THE WINTERTIME BLAHS in Marquette? Naah.
If your interests run more artsy than outdoorsy, you’ve got a helluva weekend ahead of you.
First, the Medieval Dinner Theatre at the Masonic Center downtown, brought to you by the Forest Roberts Theatre and NMU. Both Friday and Saturday nights.
Dinner, drinking, dancing, singing, sword fighting, a hilarious play, an immersive medieval experience.
“It’s a way to engage the community in something that’s fun,” says Bill Digneit, NMU’s director of theatre, “and it’s also a way to raise funds for the arts community at NMU.”
Then Saturday, all day, is the Winter Roots Festival. A brand new happening, presented by a consortium of organizations. Seven hours of music downtown, at Peter White Public Library, the Marquette Commons, and the Ore Dock.
Workshops for music instruments and voice, folk dancing, folk rock, bluegrass and blues music, and singer-songwriters. Several of them.
A busy, diverse, and entertaining day. The ticket price for all the daytime activities? Ten bucks for everything, all the shows, all the dances, all the workshops.
Saturday night at Kaufman Auditorium, there’s more. The Marquette Symphony Orchestra, with their dynamic new conductor, Octavio Mas-Arocas. Three pieces–a romantic symphony, a tuba concerto, and intriguingly, a collaboration with an Ann Arbor bluegrass band, Westbound Situation.
“What we’ll have is an American concert,” says concertmaster Janis Peterson. “All the pieces are different but they’re all American. And the tuba player is unbelievable. You might think, “Oh, a tuba…But wait until you hear him!”
The tuba player is Evan Zegeil, who won a Marquette Symphony competition last year.
So a tuba, bluegrass, blues, Mas-Arocas, folk dancing, sword-fighting, and a medieval dinner? All in one wintry weekend?
Holy crap! What a town.
You got news? Email me at briancabell@gmail.com