Gallery: Opera UCLA’s ‘The Turn of the Screw’ explores themes of puppetry, control

Beneath the multicolored glow of stage lights, a haze rolls across the Freud Playhouse stage. Through a collaboration between UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television and the Herb Alpert School of Music, Opera UCLA will host three performances of “The Turn of the Screw” on Thursday, Friday and Sunday. The opera, which revolves around a governess who encounters ghosts while acting as a caretaker for two children, experiments with themes of constantly being puppeted, said assistant director Katya Lynch. During a dress rehearsal last week, actors, dolls and designers gathered to perfect their plans to bring the haunted novella adaptation to life.