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Atlanta Ballet's Sleeping Beauty
Photo: C. McCullers, Courtesy of Atlanta Ballet |
In
a city filled with original shows, world-renowned exhibitions and
spectacular performing arts facilities, audiences are looking forward
to another season of innovative arts and entertainment. Here is a look
at where you can find some of the best and brightest shows and
exhibits—those that make the city’s arts and entertainment scene a
show-stopping success.
CONCERT & THEATER VENUES
Alliance Theatre
The Alliance Theatre (404-733-4650, www.alliancetheatre. org) at
Woodruff Arts Center continues to bring new works, celebrated directors
and shows that range from musical comedies to classic dramas. The
2010-11 Season boasts eleven productions, six world premieres and five
wildly unique musicals.
The Center for Puppetry Arts
A unique cultural treasure, the Center for Puppetry Arts (404-873-3089,
www.puppet.org) offers year-round performances for all ages including
original adaptations of classic stories, new works and innovative
shows. The Center also is known for its creative workshops and hands-on
museum where visitors can experience the wonder of puppetry through
permanent and special exhibits, including the ongoing Jim Henson
exhibit featuring many of the puppets that Henson performed and
created.
Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre
The first major performing arts facility to be built in Metro Atlanta
in four decades, the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre (770- 916-2800,
www.cobbenergycentre.com) is a $145-million project that includes a
2,750-seat theater and a 10,000-square-foot ballroom, making it an
ideal venue for ballet performances and corporate meetings alike. The
centre features performances by the Atlanta Opera, the Atlanta Ballet,
the Atlanta Broadway Series, and popular concerts.
Ferst Center for the Arts
At the Ferst Center for the Arts (404-894-9600, www.ferstcenter.org),
located in the heart of Georgia Tech’s downtown campus, audiences have
been dazzled by national and international performers for 18 years. The
2010-2011 season includes Debbie Reynolds and Michael Bolton among the
Center’s music, dance and comedy performances. New this year, patrons
can select Club Seating at Jazz Performances.
The Fox Theatre
Making its place in history as the theatre where Gone With the Wind
debuted, the Fabulous Fox Theatre (404-881-2100, www.foxtheatre.org)
was originally built as an outlandish, opulent, grandiose monument in
the Roaring 20s, and since continues to run a series of movies, plays,
musicals, dance performances and concerts. Both Theater of the Stars
and Broadway Across America bring world-class shows to the Fox, as well
as a number of concerts and performances.
Jennie T. Anderson Theatre
Cobb County’s Jennie T. Anderson Theatre (770-528-8490,
www.prca.cobbcountyga. gov) is a performing arts stage at the Cobb
County Civic Center that hosts concerts, plays, recitals and other
events. Its Encore Series each year brings in some of the top
performing acts in the nation.
Rialto Center for the Arts
The world is at your fingertips at Georgia State University’s Rialto
Center for the Arts (404-413-9849, www.rialtocenter.org), where
international performers introduce Atlantans to art in all of its
cultural manifestations. The Center worked with Atlanta’s Loridans
Foundation to help put Atlanta on the dance “map.”
Spivey Hall
Located at Clayton State University, Spivey Hall (678-466-4200,
www.spiveyhall.org) presents jazz and classical music in one of the
best acoustical settings in Atlanta. The hall’s chandeliers, balcony
and luxuriously appointed setting have a European feel and lends to the
concert settings’ beauty.
Theatre in the Square
Now in its 28th season, Theatre in the Square (770-422-8369,
www.theatreinthesquare.com) reaches over 50,000 people a year via five
Main- Stage shows, two holiday shows, a summer show, a children’s show
and a children’s theatre arts camp. The remainder of 2010 includes
productions of Stealing Dixie, Conversations with My Wife, A Tuna Christmas and the Theatre for Youth production How I Became a Pirate.
PERFORMING ARTS
Atlanta Ballet
Entering its 81st season, Atlanta is home to the oldest professional
dance company in America, the Atlanta Ballet (404-873-5811,
www.atlantaballet. com). Applauded for classics such as Swan Lake and Romeo and Juliet since it gained professional status in 1967, the Atlanta Ballet is now noted for its versatile and inventive repertoire.
Atlanta Opera
In more than 250 performances and 75 productions since 1979, the
Atlanta Opera (404-881- 8801, www.atlantaopera.org) has entertained
more than 800,000 people while providing the highest in musical and
theatrical standards. The 2010-2011 season includes La bohème, Porgy and Bess, and Così fan tutte.
Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
The 2010-2011 season of the award-winning Atlanta Symphony Orchestra
(404-733-4900, www.atlantasymphony.org) celebrates the 10th season of
artistic partnership for Music Director Robert Spano and Principal
Guest Conductor Donald Runnicles. It will also be the Orchestra’s 66th
season, with more than 200 concerts planned and a newly opened
12,000-seat outdoor amphitheater.
Broadway Across America
The national production company Broadway Across America (800-278-4447,
www.broadwayacrossamerica.com) offers the hottest tickets in town. For
more than 25 years, Broadway Across America has brought blockbuster
shows direct from the Great White Way to Atlanta.
Georgia Shakespeare
Oglethorpe University’s 509-seat Conant Performing Arts Center is home
to Georgia Shakespeare (404-264-0020, www.gashakespeare. org), the
professional theater company of Atlanta’s finest artists who have been
showcasing the works of the master dramatist since its founding in 1985.
Theater of the Stars
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Theater of the Stars brings productions like CATS to Atlanta.
