September 2019
Acting Black
Demystifying Racism
Preregistration required: alicem@kootasca.org or call 218-999-5883
Part spoken word, part stand-up comedy, part TED Talk, Acting Black is a critically acclaimed 60-minute solo show created to inspire open and honest conversations about race and diversity.
Using the power of art to investigate difficult concepts Acting Black takes us to the roots of American racism and its consequences for all of us by exploring the evolution of the Black stereotype, tracing the birth of its beginning from a single individual on a specific night in Louisville, Kentucky in 1828 to the racial conflicts we still endure to this day.
Writer/performer Carlyle Brown is a playwright-artist-thinker whose body of work through the years continues to bring fresh and riveting insights into the experience of race in America. Carlyle guides audience discussion following this powerful theatrical solo performance where he encourages personal and actionable solutions.
“Acting Black investigates the social construct of race and provides a way to talk about issues in a context in which it is safe to be uncomfortable. This experience is not about guilt but about understanding.” -Audience Member
“Acting Black is not really a play. The prolific Brown has written and performed in plays for one actor, in which he takes on characters and puts himself in a narrative context. Not this time. In the first half of Acting Black, Brown appears as a lecturer, using a PowerPoint presentation to explain the notion of “acting black,” its origins, as framed by the entertainment industry, and the scars it has caused and continues to inflect on American society. His lecture is performed without notes, very polished, laced with humor, anecdotes and descriptive imagery, but the man on stage is not playing a character—he is quite himself, speaking directly to us, the audience.” -Arthur Dorman, Talkin’ Broadway
Purchase TicketsOctober 2019
Oct. 11, 12, 18, 19 at 7:30. Sunday, 2:00 matinees are Oct. 13 and 20. Tickets are $15.
The Grand Rapids Players invites you to Deathtrap, directed by Steve Jaeger, Oct. 11-20 at the Reif Center. Two acts, one set, five characters– a sharp thriller spun as a play-within-a-play, Ira Levin’s hit Deathtrap will surprise even the sharpest connoisseurs of murder mysteries. Written by Ira Levin in 1978, this 2-act play is known as one of the biggest hits on Broadway, running for four years with almost 1800 performances.
Playwright Sidney Bruhl (John Peterson), once one of the brightest lights on Broadway has spent the past decade in the grip of the world’s worst case of writer’s block, and finds himself in the depths of despair — until he receives a package from his former student Clifford Anderson (Nate Pace). Inside is an unproduced script that’s better than anything Sidney has written in years. At the urging of his wife, Myra (Susie Mogan), Sidney undertakes a plan to lure Clifford to his country home and, through fair means or foul make that script his own. But shortly after Clifford arrives, it’s clear that things are not what they seem. Even Helga Ten Dorp (Marina Whight), the eccentric psychic/author from next door, and Porter Milgram(Greg Tuttle), Sidney’s observant attorney, can only speculate where the line between truth and deception lies.
Deathtrap was a 4-time Tony Award nominee for Best Play, Featured Actor, Featured Actress, and Best Director. With Deathtrap, playwright Levin received his second Edgar Award, for Best Play, as well.
Deathtrap is presented with special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc. NY.
Concordia Orchestra concert with the Itasca Strings Program students
Wednesday, October 30, 2019 at 7:00 pm
Wilcox Theater
Free and open to the public
The Concordia Orchestra from Concordia College, Moorhead, Minn., will present a joint concert with the Itasca Youth Chamber Orchestra. The concert is sponsored by the Itasca Orchestra and Strings Program, The Reif Performing Arts Center, Edward Jones (Kristina Gaalaas) and St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church. The concert is open to the public free of charge.
This concert is part of the orchestra’s 2019 regional tour which also includes stops in Alexandria, Bemidji, Duluth and Stillwater, Minn., and Grand Forks, N.D.
The 2019 Concordia Orchestra, conducted by director of orchestral activities, Kevin F.E. Sütterlin, will perform Mozart’s “The Magic Flute”; “The Life of King David: Concerto for Marimba”, written by Concordia associate professor Russell Peterson and featuring faculty soloist Dr. David P. Eyler, professor of percussion and director of percussion studies; “Dances in the Canebrakes” by Florence B. Price; and Modest Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”.
One of the college’s most distinctive performing groups, The Concordia Orchestra is an outstanding 66-member symphony orchestra that has earned national and international acclaim.
February 2020
Tickets available at the door.
Itasca Symphony Orchestra Concert
Saturday, February 15, 2020 at 7:00 pm
Wilcox Theater at the Reif Performing Arts Center
$17 adults
$15 seniors
$5 students
The Itasca Symphony Orchestra celebrates the 200th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven birth by starting their February concert out with Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture.
The concert will feature the exceptional talent of local musicians in a program that moves the spotlight around the sections of the orchestra. Violinist Kristine Arntson will solo in Bizet’s Meditation from Thais. A selection from a Joseph Haydn symphony nicknamed the “Horn Signal” will feature our strong French Horn section. The solo in the Adagio section of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet will be performed by Jan McKinney. If you didn’t hear enough from the opera Carmen at our November concert, you are in luck. This concert will include Carmen Suite 1.
In this concert selected Itasca Strings students will join us in playing an arrangement of music from the movie Jurassic Park.
