On Friday, Oct. 13, San Diego State University’s Skull and Dagger Dramatic Society will present their annual fall art festival, “The Nightmare Before Uncaged.”

The event — which will be from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. — will be an evening of Halloween fun where visitors can view all forms of art. Attendees can expect there to be dancing, singing, one-acts, improv, horror films and more.

The Skull and Dagger Dramatic Society is the oldest student-run theater organization on campus.

“What this club prides itself in is giving opportunity to students, SDSU students specifically, to try out new avenues that they might not have imagined themselves going into,” Sydney Villa, the club’s president, said.

In addition to putting on full-length productions, Skull and Dagger puts on an Uncaged event in both the spring and fall semesters.

“Uncaged is so great because it’s not like we’re only showing theater,” said Audrey Daynes, a Skull and Dagger advisory board member. “Yes, we are showing monologues and one-acts, but we’re also showing art and paintings and songs and dance and music. So it’s really just a celebration of art across all mediums, which I love.” 

Daynes also emphasized that Uncaged will have something all audience members can enjoy.

“I think the beautiful thing about Uncaged is that you don’t have to be involved in theater or art or film or whatever,” she said. “It’s really just about telling people’s stories in whatever medium they want. So I think it’s really more about human connection when you go to the event.” 

In the past, Uncaged events have not had a specific theme, but this year they are taking a different approach. 

“We’re showcasing horror films and then any other act that is performing (and) will involve a costume or will involve some small aspect of Halloween in a sense,” Villa said.

Emerson Clarke, the club’s artistic director, thought that the Halloween theme would be unique since it is already a beloved time on campus. 

The theme also takes away any possible reluctance the artist might have for submitting darker art. 

“We thought it would be a great opportunity to have people submit maybe forms of art that they’ve made in the past that they felt didn’t fit into any certain category or felt that they were too spooky or too dark,” Clarke said.

According to Villa, although there are limitations with the theme, there will be more diverse performances than in the past. 

“We have a collaboration with Folklorico, a lot of musical acts, an orchestra act, honestly a wider variety than what we had at our last spring Uncaged event,” Villa said.

Another new aspect for this event is more campus clubs will be performing than they did in the past. 

“We really wanted to promote collaboration for Uncaged with other clubs on campus,” Daynes said. 

Skull and Dagger is an organization that offers space for inspiration. Daynes reflected on past Uncaged events and realized art is meant to be shared, and that is how artists can grow.  

“I just remember walking out of Uncaged last year being like, ‘Oh my god, I feel like a better human,’” Daynes said. “I think a lot of times in art, you can kind of get lost in your own world — kind of tunnel visioned on what you’re doing. But when you take a step back, and you look at what everyone else is doing around you, it just makes you recognize how beautiful people are.” 

Student run campus clubs that will be performing this year are V-Day SDSU, Iota Eta Pi, Ballet Folklórico Xochipilli de San Diego State University and the Musical Theatre Club.

Attendees at the event are encouraged to wear costumes. Admission will be $3 for costume wearers and $5 for non-costume wearers. 

For more information, follow Skull and Dagger’s Instagram for future events.