Williamson.

In case of rain, the program will move to 126 Environmental Horticulture.

Noon Concerts

The music department’s Shinkoskey Noon Concert series returns next week. The Thursday concerts are being held this quarter in the Yocha Dehe Grand Lobby at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts.

• Here are the dates and performers:
• Oct. 4 — Michael Goldberg, guitar.
• Oct. 11 — Eva Legêne, recorder, and Weiland Kuijken, gamba. (Legêne presents a free lecture-demonstration from 3 to 5 p.m., also in the Mondavi Center's lobby.)
• Oct. 18 — Tanya Tomkins, baroque cello.
• Oct. 25 — Paloma Friedhoff Bello, soprano; Jolán Friedhoff, violin; John Cozza, piano; and Lena Andaya, cello.
• Nov. 1 — Brandon Yip, guitar.

The schedule for all of 2012-13.

Auditions: The Haunt and The Bacchae

The Department of Theatre and Dance announced auditions next week for two fall productions:

• The Haunt at Wright Hall — Performance-based haunted house and costume dance party. To be presented Oct. 25-28 and Oct. 30-31.
• The Bacchae — Granada Artist-in-Residence Barry McGovern directs this modern-toned, richly comedic version of the Greek tragedy (Euripides, translated by Derek Mahon) depicting a mortal struggle between the forces of control and freedom. To be presented Nov. 29-30, and Dec. 1-2 and 6-8.

Auditions for both are scheduled from 6 to 10 p.m. Monday and Tuesday (Oct.1 and 2) in Main Theatre, Wright Hall. Callbacks are scheduled the same hours Wednesday (Oct. 3) and possibly Thursday (Oct. 4).

All students, faculty and staff are welcome to try out. Signups are being taken in 101 Art Building. Rehearsals for both begin Oct. 8

Japanese Art and Its Contexts

The Art History Program announced its second annual Alan Templeton Colloquium, Japanese Art and Its Contexts, from 2 to 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 5, in the Art Annex.

The speakers and their topics:

• Andreas Marks — “Hiroshige¹s Famous Tokaido Series”
• Joseph Sorensen — "Secret Teachings, Hidden Meanings: The Samurai Scholar Hosokawa Yusai”
• David Gundry — “Hell Hath No Fury: Text and Image in a Pivotal Chapter of Ihara Saikaku¹s The Life of an Amorous Man”
• Jeffrey Ruda — “Japonaiserie and Japonisme: Two Sides of Orientalism”

The lectures are free and open to the public.

The colloquium is co-sponsored by Alan Templeton, the Department of Art and Art History, the Program in East Asian Studies, and the Department in East Asian Languages and Cultures.

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