THEATER
Dial M for Murder
Feb. 6–16
Farmers Alley Theatre
Farmers Alley Theatre presents this adaptation by writer Jeffrey Hatcher (TV’s Columbo) of the play that inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 film of the same name. The local production features Jeremy Koch and Kate Thomsen as the couple whose jealousy and deception lead to murder.
Show times are 7:30 p.m. Feb. 6–7, 13–15 and 20–22 and 2 p.m. Feb. 8–9, 15–16 and 22-23. Tickets are $25–$45 and available at farmersalleytheatre.com or by calling 343-2727.
Press Start!
Feb. 8–16
Kalamazoo Civic Youth Theatre
A musical adventure in the world of video games will be presented by the Civic’s Penguin Project, which gives children with special needs the opportunity to participate in the performing arts.
The play focuses on heroes, villains and sidekicks from well-known video games who are running out of lives and must unite to present a musical fundraiser to collect the gold rings necessary to continue playing.
Show times are 2 p.m. Feb. 8–9 and 15–16 and 7:30 p.m. Feb. 14 at the Civic Theatre. Tickets are $15 and available at kazoocivic.com or by calling 343-1313.
Titanic the Musical
Feb. 8–9
WMU Theatre
Western Michigan University’s School of Music and its theatre and dance departments join forces for this production that highlights the passengers and crew on the ill-fated ship that sank on its maiden voyage, in 1912.
Show times are 7:30 p.m. Feb. 8 and 2 p.m. Feb. 9 in the Dalton Center Recital Hall.
Tickets are $10–$24 and available at wmich.edu/theatre or by calling 387-6222.
Taproot: A Play on Justice and Judgment
Feb. 13–16
Queer Theatre Kalamazoo
This one-act play about the tribulations and breakdown of an activist group’s informal meeting to discuss allegations against one of their members will be staged in the Van Deusen Room of the Kalamazoo Public Library.
This free production is a collaboration of the library and Queer Theatre Kalamazoo, and show times are 6 p.m. Feb. 13 and 2:30 p.m. Feb. 15–16. For more information, visit queertk.org.
California Suite
Feb. 21–March 2
Kalamazoo Civic Theatre
Neil Simon’s classic comedy set in a Beverly Hills Hotel will be presented in the Civic’s Parish Theatre.
The play, which includes Simon’s signature wit and physical comedy, follows four visitors from New York, Philadelphia, London and Chicago who check in to the hotel, bringing their “baggage” with them.
Show times are 7:30 p.m. Feb. 21–22 and Feb. 28–March 1 and 2 p.m. Feb. 23 and March 2. Tickets are $17–$32 and available at kazoocivic.com or by calling 343-1313.
Eurydice
Feb. 21–March 2
Festival Playhouse
The classic myth of Orpheus and Eurydice’s journey to the underworld will be reimagined in this production at the Kalamazoo College’s Balch Playhouse.
The play focuses on the heroine’s point of view as the young bride dies on her wedding day and travels to the underworld, where she reunites with her father and struggles to remember her lost love.
Show times are 7:30 p.m. Feb. 27–March 1 and 2 p.m. March 2. Tickets are $5–$25 and available at festivalplayhouse.kzoo.edu.
Continuing Productions
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Center Stage Theatre, Jan. 31–Feb. 2
All the Natalie Portmans, WMU Theatre, Jan. 31–Feb. 16
DANCE
• Winter Gala Dance Concert
• WMU Student Dance Concert
WMU Department of Dance
Dance students and faculty in Western Michigan University’s dance department have a busy February. In addition to participating in the WMU Theatre production of Titanic the Musical Feb. 8–9, the department will present two other performances.
The department’s annual Winter Gala Dance Concert is set for 7:30 p.m. Feb. 7–8 and 2 p.m. Feb. 8–9 in Shaw Theatre and will feature a variety of dance styles, including ballet, jazz, modern and contemporary, performed by WMU dance students and faculty. The concert will also include works by guest choreographers. Tickets are $6–$21.
