Live music & arts highlight WMPAC’s hybrid festivities
Big Sky’s Warren Miller Performing Arts Center continues its hybrid programming with a concert by Bobby Conte Thornton on Saturday, December 5th at 7pm. Run time is one hour. Tickets range $10–$15.
A Broadway star and part-time Big Sky resident, the evening will feature audience favorites and newly arranged classics. Thornton’s Broadway debut came in A Bronx Tale, directed by Robert De Niro and Jerry Zaks. He has also appeared on television’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Madam Secretary. Thornton will perform a selection of Broadway tunes and be accompanied by Broadway music director James Sampliner on piano and Michael Steele on standup and electric bass.
An additional night of hybrid stage entertainment follows with Manual Cinema’s Christmas Carol on Saturday, December 12th at 6pm. Run time is one hour. Tickets are $15.
In this world premiere online event created for audiences of all ages, interdisciplinary performance collective Manual Cinema takes on Charles Dickens’s holiday classic with a visually inventive adaptation made to broadcast directly to your home. An avowed holiday skeptic, Aunt Trudy has been recruited to channel her late husband, Joe’s, famous Christmas cheer. From the isolation of her Chicago apartment, she reconstructs his annual Christmas Carol puppet show – over a Zoom call while the family celebrates Christmas Eve under lockdown. But as Trudy becomes more absorbed in her own version of the story, the puppets take on a life of their own, and the family’s call transforms into a stunning cinematic adaptation of Dickens’ classic ghost story.
Montana Shakespeare in the Parks presents Hamlet: A Radio Play on Saturday, December 19th at 7pm. Run time is 105 minutes. Tickets are $10. This live broadcast will be accessible to virtual audiences only.
Often considered Shakespeare’s best work, Hamlet is a tragedy of madness, ghosts and jealousy, whose enduring question of “To be, or not to be?” has proven timeless. Witness the live broadcast featuring the talented actors of Montana Shakespeare in the Parks undertaking a dramatic reading of the play.
Finally, In a Landscape: Classical Music in the Wild is set for December 27th and 28th. Show time is 3pm on Sunday, followed by another 3pm matinee and 8pm show on Monday. Run time is one hour. Tickets range $10–$25.
Staged in the heart of Big Sky’s cross country ski trail system on the Resort golf course’s driving range, patrons will ski or snowshoe into a labyrinthine track custom-designed for this event. In the center of the track, award-winning concert pianist Hunter Noack performs on a 9’ Steinway grand piano as he presents In a Landscape. Each guest of the performance will be given a custom set of high-quality wireless headphones that broadcasts the hour-long live performance as they explore Big Sky’s stunning landscape by ski, snowshoe, or foot. As Noack said, “the music becomes a soundtrack to your experience in the landscape.”
Note: Warren Miller events may be experienced as part of a limited in-person audience or by way of virtual broadcast. Details vary by performance.
For further information or to purchase tickets for these performances and other upcoming events, visit www.warrenmillerpac.org. •
