Weis Center for the Performing Arts Blog
Bringing the performing arts to Central Pennsylvania for more than 35 years
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Pacific Roots Music Comes to Weis Center in Free Performance
Pacific roots artist Kaumakaiwa Kanaka’ole will bring Hawaiian music to the stage on Friday, January 31 at 7:30 p.m. in the Weis Center Atrium. This is a free performance and tickets are not required. A riveting performer, Kaumakaiwa creates some of the most original work to emerge in contemporary Hawaiian music, drawing from ancestral memory and hula practice as chant transforms to melody. Kaumakaiwa seamlessly melds Hawaiian culture and modern sensibilities in deeply powerful music. Kaumakaiwa Kanaka’ole has been on stage since she could walk.…
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Jazz Drummer Allison Miller Brings New Piece about Rivers and Social Change to the Weis Center
Jazz drummer, composer and teacher Allison Miller and her band Boom Tic Boom will present a new work, In Our Veins: Rivers and Social Change, on Friday, January 24 at 7:30 p.m. at the Weis Center. Immediately before the performance, there will be a free pre-show talk with the artist from 6:45-7:15 p.m. in the Weis Center Atrium. The Rivers project was commissioned by the Jazz Touring Network, a program of Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation with support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The co‐commissioning…
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Toshi Reagon to Perform Free Concert at Weis Center to kick off spring 2020 season
Singer-songwriter-guitarist Toshi Reagon will perform her unique blend of rock, blues, folk, and spirituals on Tuesday, January 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Weis Center for the Performing Arts. This is a free performance and tickets are not required. The performance is sponsored, in part, by Bucknell University’s Department of Music, Jazz at Bucknell and Martin Luther King Jr. Week 2020. Described by Vibe magazine as “one helluva rock’n’roller-coaster ride” and by Pop Matters as “a treasure waiting to be found,” Toshi Reagon is a one-woman celebration…
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Weis Center Celebrates Holiday Season with Celtic Music and Dance Performance
This holiday season join Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy, the award-winning fiddle virtuosos, in an intimate and unique Christmas concert you will never forget. Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy: A Celtic Family Christmas will be presented on Tuesday, December 10 at 7:30 p.m. at the Weis Center. All attendees are asked to bring a canned food item, which will be distributed to local families in need through Union County Children and Youth Services. Free kids activities from the Lewisburg Children’s Museum will be offered in…
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Performance Review: Nobuntu
On Tuesday night, we welcomed Nobuntu to the Weis Center stage for a mesmerizing performance that dealt with various issues facing Zimbabwe as well as traditional gospel music. Each song blended the quintet’s voices with minimal percussion. At one point, they even engaged the audience by turning on the house lights and teaching the snapping rhythm and some song lyrics to the performance goers. The ensemble successfully promoted their mission of using music as a vehicle for change to transcend racial and gender boundaries. In…
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Performance Review: Manual Cinema’s Frankenstein
This Saturday at the Weis Center, Manual Cinema spooked and stunned the audience with its intriguing multimedia performance of Frankenstein. The well-known story was conveyed in a unique, attention-grasping way which was able to captivate any lover of the arts. The show included live acting, orchestra and vocals, shadow work and puppetry, film, visual art, and sound effects. All of these elements brought the audience into the world of the story and allowed us to experience it in a new way. The Weis Center shook…
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World Music from Zimbabwe Comes to Central PA
Nobuntu, the female a cappella quintet from Zimbabwe will perform on Tuesday, November 12 at 7:30 p.m. at the Weis Center. Free pre-performance music featuring Bucknell University’s student ensemble Voices of Praise will be offered from 6:45-7:15 p.m. in the Atrium. There will also be a free African Dance Workshop with 2 members of the ensemble from 1-2 p.m. the same day as their performance in the Atrium. This will be an interactive workshop – participants will learn the rhythms through drumming, clapping and movement.…
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Performance Review: Philadanco
The Philadelphia Dance Company, better known as PHILADANCO!, stunned the audience on Tuesday night with their captivating ability to tell stories through movement. The first piece on their program, “Super 8!”, dealt with love, sensuality, and seduction via the examination of three different couples. Throughout this piece, the music and lighting played a key role in complementing the dancers’ movements and enhancing the overall experience. Additionally, the communication of body language between the dancers was visible to the audience and provided an authentic experience. PHILADANCO!…
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Performance Review: Kat Edmonson
From Texas, to Brooklyn, to the Weis Center stage! Kat Edmonson, jazz vocalist with specialty in what she refers to as “vintage pop”, gave a truly captivating performance. As her recent album is titled, she truly is an “old fashioned gal”; her unique and romantic vocal style instantly places audience members into another time period. Kat conveyed to the audience and in several interviews that her main source of inspiration comes from 1930s and 40s movies such as Turner classic movies. These movies and personal…
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Multimedia Ensemble Brings Frankenstein to the Stage using Shadow Puppetry, Live Music and Cinematic Effects
Innovative theatre company Manual Cinema will bring the classic gothic tale, Frankenstein, to the Weis Center’s stage on Saturday, November 2 at 7:30 p.m. Love, loss and creation merge in unexpected ways in the performance conceived by Manual Cinema. Stories of Mary Shelley, Victor Frankenstein and his Monster expose how the forces of family, community and education shape personhood—or destroy it by their absence. In a special world premiere presentation, internationally-renowned multimedia company Manual Cinema stitches together the classic story of Frankenstein with Mary Shelley’s own…
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