The Feb. 8 performance will be preceded, at 6 p.m., by a Toast for the Talent fundraising event in the Gilmore Theatre Complex Atrium. It’s sponsored by Partners in Dance, and tickets are $50.
Later in the month the Ebony Vision Dance Ensemble, a multicultural group of WMU dance students, will perform in Studio B of the Dalton Center. Show times are 7:30 p.m. Feb. 21–22 and 2 p.m. Feb. 22. Tickets are $5–$15.
For more information or to purchase tickets for these events, visit wmich.edu/dance/events.
RAD Fest
Feb. 27–March 2
Downtown Kalamazoo
The work of more than 50 dance makers from all over the world will be featured in this year’s Midwest Regional Alternative Dance Festival (RAD Fest).
This annual festival, hosted by Wellspring/Cori Terry & Dancers, is a juried event held in downtown Kalamazoo, with most events happening at the Epic Center. The festival draws modern, post-modern and contemporary dancers and choreographers and includes live performances, a Screendance film series, master classes, workshops and networking opportunities.
Tickets prices will range from free to $25 with discounts available with the purchase of multiple tickets. For a full schedule and to purchase tickets, visit wellspringdance.org/radabout.
LITERATURE
Eduardo C. Corral &
Yesenia Montilla
Jan. 21
Kalamazoo Books Arts Center
Two Latino poets will present a virtual reading at 7 p.m. as part of the KBAC’s Poets in Print series.
Eduardo C. Corral‘s debut poetry collection, Slow Lightning (2012), won the Yale Younger Poets Prize, making him the first Latino recipient of the award. His second collection, Guillotine, was published in 2020. Corral has received numerous honors, including a Whiting Writers’ Award and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He teaches in the MFA program at North Carolina State University in Raleigh and is a Hodder Fellow at Princeton University.
Yesenia Montilla is an Afro-Latina poet and a daughter of immigrants who has published two poetry collections, The Pink Box (2015) and Muse Found in a Colonized Body (2022), which was a finalist for the 2022 NAACP Image Award. Her work has been published in Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day, Prairie Schooner, Gulf Coast and the Best of American Poetry anthologies in 2021 and 2022. She teaches poetry at The Juilliard School and lives in Harlem, New York.
For a link to the online reading, visit kalbookarts.org.
MUSIC
Alexandre Kantorow
Feb. 5
The Gilmore
In a performance that will include what the classical music world calls the “Mount Everest of concertos,” the French pianist and 2024 Gilmore Artist will perform with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. in Chenery Auditorium.
Kantorow won the 2019 Gold Medal at the Tchaikovsky Competition along with the Grand Prix, and, at 27, he is the youngest pianist to be named a Gilmore Artist. His program will include Brahms’ Second Piano Concerto, considered one of the most demanding pieces to play, and Rachmaninoff’s rarely performed First Piano Sonata. There will be a pre-concert talk by Zaide Pixley at 6:30 p.m. in Room 130 of the auditorium.
Tickets are $10–$65 and available at thegilmore.org.
• Symphonic Beats: Hip Hop Culture
• KSO Craft Music: Opera
Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra
The KSO delves into two very different music genres for its concerts this month.
The first concert, Symphonic Beats: Hip Hop Culture, on Feb. 7, will feature local artists performing spoken word, poetry, music and dance backed by symphony musicians. The concert is curated by hip-hop educator, emcee and artist Kandace “D.C.” Lavender, and the artists include DJ Boogie, Ed Genesis, Jessica Ivey, Jordan Hamilton, Lopsey, Shantese Robinson, SkitzoMichigan and Yolonda Lavender. Show time is 7:30 p.m. at Kalamazoo Central High School, and tickets are $5-$20.
Opera is the focus of the KSO Craft Music concert on Feb. 12 at Bell’s Eccentric Cafe. Conductor Bruce Uchimura leads KSO Artists in Residence in performing selections from opera standards such as The Marriage of Figaro, Rigoletto, Carmen and La Bohème. Tickets are $5–$30.
For more information or to purchase tickets visit kalamazoosymphony.org.
