A rock-and-roll-style concert built around lasers, smoke machines and the creepy cadences of Edgar Allan Poe is heading back to the University of Indianapolis stage this Friday night, and this time the show has new tricks up its sleeve. Terence and Jeannie Mayhue, the husband-wife duo behind the production, are reviving their Halloween-season program “Haunted Harvest” for one free performance open to the public.
The show runs from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Friday in the Ruth Lilly Performance Hall at UIndy's Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center, as part of the university's Faculty Artist Concert Series, according to WISH-TV. The 500-seat hall itself is something of a character in the production — it was built with Viennese-style acoustic design, including 28-inch-thick hand-plastered walls and custom-engineered seat cushions meant to deliver precise sound distribution, according to the Encyclopedia of Indianapolis. Admission is free, and the concert, like all Faculty Artist Series performances, is open to the community.
A Show Built for Grown-Up Halloween Nerves
“Haunted Harvest” is returning by popular demand, with the Mayhues having last staged a similar program roughly three and a half years ago, per the station's report. Terence Mayhue said the concert is coming back with new elements this time around, and he's described it bluntly as a rock and roll show. Jeannie Mayhue has been just as direct about who should — and shouldn't — show up: the production is creepy and not intended for young children, she said.
UIndy students in tech and music industry programs are handling the lights, sound and media, WISH-TV reported. The 90-minute production uses lights, lasers, smoke and video projected on a large screen to create its haunted-house atmosphere. The Christel DeHaan Fine Arts Center also houses multi-channel digital and vintage recording studios, according to the University of Indianapolis.
Poe, Steinbeck and a Goodie-Bag Contest
The concert's literary spine stretches from classic horror writing associated with Edgar Allan Poe to John Steinbeck's “The Grapes of Wrath,” according to a Facebook post tied to the event. Audience members who can correctly identify every author, lyricist and performer referenced throughout the show can enter to win one of 10 goodie bags, with entrants emailing their answers to the address listed on UIndy's website.
Jeannie Mayhue has said the academic setting behind “Haunted Harvest” gave the couple the creative freedom to write from whatever texts and lyrics came to mind, rather than sticking to a conventional recital format. That same freedom shaped the couple's program notes, which list out the literature and music referenced throughout the night for anyone chasing that goodie bag.
Live Looping Turns a Shaker Into a Choir
A centerpiece of the show's technical wizardry is live looping — the real-time capturing and layering of sound to build harmonies and textures on the fly. Terence Mayhue has explained that the technique lets him manipulate captured sound and stack on layers and variations as a piece builds. In one demonstration, the couple built an entire arrangement out of nothing more than a shaker percussion sound, with Mayhue capturing his wife's voice and adding harmony underneath it in real time, before the pair worked their way into a looped rendition of “When the Saints Go Marching In.”
A Duo With a Track Record of Genre-Bending Concerts
The Mayhues have previously used the Faculty Artist Series to give familiar music a new frame. In November 2024, Terence Mayhue created and performed “Terence Mayhue's Version,” reworking Taylor Swift songs as Irish jigs, Afro-Cuban jazz, mambos and power ballads after her Indianapolis stadium concerts, according to The Reflector.
Terence Mayhue's résumé extends well beyond campus. He serves as Associate Adjunct Professor of Percussion at UIndy, where he directs the Percussion Ensemble, while also performing more than 200 shows annually as house percussionist for Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre in Indianapolis, per UIndy's faculty page. Before arriving in Indianapolis, he spent 10 years as Head of Percussion Studies at Eastern Illinois University, where he directed the Mid-West Funk Factory Drumline in performances alongside national recording artists including Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland.
A free series with hands-on learning
UIndy says its music program offers more than 100 free music events throughout the year, including the Faculty Artist Concert Series and public student ensemble concerts, according to the university. The department also describes applied lessons and ensemble opportunities as ways students learn from faculty members’ real-world experience, according to the UIndy Music Department. For “Haunted Harvest,” students in tech and music industry programs are handling production elements, WISH-TV reported.
“Haunted Harvest” is part of UIndy's public-facing music calendar, bringing faculty work and student production roles together in a campus performance open to the community. For the Mayhues, it is another opportunity to turn a recital hall into something closer to a haunted house with a backbeat.
