Ghosts, zombies, fairies and other ghoulish characters will take the stage in Miller Concert Hall Thursday night. 

Wichita State’s Symphony Orchestra will wear costumes for a Halloween-themed concert at 7:30 p.m. 

Everyone on stage will be in costume, except for Mark Laycock, professor of music, who directs the symphony. 

“I really want the focus to be on the students, and I just kinda come out and do my thing,” he said. 

Laycock said in the 10 years he has taught and conducted at WSU, the Halloween-themed concert has happened three or four times. Every time, he said, the students have always done a great job with costumes. 

“The creativity of the costumes just blows me away sometimes,” Laycock said. “People just completely transform — sometimes I don’t even recognize them.”

Laycock said he has seen a wide variety of costumes, from someone dressed as Waldo from the “Where’s Waldo?” books to a bass player dressed as a shark.

Flutist Seth Messner said he has not chosen a costume but has some ideas.

“I’ll probably just throw something together,” Messner said. “I have plenty of input from friends so I’ll probably end up with something good.”

One factor in choosing a costume, Messner said, is making sure the costume does not impede the musician’s performance.

“I kind of have to be careful not to choose something that will distract either my own playing or distract my colleagues’ playing,” he said. 

Cellist Madeline Harder, who is dressing up as Tinky Winky from the “Teletubbies” TV show, said she does not think wearing a costume will impede her performance, in part because the music is not too difficult or serious.

“It’s all going to be a lot of fun,” she said. 

The concert will feature eight short selections, including theme songs from two familiar Hollywood blockbusters. Music from “The Magnificent Seven” and “Jurassic Park” are the highlights of the show.

“When you’ve got film music… everybody in that auditorium is going to know those tunes,” Laycock said. “If students don’t know them by name, they’ve heard them, a lot of these tunes, in movies and commercials.”

Laycock said this concert was designed to be different from the two other major performances in the fall. The Halloween-themed concert will be shorter than the other symphony concerts, with a run time of about 45 minutes. 

“In the past, we’ve alternated a Halloween-themed concert with a film-music concert,” he said. “We’ll project a silent film and do a live soundtrack to it. We’ll probably go back to that next year.”

Laycock said it is important to expose the students to a variety of music.

“We have some folks who are going to be playing in professional orchestras someday, and it’s good for them to get the experience of playing all kinds of music and all kinds of formats,” he said. 

General admission for the concert is $7 and seniors, faculty, staff and military are $6. Tickets are $3 for children. Students can pick up one free ticket with Shocker ID at the Duerksen Fine Arts Center box office.