As the nights grow longer, we have more hours for theater. What a harvest of shows October brings. We enter spooky season with grave diggers, an immersive sci-fi western, drunk vampires, and probably the scariest of all, small town city council meetings and middle school spelling bees.

For those avoiding the chills, the month also brings high-flying insects, spiritual debates, and intergenerational drama and trauma. Plus, a season of sublime opera opens from a Houston arts institution most recently nominated for the worldwide Opera Company of the Year award, Houston Grand Opera.

Freud’s Last Session at A.D. Players (October 1-19)
Calling their 25-26 season one of exploration, the company examines the human mind and spirituality with this “what if” play. What if on the eve of World War II the aging, world-renowned psychiatrist and noted atheist, Sigmund Freud, met the young, up-and-coming author and theologian C.S. Lewis? Freud is nearing the end of his life, while Lewis has just begun his rise as an author and academic, but is still haunted by his memories of World War I. During this amicable meeting and clash of minds, the two debate about love, beauty, death, God and what it means to be human. Houston actors James Belcher and Philip Hays play Freud and Lewis.

Cirque du Soleil’s OVO at the Toyota Center (October 2-5)
Cirque connoisseurs might remember OVO (Portuguese for egg) as a returning favorite. But we anticipate surprises, as the Soleil team of artists have created a new iteration for audiences to rediscover this soaring production. Look for a reimagined set design, new acrobatic acts and costumes, original characters, and reinvented music for this wild journey into the insect world. From juggling, to gravity defying leaps, to midair dances, the Cirque choreographers, artists, and performers were inspired by nature’s smallest creatures for this show that spins, weaves, and flies admit giant flowers.

Drunk Dracula at Emerald Theater (October 2-November 15)
From the national artistic company who gets their drink on for Shakespeare most of the year comes this special spooky season performance. For October, the Bard takes a break, as the sober and drunk actors alike attempt an epic retelling of the most famous, or at least most mathematically inclined, vampire of them all, Count Dracula. After centuries of being cooped up in his creepy old castle, Transylvania’s thirstiest bachelor is in need of fresh blood to maintain his youthful looks and chiseled physique. Now, he’s ready to take a giant bite out of Houston.

The Body Snatcher at Alley Theatre (October 3-26)
Actor David Rainey celebrates his 25th year at the Alley with a star turn in this world premiere play by Katie Forgette. Body Snatcher is inspired by, though not a direct adaptation of, the classic Robert Louis Stevenson’s horror short story of the same name. We also hear Forgette was intrigued by the macabre but real history of English Victorian era body snatchers, who dug up the dead to sell cadavers to medical schools. In Forgette's freshly dug grave tale, things go bump in the cemetery at night when a loving father, who is also a genius doctor, must decide how far he’ll go to save his ailing daughter. And that feisty daughter just so happens to be giving her heart to her father’s young medical assistant. As they push medical boundaries and the bodies stack up, the question remains: how deep will they dig for the ones they love?

Midnight High: A Night at the Oxhead from The Octarine Accord (October 8-25)
Billed as western told through a science fiction lens, Midnight High is set in a wild saloon in a dusty frontier town in the 1800s. Secrets lurk in every corner and the audience will find itself in the middle of a tense and otherworldly standoff. Attendees may find themselves pulled into exclusive solo scenes or witness dangerous showdowns as they follow cryptic clues that lead deeper into the mystery. Every experience will likely be a little different, depending on the path walked, choices made, and drinks partaken, as tickets include libations at the saloon bar.

Electra from Classic Theatre Company (October 9-18)
The theater company that specializes in bringing an original perspective to even the most ancient plays tackles one of the greatest tragedies of all, Sophocles’ Electra. Thousands of years before it became a psychological phrase, the ancient Greeks knew how to turn intergenerational trauma into cathartic theater. In this tale of woe, Electra struggles with her pain and sorrow following the murder of her father, King Agamemnon, at the hands of her mother, Clytaemnestra, and her mother's lover, Aegisthus. Electra fires her grief into deadly revenge, as her long-lost brother Orestes returns from exile and the siblings forge a bloody plot against their father's killers.