Photo: G Creative.
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Founded more than 50 years ago to produce and present the Broadway
musicals to regional theaters, the best of Broadway calls the Fox home
with Theater of the Stars (404-252-8960, www.theaterofthestars.com).
Productions of
CATS,
Sound of Music,
RAIN: A Tribute to the Beatles, and
9 to 5 highlight the 2010 season.
Theatrical Outfit
The Theatrical Outfit (404-577-5257, www.theatricaloutfit.org), for
almost 35 years, has been producing classic and contemporary theater
with an emphasis on work indigenous to the culture of the American
South. This August sees the world premiere of an epic comedy,
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, adapted for the stage by Tom Key.
MUSEUMS
Atlanta History Center
With its permanent and temporary exhibitions; its hands-on activities,
lectures and workshops; and its 33 acres of gardens, the opulent Swan
House and the Tullie Smith Farm, the Atlanta History Center
(404-814-4000, www.atlhist. org) offers more than enough to keep
visitors engaged and happy. The Center also oversees the Margaret
Mitchell House (404-249-7015, www.margaretmitchellhouse.com), the
birthplace of celebrated author Margaret Mitchell, who penned the
classic Southern tale
Gone With the Wind.
Booth Western Art Museum
The state’s second-largest art museum, downtown Cartersville’s Booth
Western Art Museum (770-387-1300, www.boothmuseum.org), is also an
affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution. Permanent galleries American
West Gallery, Cowboy Gallery, Faces of the West, Heading West, The
Modern West, Sagebrush Ranch, James and Carolyn Millar Presidential
Gallery, War is Hell, and a Sculpture Court are being joined by an
Ansel Adams temporary exhibit starting in September.
Fernbank
The city’s two renowned science museums, Fernbank Museum of Natural
History (404- 929-6300, www.fernbankmuseum.org) and Fernbank Science
Center (678-874-7102, www. fernbank.edu), make children of all ages
“ooh” and “aah” through the museums’ corridors. From large-scale
dinosaur fossils to the fivestory- high, 72-foot-wide IMAX movie screen
to the planetarium and observatory, science reigns supreme at Fernbank.
Gone With the Wind Museum
Visit “Scarlett on the Square” in a Marietta museum dedicated to the
beloved Southern classic. The Gone With the Wind Museum (770-794-5576,
www.mariettaga.gov/gwtw) features an extensive collection of
memorabilia, including the original Bengaline honeymoon gown worn by
Vivien Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara in the movie, promotional pieces and
collectibles, rare foreign copies of the novel, as well as Margaret
Mitchell’s personal volumes.
High Museum of Art
The High Museum of Art (404-733-5000, www. high.org) has long attracted
attention as the leading Southeastern art museum. Patrons can look
forward to works by Dali in August and Titian coming this fall, in
addition to the always compelling permanent collection.
Imagine It! Children’s Museum
A place for toddlers and young children to discover through play,
Imagine It! (404-659-5437, www.childrensmuseumatlanta.org) has
consistently been ranked by national parenting magazines as one of the
best children’s museums in the country. All hands will be engaged in
the museum’s art centers, crawl spaces, water discovery, dress up
areas, a play grocery store and other exhibits aimed at letting
children discover and explore.
Michael C. Carlos Museum
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The Michael C. Carlos Museum showcases 16,000 artifacts from
ancient Egypt to the present. |
Michael C. Carlos Museum (404-727-4282, www.carlos.emory.edu) at Emory
University made headlines when it discovered held the lost mummy of
Pharaoh Ramesses I in its collection— and then returned it to Egypt.
Continuing to bring history to life, the Carlos Museum draws on
collections from around the world.
Tellus Science Museum
One of Georgia's newest museums, the Tellus Science Museum
(770-606-5700, www.tellusmuseum.org) in Cartersville brings the past,
present and future to life in four unique galleries. Kids will cower
beneath the Tyrannosaurus Rex, become mad scientists in The Collins
Family Big Backyard, and get up close and personal with sparkling gems
and minerals, a steam-powered locomotive, a helicopter and a jet
cockpit.
CULTURE FOR KIDS
Atlanta Ballet’s Centre for Dance Education
Since its founding in 1996, the Centre (404- 873-5811,
www.atlantaballet.com/centre) has become one of the top ten dance
education facilities in the country. Offering classes for twoyear- olds
to pre-professionals and adults, the Ballet recently formed a
relationship with Kennesaw State University to give students at the
Centre the opportunity to pursue dance degrees.
Alliance Française d’Atlanta
Through AF’s Bébé Alliance and Petite Alliance programs (404-875-1211,
www.afatl.com), kids from 12 months to five years old enjoy learning
the French language through various activities.
Applause for Kids
Applause for Kids Performing Arts Studio (404- 459-0409,
www.applauseforkids.com) teaches acting, singing and dancing to
children ages three years and up with a unique emphasis on instilling
self-esteem - while having lots of fun.
National Museum of Patriotism
Addressing the question “Where will the next generation learn what it
means to be an American?” Atlanta’s National Museum of Patriotism
(404-524-0755, www.museumofpatriotism.org) is the only museum in the
nation dedicated to promoting the history of patriotism in America.
Sophie Hirsh Srochi Jewish Discovery Museum
An interactive museum for children, the Sophie Hirsh Srochi Discovery
Museum (678-812- 4000, www.atlantajcc.org) is part museum, part
theatre, and all hands-on. Children explore Jewish values, traditions,
holidays and heritage.
