UCA Public Appearances has selected eight shows for its 2008-09 season.
“This is a very bright season of great shows that demonstrate the same variety we have presented over the past eight years,” said Guy Couch, director of UCA Public Appearances since the 1,200-seat Reynolds Performance Hall opened in September 2000. “We have lined up a group of shows that are sure to please the UCA community, as well as individuals and families in Conway and all over Central Arkansas. This really may be ‘The Perfect Season.'”Opening the season in the beautiful Donald W. Reynolds Performance Hall will be the Golden Dragon Acrobats of China Sept. 19-20. This amazing company represents the best of time-honored traditions of Chinese acrobatics, which began more than 25 centuries ago.
During Homecoming Week, two Motown forces, the Temptations and the Four Tops, take the stage together for a concert that may literally bring down the house. Lucky ticket holders will be dancing to hits like “My Girl,” “The Way You Do the Things You Do,” “Ain’t No Woman Like the One I Love,” and “Standing in the Shadow of Love,” and more of the greatest do-wop hits of all time. UCA President Lu Hardin and his wife, Mary, will host this once-in-a-lifetime show, scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 9, with a special 8 p.m. curtain.
Remaining shows in the Fall Season include a fascinating classical concert called Marsalis Brasilianos, featuring saxophonist Branford Marsalis and the 30-member Filharmonia Brasileira in a tribute to the music of Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos (Oct. 20); a program of modern dance by Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin called Minus One, performed by the 29-member Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montreal (Nov. 11); and a Sunday afternoon performance of “A Celtic Christmas” by the Boys of the Lough on Dec. 7 at 4 p.m.
Rounding out the Season in the Spring of 2009 is the very hot Argentine ballroom dance show called Tango Fire on Feb. 5, and the wonderful Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band on March 5. The 2008-2009 Season culminates with a concert by America’s Bluegrass Sweetheart Rhonda Vincent and her band, The Rage, on April 30.
Season tickets are now on sale for the 2008-2009 Season. Call or come by UCA Ticket Central during regular box office hours, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. The toll free phone number is 866-810-0012. Conway residents should call 450-3265. More information about the Season is available online at www.uca.edu/reynolds. Single tickets to all shows go on sale on Aug. 11.
Couch announced before the April 24 performance of the ballet Carmen that he was stepping down as director of Public Appearances at the end of June.
“When I took this job in July 2000, I told myself that I would build the series and take it through the UCA Centennial, in 2007,
