Broadway, diversity highlight Norton Center for the Arts’ 49th Season
Blockbuster entertainment, cultural collaborations featured in lineup
Centre College’s Norton Center for the Arts has announced its 2022-23 Performing Arts Season.
“Reveal Bash” to announce its 49th season.
Internationally renowned artists will hit the stage this season—along with blockbuster Broadway performances like Hairspray and Chicago—and genre-bending maestros like Béla Fleck and The Guess Who. The increasingly popular TasteMAKER Series is back, along with other creative ways for the community to enjoy world-class performing arts here in Danville, Kentucky.
Centre College faculty, staff and students can enjoy the premium entertainment, access to artists and scholars with added benefit: faculty and staff enjoy deep discounts and perks like payroll deduction, while students receive free tickets to performances.
Norton Center Executive Director Steve Hoffman said the Norton Center prides itself on bringing great stories to the local community/campus in unique and creative ways.
“This is the place where you can share the stage with professional performers, engage in thoughtful community conversations and make personal connections through our own diverse stories,” Hoffman said. “The series is filled with inspiring stories that invite audiences to enjoy, appreciate and be transformed.”
“Bold” just barely describes the opening performance of the season: Tami Neilson, a mix of Patsy Cline and Peggy Lee, will kick off the season Sept. 11 in Weisiger Theatre. She’s followed by Symbio (Sept. 30), a contemporary music duo from Sweden that infuses folk, world and infectious beats into its compositions.
“Our Weisiger Theatre performances consistently bring unique arts experiences that you won’t find anywhere else,” Hoffman said. “Our TasteMAKER Series was born from these unique experiences, and I invite anyone with a passion for adventure to try out these performances.”
Neilson and Symbio are joined on the TasteMAKER Series by Step Afrika! (Nov. 13), Dominic Cheli (Feb. 24), Kathy Mattea and Suzy Boggus (Mar. 10), and Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain and Edgar Meyer (April 27).
Mattea and Boggus, two country music legends, hit the stage for their “Together at Last” tour, which will pair two careers worth of heartwarming stories and their biggest hits on the Newlin Hall stage. Fleck, Hussain and Meyer, who will join special guest Rakesh Chaurasia, have together been nominated for 47 Grammy Awards, with 21 combined Grammys, including one for the trio’s own recording.
The Broadway performances begin Oct. 11 with Chicago, followed by Hairspray on Nov. 1. In the spring, CATS will visit the Norton Center on Feb. 27 and The Pirates of Penzance come ashore March 24.
“Our Broadway performances this year are truly ‘can’t miss,’” Hoffman said. “These are some of the most iconic stories that musical theatre can offer, and you’ll have the chance to see them right here in Danville, Kentucky, in one of the nation’s premier performing arts venues.”
Harry Potter fans will not want to miss the hilarious “unauthorized Harry experience” of Potted Potter on Dec. 1. From there, Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy will perform with their children in A Celtic Family Christmas on Dec. 9. Fun and festive programs highlight this year’s Norton Center schedule, including the a capella social media sensations Voctave performing Feb. 17.
Legendary rock group The Guess Who, best known for 14 Top-40 charted hits including “American Woman,” will rock out April 14. Circus DuBois, as featured in the smash hit film, The Greatest Showman, will perform May 4. The season concludes with The Galvin Cello Quartet in Weisiger Theatre on May 12.
Buying a season subscription package is the best way to experience the Norton Center: buy tickets to three or more performances and unlock access to the best seats prior to tickets going on sale to the public, exclusive benefits and savings up to 25 percent off—and as a special Centre perk, faculty and staff receive double the subscription discount.
“Don’t wait—you can purchase a subscription right now,” Hoffman said. “That’s the best way to save money, beat the line and enjoy everything the Norton Center has to offer. Our staff does a fantastic job helping people through the buying process and is ready to help you with exactly what you need.”
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The We Were Here Project Art Exhibition — August through December 2022
In a very special collaboration between the Norton Center, Centre College and the Danville-Boyle County African-American Historical Society, The Norton Center will play host to the “We Were Here”: African-American Experiences from Boyle County art exhibition, a free exhibit featuring stories from the Danville-Boyle County African-American Historical society. The exhibit is in partnership with the Centre College Departments of Anthropology and History and will have an oral history class project as part of the program.
Two fall performances will tie into the exhibit: Makin’ Cake (Oct. 4), featuring creative change agent Dasha Kelly Hamilton; Crystal Wilkinson, Kentucky’s Poet Laureate and Casey County native; and Danville native Frank X Walker, the first African-American writer to be named Kentucky Poet Laureate. Eric Owens and singers from the Curtis Opera Theatre perform Nov. 19. Each event will feature a free community conversation.
“Artistic storytelling has long been our goal at the Norton Center, and the We Were Here project is no different,” Hoffman said. “It’s an extensive campus and community collaboration that will bring esteemed authors, artists and educators together to build bridges for our connected future.”
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Learn more and view the complete Norton Center for the Arts 2022-23 Performing Arts Season here.
To purchase a ticket subscription, contact the Norton Center Box Office (open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.) at 859-236-4692, email nortoncenter@centre.edu or visit nortoncenter.com. Not ready to buy a subscription? Regular-priced tickets will go on sale Aug. 9.
About the Norton Center for the Arts
With an annual visitation reaching over 50,000, Centre College’s Norton Center for the Arts is home to a world-class annual performing arts series of professional touring artists. Site of both the 2000 and 2012 Vice Presidential Debates, the Center serves as a college and community showplace for such top national—and international—acts as Dolly Parton, Yo-Yo Ma, ZZ Top, and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra; along with Broadway musicals, international dance and theatre companies, and a lineup of award-winning culturally and ethnically diverse global artists. Since its opening in 1973, the internationally recognized performing arts center has helped make Danville, Kentucky a “powerhouse palace of culture” (Louisville Courier Journal).
Great performances are just the beginning of the Norton Center experience. The non-profit educational arts organization provides opportunities for Centre students—and the entire community—to creatively explore the complexities and connectedness of the human story while engaging directly with touring and local artists through jam sessions, panel discussions, workshops, masterclasses, and social events every season. In addition to the performing arts, the Norton Center boasts an expansive display of visual art and sculpture year-round, along with a rotating schedule of special exhibitions.
