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Category: Performance

Door County is home to a selection of performance venues and ensembles unmatched by any other small communities in America. Birch Creek brings jazz and classical music to a rustic barn, Midsummer’s Music Festival tours the peninsula for intimate concerts, and the Peninsula Music Festival awes visitors and locals alike at the Door Community Auditorium each august. Find schedules for these and many other venues here.

  • Southern Door High School Theater Takes Center Stage

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    Photos courtesy of the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center. High school theater programs offer invaluable experiences to students, whether they eventually pursue theater professionally or not. The skills a student can develop by participating in a production are multifaceted: time management, public speaking, thinking on their feet, poise, teamwork, patience, taking on responsibility and much […]

  • A Life in Music: Donald Bittorf Led Bittorf Brothers for 60 Years

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    It started with a show at the Carlsville Bar. Sixty years later, brothers Donald and Wally Bittorf were still at it, playing country and western music together up and down the peninsula until they literally couldn’t play any more.  Donald Bittorf, a member of the Bittorf Brothers country and western band, died Oct. 25 at […]

  • Griffon String Quartet Presents Third Season

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    Midsummer’s Music’s quartet-in-residence, the Griffon String Quartet (midsummersmusic.com), will present its third season of concerts, community-outreach programs and educational events, including private string lessons through the YMCA in Sturgeon Bay, virtual instruction with Washington Middle School, educational videos for the Boys & Girls Club of Door County and more. The quartet will also present four […]

  • Peninsula Players’ Online Series Continues

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    Peninsula Players Theatre’s online interview series – Peninsula Players Presents – will continue its episodes beyond the mid-October closing of the theater’s regular performance season. The host of the series, Artistic Director Greg Vinkler, will shift from interviewing company members to exploring the theater’s history, and Audra Baakari Boyle, the theater company’s business manager and […]

  • Join DCA’s Let’s Play! Drum Competition

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    Last week, Door Community Auditorium (DCA) and Jahmés Tony Finlayson – a Milwaukee-based percussionist, workshop facilitator and Reiki practitioner – hosted a Circle of Drums residency.  Finlayson presented a concert and several educational segments, which will soon be available to the public. One of these activities is a video session about how to make a […]

  • Northern Sky Presents ‘Bone Dance’ ReBOOnion

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    Join Northern Sky Theater on Oct. 31, 7 pm, for a virtual Bone Dance ReBOOnion – a slightly spooky (and very fun) walk down memory lane to revisit Bone Dance: the theater company’s cult-classic collection of ghost songs and stories. The show’s six original cast members – plus performers from subsequent productions and puppet master Ralph […]

  • Door Shakespeare to Stream ‘The Comedy of Errors’

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    Door Shakespeare will stream its second virtual production, The Comedy of Errors, to homes Oct. 27 – Nov. 16. Purchase tickets ($16 per single, $30 per couple, $40 for a full house) online at doorshakespeare.com or by calling 920.854.7111.  The Comedy of Errors tells the story of a farcical misadventure between two sets of identical […]

  • A Musician in Quarantine

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    Vanessa McGowan on what happens when music is ripped away  During a normal year, Vanessa McGowan spends her time touring the country as a bass player with Grammy-winning and Grammy-nominated bands that command audiences of thousands. It’s a career that puts her on the road 10 months of the year. She’s accustomed to sleeping on […]

  • SD Community Auditorium to Livestream Copper Box Concert

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    Join the Southern Door (SD) Community Auditorium virtually Oct. 24, 7 pm, for a night of free, livestreamed music by Copper Box, sponsored by Door County Medical Center. Copper Box, a roots and Americana quartet, is a genre-bending celebration of fusion roots rock that channels the communal feel of a small-town party. Husband-and-wife duo Danny […]

  • Dark Songs Goes Virtual

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    Following a successful livestream debut of the Steel Bridge Songfest in June, the Steel Bridge Creative Foundation is moving forward in the same vein for its spooky-themed Dark Songs (EdgarAllanPolka.com), which will be streamed Oct. 23 and 24, 7 pm.  Normally hosted in Sturgeon Bay’s Holiday Music Motel, the event – involving artists from around the […]

  • TAP Marquee Restoration Begins

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    Work to restore the iconic Third Avenue Playhouse (TAP) marquee in downtown Sturgeon Bay has begun. Workers have removed the tiles from under the canopy and the fascia along the front edge. The rusted porcelain tiles will be replaced with aluminum panels, and the chaser light band will be replicated using new LED lamps and […]

  • Birch Creek Welcomes New Trustees

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    Birch Creek has welcomed Diane Taillon and Sam Carmen to its 18-member board of trustees.  Taillon, owner/broker of Arbor Crowne Properties, joined the board for the first time during the October meeting. She’s been in the real estate business since 2003, and prior to that, she was a pediatric orthotist who developed the largest orthotic […]

  • Northern Sky Presents Virtual ‘I Love a CabaRAY!’

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    Northern Sky Theater will continue its virtual season with I Love a CabaRAY! – a virtual cabaret featuring actor/singer Ray Jivoff on Oct. 24, 5 pm. Most recently seen as the titular “Dad” in Dad’s Season Tickets, Jivoff will bring his sense of fun and stunning vocal chops to bear on the Great American Songbook, some […]

  • Peninsula Players Presents Audio Production of ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’

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    Peninsula Players Theatre, in collaboration with Chicago Radio Theatre, will present a dramatic, live audio production of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue, adapted and directed by Kevin Christopher Fox, at peninsulaplayers.com on Oct. 23, 9 pm. An audio recording of the production – complete with the talents of skilled actors, plus sound […]

  • The Federal Theatre Project, Part Two

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    The Negro Theatre Unit  Last week we looked at how the Federal Theatre Project (FTP) – a federally funded theater program born out of the New Deal – made great strides in providing struggling artists with a financial safety net following the Great Depression.  But the FTP was also a platform for presenting progressive ideas to […]

  • Northern Sky Presents Virtual ‘Lipstick Optional’

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    With its rich canon of original work, Northern Sky Theater has brought dozens of iconic female characters to the stage. It will reflect on this rich history in Lipstick Optional: Celebrating the Women of Northern Sky, premiering Oct. 17, 7 pm.  Lipstick Optional will celebrate women not only as characters and performers, but also as […]

  • Washington Island Graduate Participates in Mystery Concert

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    The Wisconsin Music Ventures (WMV) will host its twelfth official Sunday Brunch Surprise Concert via the Zoom on Oct. 18, 11:30 am. The Sunday Brunch Surprise series is an online concert series featuring Wisconsin-based musicians via Zoom. The concerts are scheduled on the first and third Sunday of each month and last about 45 minutes. Audience members […]

  • The Living Newspaper

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    The Federal Theatre Project, Part One Following the greatest economic disaster this country had ever faced, the New Deal made funding for the arts one of its largest priorities. Five government-funded arts projects were born out of Federal Project Number One, and though these projects were slowly phased out and defunded over time, one of […]

  • Caldwell Joins Northern Sky Board

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    Northern Sky Theater has welcomed Susan Caldwell to its board of directors. A former University of Nebraska faculty member and manager at Nestle USA, Caldwell has long been involved in nonprofit leadership, serving in various capacities with organizations including the Girl Scouts USA board, the Purdue University alumni board and church committees. She’s also been […]

  • An ‘Existential Threat’: Report Details Challenges for State Arts and Cultural Organizations

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    During any other year, Door County’s theaters, live-music venues, museums and art galleries would be propping open their doors to usher in thousands of patrons to the final exhibits and performances of the peninsula’s high season. There would be the triumph of making it through the frenetic pace of summertime and the anticipation of the […]