No matter the venue, the Midstate delivers arts and entertainment of such a high quality you may forget you’re not in the Big Apple. For Broadway lovers who can’t make it to New York, the Grand Opera House in Macon offers its Broadway Series, performed by professional touring companies. The 2009/2010 season includes the high-tech acrobatics of “Cirque Dreams Illumination,” the Vegas-style tribute show “The Rat Pack is Back,” “Camelot,” “Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance,” “Neil Berg’s 100 Years of Broadway” and “Avenue Q.” The Grand is also host to Mercer University’s GrandKids arts education program. Serving more than 6,000 students in Central Georgia, the program works to expose young elementary schoolers to professional music, dance and theatre productions that they may not otherwise have access to. This year’s lineup includes “Chasing George Washington,” “Caribbean Sound – Pan By Storm” and “I Have A Dream: The Life and Times of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”
Built in 1883 and designed by the preeminent theatrical architect W.R. Gunn, the Grand’s stage was the largest in the Southeast at the time. Gunn also designed Hawkinsville’s Old Opera House, which underwent a $1.7 million renovation in 2000 and now offers a full season of events and shows. The Pettigrew Center on the campus of Fort Valley State University is another exceptional venue and has featured appearances by the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson and poet Nikki Giovanni.
Macon Little Theatre, the area’s most historic community theatre group, opened its 76th season with the musical “Chicago.” Theatre Macon, another excellent community theater, offers a season including “On Golden Pond,” “The Man Who Came to Dinner” and “Hello, Dolly!” Warner Robins Little Theatre and the Perry Players in Houston County and Forsyth’s Backlot Players also offer full seasons of musicals and theater productions. Theatre Macon and the Backlot Players foster young thespians with their own youth companies in addition to their regular slate of shows and musicals.
The Macon Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1976, first began performing on the small stage of Ware Hall at Mercer University. The fact that it has grown into a significant regional orchestra that draws from a roster of 200 professional musicians is a testament to the Midstate’s strong community support.The Macon Concert Association books soloists and ensembles for concert series at Wesleyan College, which are open to the community. The Central Georgia Opera Guild presents two touring operas each season at the Grand Opera House. And area colleges and universities such as Mercer, Macon State and Wesleyan share their musical talent pool with recitals by students and faculty, many times for free.
Fickling Music Hall on Mercer’s campus offers a wide variety of performances throughout the year, many of which are free. Little Carnegie of the South, a unique venue for classical recitals in Macon, was renovated in 2002. The 19th-century historic home, converted into a concert hall and art gallery, books regular classical performances and exhibits. An outside stage is also set for jazz, rock, folk and bluegrass shows.
One of the biggest annual events in Middle Georgia is the annual Georgia National Fair in Perry, which books several big-name concerts every October. The fair’s concert stages are set amid the fireworks, bright lights and wafting smells of popcorn and funnel cakes on the fairground’s 1,100 acres. The 2009 lineup includes “American Idol” winner David Cook, Disney Channel heartthrob Mitchel Musso and country hitmakers Montgomery Gentry and Rodney Atkins. The fairgrounds also host occasional concerts by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra organized by the Houston Arts Alliance.
Houston’s Arts Alliance recently launched a new visual arts education program in association with Houston County schools. Students gather to listen to a storyteller as an artist paints alongside in the style of a famous painter or genre whose story is being told. Programs in the past have included Michelangelo, Monet, Picasso, Rembrandt and Van Gogh.
December is ushered in with a flurry of tutus and pink slippers. The Nutcracker of Middle Georgia, performed yearly over five days in early December, has been a Christmas tradition since 1985. A cast of world-class professional dancers are flanked by a multitude of local students from area dance academies. Surrounded by the opulence of the Grand Opera House, the elaborate costumes, gigantic backdrops and the swell of orchestral music, there is no better way to begin the Christmas season. The International City Ballet, based in Warner Robins, was founded in 2002 and already has an excellent reputation for performances and instruction.
The Museum of Arts and Science in Macon is the area’s best-known venue for art exhibits. As Georgia’s largest museum dedicated to arts and sciences, the facility includes three galleries, a mini-zoo, an auditorium and classrooms for educational programs, a planetarium and an observatory. In October 2009 the museum welcomes filmmaker Ken Burns for the opening of an exhibit on the life of late Macon native William Segal. Burns made three films about Segal, a self-made millionaire who was also an accomplished painter and philosopher.
Local galleries and art shops provide invaluable support to area artists, providing gallery space and hosting frequent exhibitions and auctions. Macon Arts showcases top-tier works by local talent in its gallery downtown. The Middle Georgia Art Association also offers regular exhibits and art competitions. For the Eberts and Roepers of Middle Georgia, there are countless venues showcasing the art of filmmaking. The Cox Capitol Theatre in downtown Macon was recently restored to its 1930s luster as a movie/concert house, complete with a restaurant. In 2006, a local group of independent film enthusiasts launched the annual Macon Georgia Film & Video Festival to highlight the cinematic arts and give exposure to independent and experimental films. In its inaugural year, the festival received more than 75 entries from across the country and Canada. Now in its fifth year, the event has grown into a weeklong celebration with special movie screenings, film workshops and filmmaker Q&As. In 2009 MAGA (as the film festival is known) featured an appearance by 1970s-era star Karen Black, which led to Black making a movie in Macon.
Every month at the historic Douglass Theatre in downtown Macon, the Macon Film Guild screens award-winning foreign films, usually unavailable at major movie theaters. The Douglass opened in the 1920s as the first local theater to offer quality entertainment to the African-American community. Over the years world-renowned jazz, rock and blues performers such as Otis Redding, Bessie Smith, James Brown, Ma Rainey and Little Richard performed on the Douglass stage. Now fully restored and open to all audiences, the Douglass is known for its 35mm, 3-D, limited-run and premiere films. The Douglass is also the site for part of the Pan African Film Festival, presented by the Tubman African American Museum.
On the first Friday of every month, the lights stay on in downtown Macon and the streets crowd with music and art lovers. During First Friday festivities, downtown shops, restaurants, galleries and museums extend their hours and offer exclusive exhibits, drink specials and live music. The Contemporary Arts Exchange — four stories of artists’ studios — opens especially to the public on First Fridays, and the vintage bookstore Golden Bough Books holds poetry readings and acoustic performances. Although events at First Friday change every month, they often include dinner specials at downtown eateries and special art exhibits at Macon Arts along with a plethora of other events in a variety of venues.