March 2020
POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19 | NEW DATE TBD
The Grand Rapids Players presents The Hunchback of Notre Dame, March 20-29 at the Reif Center. Cast and crew of 50 includes local artists and musicians that guarantee to take you back to 15th Century Paris and Victor Hugo’s epic story of love, acceptance and what it means to be a hero. Tickets are on sale, now at the Reif Box Office and online at reifcenter.org. Visit grplayers.com for details!
May 2021
Tickets available by calling the Reif Box Office (218) 327-5780
The Box Office will be open to foot traffic
8:30 AM – 5 PM M-F; Monday, May 17
The Itasca Symphony Orchestra is happy to present their first live performance in over a year!
We are very excited to bring back the virtuosic pianist Alexander Sandor. Conductor Keith Swanson has selected music along with Sandor to highlight the strengths of the talented Twin Ports based piano player along with our local strings musicians. Sandor is known nationally as a Ragtime performer and has performed as a freelance classical soloist for over 20 years. “Sandor, who’s built like a wrestler, deploys tremendous power across the piano keyboard and also possesses a soft, light, heart moving touch…”- Grand Rapids Arts
Repertoire will include the popular St Paul Suite by Gustav Holtz, Bach’s joyful Keyboard Concerto No 4 in A Major followed by Gerald Finzi’s pastoral Eclogue for Piano and Strings.
The strings only concert will be presented to a limited audience and will run without intermission. Tickets will be available by calling the Reif Center box office at 218-327-5780 M, W, F noon-5:00. Seating will be chosen based on customer preference and available seating subject to social distancing. You will want to purchase ticket for your entire group as tickets sold at a later date may not be able to be seated with the group.
Tickets $20 each
Concert date – May 22nd
Concert time – 7:00 pm
Sponsored by : Julie Takkunen – Raymond James
August 2021
SPONSORED BY
Sunday, August 22, 2021 - 6PM
Myles Reif Performing Arts Center, Grand Rapids
Program:
Amanda Maier- Röntgen
Piano Trio in E flat major
Antonín Leopold Dvořák
Piano Trio no. 4 in E minor, op.90 "Dumky"
TCCC Artists:
Natalia Korenchuk - violin
Evgeny Zvonnikov - violin
Magdalena Sas - cello
Guest Artist:
Mary-Ellen Haupert - piano
Sunday, August 28, 2021 - 7PM
Watermark Art Center, Bemidji
Program:
"Wood Works" - Nordic Folk Tunes arranged by the Danish String Quartet
TCCC Artists:
Natalia Korenchuk - violin
Evgeny Zvonnikov - violin
Pedro Oviedo - viola
Magdalena Sas - cello
Emmy Rozanski - trombone solo
Third Coast Chamber Collective is a group of emerging musicians from diverse backgrounds, devoted to promoting the transformative power of chamber music. TCCC artists perform internationally and appeared in the world's most renowned concert halls such as the Carnegie Hall in New York City, Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, Austria, BOZAR in Brussels, Belgium, Herkulessaal in Munich, Germany, Witold Lutoslawski Concert Studio of the Polish Radio Orchestra in Warsaw, Poland, to mention a few.
This Summer, during the first edition of the Third Coast Chamber Collective Festival, artists from Russia, Poland, Paraguay and the USA come together to explore the beauty of compositions inspired by Scandinavian and Bohemian landscapes and traditional melodies. Songs of Our Home is a celebration of the rich and diverse heritage of nationalities that immigrated to the Iron Range and whose legacy, culture, and traditions are still deeply rooted in the area.
For more information about the Festival concerts please visit www.thirdcoastchambercollective.com www.itascaorchestra.org.
October 2021
Music, dance, laughs, and the age-old tale of “boy meets girl”.
Anything Goes is a Family Friendly hilarious shipboard romp, wrapped around one of Cole Porter’s most magical scores.Music and Lyrics by Cole PorterOriginal Book by P.G.Wodehouse & Guy Bolton and Howard Lindsay & Russel CrouseNew Book by Timothy Crouse & John Weidman
This version of ANYTHING GOES was originally produced on Broadway by Lincoln Center Theater in 1987.
THANK YOU TO SPONSOR
August 2022
SPONSORED BY
Presented by the Itasca Orchestra & Strings Program, the Third Coast Chamber Collective Festival 2022 features an exciting combination of French music and works by women composers of the 20th and 21st century.
Friday, August 12, 2022 at 7:00PM - TCCC/IOSP Festival Concert
This special event features music written by contemporary composers who draw inspiration from Indian Classical music.
Reena Esmail, Shirish Korde, Asha Srinivasan, Katherine Hoover, Akshaya Avril Tucker
For more information about the Festival concerts please call Itasca Orchestra & Strings Program (218) 327-5781
visit www.thirdcoastchambercollective.com www.itascaorchestra.org.
SPONSORED BY
Presented by the Itasca Orchestra & Strings Program, the Third Coast Chamber Collective Festival 2022 features an exciting combination of French music and works by women composers of the 20th and 21st century.
Saturday, August 13, 2022 - 6:30PM - TCCC/IOSP Festival Concert
French music and works by women composers performed by TCCC and Guest Artists: Leslie Shank, Satoko Hayami and Jennifer Olson.
Libby Larsen, Olivier Messiaen, Amy Beach, Francis Poulenc, Reena Esmail, Jean Françaix
For more information about the Festival concerts please call Itasca Orchestra & Strings Program (218) 327-5781
visit www.thirdcoastchambercollective.com www.itascaorchestra.org.