Anat Cohen Quartetinho
Feb. 21
Fontana Chamber Arts
Fontana is presenting a jazz concert with Anat Cohen and her Quartetinho (Little Quartet) at WMU’s Dalton Center Recital Hall. This intimate chamber music ensemble allows for creative interaction with a dazzling variety of colors. While Anat prefers not to label their style, the music has influences from Antônio Carlos Jobim to Antonin Dvořák to Thelonious Monk.
Tickets are $15–$30 and available at fontanamusic.org or by calling the Community Box Office at 250-6984.
A World of Dance
Feb. 22
Kalamazoo Concert Band
The band will perform a program of dance tunes at 7:30 p.m. in Chenery Auditorium.
Among the selections will be Havana Dances (by Randall Standridge), Waltz No. 2 (by Dmitri Shostakovich) and Symphonic Dance No. 3 (“Fiesta,” by Clinton Williams). The concert is free. For more information, visit kalamazooconcertband.org.
Friends, Violists, Countrymen
Feb. 9
Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra
The 2024 Stulberg Competition bronze medalist, violist Pearl de la Motte, will appear with the KJSO at 3 p.m. in Chenery Auditorium.
She will perform Cecil Forsyth’s Concerto for Viola in G Minor in a program that will also include A London Symphony, by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Tickets are $5–$15 and available at kjso.org or by calling 349-7557.
WMU School of Music
Throughout the month
Various venues
The school offers a full slate of concerts this month. Unless otherwise noted, the performances will be in the Dalton Center Recital Hall and tickets are $5–$15.
- Jasmine Pigott, tuba, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 3.
- Adam Rainey, bass trombone, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 4.
- The Music of David Colson, percussionist, part of WMU’s Bullock Series, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 5, with pre-concert talk at 7 p.m.
- University Jazz Orchestra & University Jazz Lab Band — 7:30 p.m. Feb. 6.
- Western Winds, part of WMU’s Bullock Series, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 12, with pre-concert talk at 7 p.m.
- Nicholas Roth, piano, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 14.
- Band Spectacular, with University Wind Symphony, Symphonic Band and Concert Band, 2 p.m. Feb. 16, Miller Auditorium.
- Ensemble Dal Niente, new chamber music, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 17.
- Andrew Rathbun Jazz Quartet, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 19, with pre-concert talk at 7 p.m.
- Student Composers II, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 20, free.
- Carlos López, bassoon, 3 p.m. Feb. 23.
- Kyle Hutchins and Shannon WettsteinSadler, saxophone and piano, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 25.
- Mafer Guglielmina, flute, 7:30 p.m. Feb. 27.
To purchase tickets or for more information, visit wmich.edu/music/events.
VISUAL ARTS
The Illustrated Accordion
Feb. 7–March 21
Kalamazoo Book Arts Center
Books created in the accordion style by emerging and established artists will be featured in this annual exhibition at the KBAC, where there will be a reception for the artists from 5–8 p.m. March 7.
Accordion books are composed of a continuous folded sheet of paper that can be stood up so viewers can see all the pages at once. They had origins throughout Asia and were created to accommodate scroll-style books.
Gallery hours are 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Monday to Friday or by appointment. For more information, call 373-4938 or visit kalbookarts.org.
Blue Heat: Glass Art Gala
Feb. 22
Glass Art Kalamazoo
Guests can bid on one-of-a-kind glass art pieces, hear live music and enjoy food and drink at this annual fundraising event, set for 7–10 p.m. at GAK’s gallery and studios in the Park Trades Center.The works to be auctioned have been created by the organization’s visiting artists, at its public demonstrations, and during its 2024 Glass Blowers Battle. Guests are encouraged to wear blue or blue-accented attire to this event. Tickets are $65 until Feb. 8 and $75 after that and include a keepsake handmade glass tumbler. To purchase tickets, visit glassartkalamazoo.org.
Continuing Exhibitions
Legendary Voices: Art for the Next Century, through Feb. 16, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
Tipping Point, through Feb. 8, Richmond Center for Visual Arts, WMU
Tierraskinland, through Feb. 13, Richmond Center for Visual Arts, WMU