Mud Row at Stages (October 10-November 2)
A stellar Houston-based cast brings award winning playwright Dominique Morisseau’s intergenerational story to life. The story moves across time but in the same space, as two generations of sisters navigate class, race, love, and family on Mud Row, an area in the East End of West Chester, Pennsylvania. In the mid-20th century, Elsie hopes to move up in the world by marrying well, while her sister Frances joins the fight for Civil Rights. Decades later, estranged sisters Regine and Toshi are forced to reckon with their shared heritage and each other, when Regine inherits granny Elsie's house, which she never wanted, while her sister Toshi has been squatting there for months. Beneath the roof of one house, generations apart, these women must confront their shared legacies, conflicts, and the bonds of family.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee from Theatre Under the Stars (October 21-November 2)
TUTS opens its 2025-2026 season with this hilarious and touching Tony-winning musical. TUTS artistic director Dan Knechtges choreographed the original Broadway production of this comedy about the cutthroat world of middle school spelling bees, so we can’t wait to see his full directorial and choreographic vision in this new production. Similar to A Chorus Line, if populated by quirky and awkward adolescents, all the characters have their own unique, yet touchingly universal stories to tell. They’ll sing out those stories while spelling their way to greatness. The show also offers the audience the chance to get in on the spelling action with some interaction and participation, so get those dictionaries ready.

The Minutes from Dirt Dogs Theatre Company (October 23-November 8)
Dirt Dogs is celebrating its 10th season by turning to one of its favorite playwrights, Tracy Letts (August: Osage County, Bug). In this political satire set during a small town city council meeting, not much business is getting done because everyone on the council has their own agenda when it comes to reading the minutes of the last meeting. A Broadway hit a few years ago, the show leaves audiences debating the humor and plot twists weeks after they leave the theater. We can’t wait to see how this large cast of stellar Dogged regulars and company newcomers tackle this story in one of the intimate MATCH theaters. Spoiler alert: Letts plays with genre here, and we’ve heard the comedy might transform into a play quite appropriate for scary season.

Porgy and Bess from Houston Grand Opera (October 24-November 15)
HGO is calling its 25-26 lineup a season of “grand dreams” and that’s certainly the case with its opener, George and Ira Gershwin’s grand American opera that's set in the Jim Crow era and the fictional Charleston slum of Catfish Row. Porgy, a disabled beggar, and Bess, a woman struggling with addiction, fall in love.

Though it originally debuted on Broadway in the '30s, HGO’s production 50 years ago is said to have renewed Porgy’s popularity in opera houses around the world. That 1976 production went on to Broadway and earned HGO both a Tony and a GRAMMY. In honor of the 50 year anniversary, HGO presents this acclaimed production from the Washington National Opera directed by Francesca Zambello and starring two HGO favorites, Michael Sumuel as Porgy and Angel Blue as Bess.

Il trittico from Houston Grand Opera (October 30-14)
Along with Porgy, HGO will presents for the first time Puccini’s masterful trio of one-act operas Il trittico all in one performance. First up is the tragic love story, Il tabarro, a tale of passion and betrayal between a barge captain, his young wife, and her lover. Next, an opera filled with hope and redemption, Suor Angelica, delves into the desperation of a cloistered nun with a haunted past. The night ends in glorious laughter with the witty Gianni Schicchi, the tale of a cunning conman who turns a family’s greed into a delightful farce. Taken together, these three operas will take audiences from the depths of tragedy to the heights of love to sublime comedy. HGO is singing the praises of the powerhouse lead cast, taking on multiple roles across the three operas, including soprano Corinne Winters in her company debut, mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, bass-baritone Ryan McKinny, and tenor Arturo Chacón-Cruz.

Photo by Marie-Andrée Lemire

Cirque du Soleil present its new production OVO at the Toyota Center.