WARREN MILLER PERFORMING ARTS CENTER
BIG SKY – Now that all the contracts have been signed and dates reserved, Warren Miller Performing Arts Center’s Artistic Director John Zirkle has announced WMPAC’s 2014-2015 season lineup. He says this season will be “twice as good as the first.”
WMPAC’s sophomore season kicks off Dec. 27 with the Canadian theater group Wonderheads presenting “Loon,” a captivating tale of a man in love with the moon. Perfect for all ages, the timeless story is told employing a masked actor (Wonderhead) with a soundtrack by the Portland Cello Project, which performed at WMPAC last season.
Due to last year’s enthusiastic response to the improv group Second City, this season’s comedy troupe, the Upright Citizens Brigade Touring Company, is booked for two shows, with performances on Jan. 9 and 10. Founded by Amy Poehler and other celebrated comedians, this is the premier improv group in New York City.
On Jan. 17, the first musical group of the season takes the stage in stellar fashion, with 10-time Grammy award winners Take Six performing the soulful a cappella tunes that inspired Quincy Jones to describe them as the “baddest vocal cats on the planet.”
Feb. 8 sees a homegrown, innovative and collaborative performance with the Big Sky Commission – Montana composer/musicians Mike Reynolds and Phillip Aaberg – taking the stage to perform an original work by Aaberg, commissioned just for WMPAC. Joining them is Grammy-nominated fiddler Darol Anger, in town for Big Sky Big Grass, who will match bows with Angella Ahn, of the renowned Ahn Trio.
The next act, on Feb. 14, is timed for a perfect romantic night at the theater as the world-renowned Nrityragram dance company brings their unique mix of traditional Indian dance with a distinctly modern edge.
Perhaps WMPAC’s most compelling and unique experience of the year arrives on stage for three nights, Feb. 26-28: Sojourn Theater’s presentation of “How To End Poverty in 90 Minutes.” An interactive theater piece, these entertaining and inspiring evenings end each night with the presentation of $1,000 to a beneficiary the audience selects.
On March 7, Jad Abumrad, co-creator and host of the incredibly popular NPR show “Radiolab,” appears for a talk the 2011 Macarthur Fellow describes as a “clinic in storytelling.” Two weeks later, on March 20, two more NPR superstars will appear at WMPAC when “From the Top” host and award-winning pianist Christopher O’Riley shares the stage with the international Grammy-winning force behind modern tango music, Pablo Ziegler.
The 2014-2015 WMPAC season ends on March 28 with the same act that kicked off last year’s performances: the James Sewell Ballet. This troupe, fast becoming a Big Sky dance institution, will perform a work created in Big Sky last summer as part of their Twin Sky intensive, as well as a number that pays homage to their Minnesota heritage in a collaboration with Garrison Keillor: “Guy Noir, Private Eye.”
—
All performances begin at 7:30 p.m. and tickets will be released in three blocks throughout the season. Purchase tickets at warrenmillerpac.org.
Dec 1: Wonderheads, Upright Citizens Brigade Touring Company, Take Six
Jan. 1: Big Sky Commission, Nirtygaram, Sojourn Theater
Feb. 1: Jad Abumrad, Christopher O’Riley and Pablo Ziegler, James Sewell Ballet
