TEMPLE – For the first time in more than three years, WordPlay Theater, a Farmington area readers’ theater, is presenting a public performance.

Friday, Oct. 28, WordPlay will present “Dearly Departed: Words, Songs and Dances of the Dead,” a program of songs, dance, scenes and poems for Halloween. The performance takes place at 7:30 p.m. in the Temple Stream Theater in Temple. It will celebrate humorous as well as the solemn aspects of Halloween, when the “dearly departed” are said to bring important messages to those left behind.

Drawing on the wealth of talent in the Farmington area, the program includes Scottish and Appalachian ballads, exciting or wistful scenes from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” and Peter Beagle’s novel “A Fine and Private Place,” and an over-the-top aria for a grisly ghost from Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Ruddigore.” Poems by Edgar Allan Poe and A.E. Housman will alternate with evocative solos by Farmington dancer Kaitlin O’Reilly, and some delightfully gruesome recitations (and gory details) from Edward Gorey.

Proceeds will benefit the conservation of historical cemeteries in the area. To reach Temple Stream Theater, take Route 43 to Temple. At the end of 43, turn left onto Intervale Road, and drive aboutone mile. The theater is a white church building on the right, shortly past the old schoolhouse.

Tickets will be available at the door; suggested donations are $5 for adults. Children will be admitted free of charge.