Governors State University Center for Performing Arts’ 2022–23 Season is a Soulful Celebration of Music, Dance, and Theatre

Governors State University Center For Performing Arts 2022-23 Season (Provided Photo)

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Governors State University Center For Performing Arts 2022-23 Season (Provided Photo)
Governors State University Center For Performing Arts 2022-23 Season (Provided Photo)
INFORMATION PROVIDED BY JANE COX, GOVERNORS STATE UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR PERFORMING ARTS

UNIVERSITY PARK, ILL. (July 27, 2022) – Governors State University’s Center for Performing Arts’ (the Center’s) 2022–23 Season will feature an eclectic mix of music, dance, and theatre.

From celebrating diverse cultures with Ailey II, Mariachi Herencia de México, and the State Ballet Theatre of Ukraine, to honoring veterans and bringing multi-generational families together with the circus-style adventure Air Play, the season has something for everyone.

The Center also remains committed to presenting works that activate compassion and connection through courageous, imaginative programming. The season kicks off with a new musical: RED SUMMER, presented by MPAACT (Maat African Centered Theater), marking MPAACT’s seventh and most ambitious partnership with the Center. RED SUMMER takes place during the summer of 1919, the bloodiest summer in Chicago’s history. The musical bridges the past to the present and illustrates how little life in the U.S. has changed in over a century.

Features also include DRUMLINE Live!, a high-energy show that brings the experience of historically Black colleges and universities to life on stage with musical tributes to Motown, Prince, and Michael Jackson, and choreography inspired by Tina Turner and James Brown.

The Center’s Opera Up Close series offers 150 audience members the opportunity to experience the awesome power of the unamplified human voice up close, seated on stage with the performers, while sampling themed culinary offerings. In its 12th season, Opera Up Close presents the humorous Battle of the Baritones on October 9 and Happy Birthday, Mozart! on January 29, featuring musicians from the Lyric Opera performing arias and duets from Mozart’s most beloved operas while accompanied by musicians from the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra.

The Center’s Creating Compassionate Communities series continues with academic theatre productions Cloud 9 in November and Othello in April. In Cloud 9, adults play children; men and women play opposite genders; and a white man plays a black man. Playwright Caryl Churchill crafts a biting commentary of social structures and an intelligent and comedic show that will challenge societal perceptions.

April’s Othello is set in modern day but retains Shakespeare’s original text with a twist. Othello is a successful Black woman who has everything: power, respect, and the love of her fair Desdemona— not to mention the contempt of the cunning, back-stabbing, ladder-climbing Iago. Exploring the intersectionality of gender, sexual orientation, race, and even religion, this powerful tale of prejudice, discrimination, and jealousy is full of surprises.

The Center for Performing Arts thanks our generous partners, funders, and individual contributors, including The National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Midwest, First Midwest Bank A Division of Old National Bank, and the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

All tickets for 2022–23 shows are now on sale.

GSU students, faculty, and staff qualify for discounted tickets with a valid GSU email address or ID.

More information, ticket prices, and preview videos are available at CenterTickets.net.

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