Date: Thursday, March 15, 2018

Music and dance are inextricably woven into Irish culture. Featuring some of Ireland’s most talented performers, Celtic Nights uses song, music, dance, and narration to present “Oceans of Hope,” the story of people crossing oceans to America, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand in hopes of trading famine and persecution for freedom and prosperity. Irish Prime Minister Enda Kelly says, “Celtic Nights have brought our distinctive and evolving music and dance tradition to the world stage and showcased our tradition in spectacular fashion.”

2017/2018 Passport Program – Cultural & Educational Opportunities for Door County Students & Families
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Date: Sunday, February 25, 2018

Ailey II is renowned worldwide for merging the spirit and energy of the country’s best young dance talent with the passion and creative vision of today’s most outstanding emerging choreographers. Founded in 1974 as the Alvin Ailey Repertory Ensemble, the company embodies Ailey’s pioneering mission to establish an extended cultural community that provides dance performances, training, and community programs for people of all walks of life. Under the direction of artistic director Troy Powell since 2012, Ailey II continues to thrive. The New York Times declares, “There’s nothing like an evening spent with Ailey II, the younger version of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.”

2017/2018 Passport Program – Cultural & Educational Opportunities for Door County Students & Families
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Date: Friday, February 2, 2018

Professional theater troupe Mad River Theater Works, based in rural Ohio, creates evocative original musical plays with a rich sense of place. The troupe’s productions, many of which are based on American history and folklore, have earned a reputation as authentic presentations that reflect the rich diversity of the country’s common heritage. At DCA, the company will present “Freedom Riders,” which tells the story of the black and white Americans who defied segregation in 1961, traveling together on buses that crossed state lines in order to protest the bus segregation practices that were still commonplace in so many parts of the United States.

2017/2018 Passport Program – Cultural & Educational Opportunities for Door County Students & Families
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Date: Tuesday, January 23, 2018

Since Justin Spencer formed Recycled Percussion in 1995—to perform in a high school talent show in New Hampshire—the four-man band has become a national phenomenon. They call their music “junk rock,” and they create it by turning ladders, buckets, trash cans, car parts, vacuums, and power tools into percussion instruments. Recycled Percussion first gained national attention after appearances in “USA Today” and on “America’s Got Talent.” In addition to playing thousands of shows in over 15 countries, this unlikely quartet has also made guest appearances on “Carson Daly,” “The Today Show,” “China’s Got Talent,” and the Latin Grammy Awards.

2017/2018 Passport Program – Cultural & Educational Opportunities for Door County Students & Families
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Date: Thursday, December 28, 2017

An annual concert event now in its fifth year, Play It Forward brings together some of Door County’s best-loved musicians for an evening of seasonal music that is both festive and reflective. Inspired by the life and legacy of Bo Johnson, a young Sister Bay resident who died in 2012, “Play It Forward” does just what its name suggests: participating musicians donate their time, and proceeds from the evening go to benefit a worthy cause—this year, hurricane relief efforts in Puerto Rico. Play it Forward is an evening that celebrates the best of Door County: community, generosity, and good music.

Date: Saturday, November 25, 2017

Big Mouth, one of Door County’s most popular bands, is known throughout Wisconsin for playing an eclectic and dance-worthy mix of blues, jazz, and rock music. Almost forty years after the band was founded in Michigan by guitarist Jay Whitney, Big Mouth is still going strong, now featuring a horn section, The Power Tool Horns. At DCA, Big Mouth will present an evening of holiday music and other swinging tunes with two special guests: Janet Planet (whom Jazziz Magazine calls “the voice of the New Jazz Culture … amazingly powerful, with seemingly limitless expression”) and Steve March-Tormé (whose singing the L.A. Times calls “seductive and effortless”).

Major Sponsor:
Main Street Market

Date: Saturday, November 4, 2017

Ruthie Foster can command any stage with her fiery blend of soul, blues, rock, folk, and gospel. She returns to DCA fresh off the release of her critically acclaimed album “Joy Comes Back,” which Paste Magazine calls “further evidence of Foster’s prowess when it comes to breaking through boundaries.” Best known for their appearance in “O Brother Where Art Thou,” the Grammy Award-winning Fairfield Four perform their trademark a cappella music to enthusiastic crowds across the country. The quartet has been singularly important in revitalizing and preserving the oldest styles of traditional spiritual and gospel singing.

Presenting Sponsors
Door County Living, Peninsula Pulse
Major Sponsor
Al Johnson’s Restaurant & Butik, Lori & David Nicholas
Supporting Sponsors

2017/2018 Passport Program – Cultural & Educational Opportunities for Door County Students & Families
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Date: Friday, November 3, 2017

Hailed as the “Mark Twain of Americana,” Paul Thorn brings his gritty, gospel-infused Southern rock straight from his hometown of Tupelo, Mississippi, where he grew up as the son of a Pentecostal preacher. Thorn’s music mixes hard-driving boogie with soulful wit. The McCrary Sisters (Ann, Deborah, Regina, and Alfreda) are the daughters of the late Reverend Samuel McCrary—one of the original members of fellow Blues and Roots Fest feature The Fairfield Four. Dynamic and powerful, The McCrary Sisters carry on their family’s legacy with grace, hope, and gorgeous harmonies.

Presenting Sponsors
Door County Living, Peninsula Pulse
Major Sponsor
Al Johnson’s Restaurant & Butik, Lori & David Nicholas
Supporting Sponsors

2017/2018 Passport Program – Cultural & Educational Opportunities for Door County Students & Families
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Date: Thursday, November 2, 2017

Leyla McCalla is a New York-born Haitian-American living in New Orleans. Proficient on cello, tenor banjo, and guitar, McCalla (formerly of the Carolina Chocolate Drops) sings in French, Haitian Creole, and English. Deeply influenced by Creole, Cajun, and Haitian music, as well as by American jazz and folk, McCalla’s music is at once earthy, elegant, and witty—soaked in three centuries of history, yet also fresh, distinctive, and contemporary.

Presenting Sponsors
Door County Living, Peninsula Pulse
Major Sponsor
Al Johnson’s Restaurant & Butik, Lori & David Nicholas
Supporting Sponsors

2017/2018 Passport Program – Cultural & Educational Opportunities for Door County Students & Families
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Date: Monday, October 16, 2017

Touring for the first time ever in North America, ‘The Simon and Garfunkel Story’ is a critically acclaimed concert style theatrical experience about two young boys from Queens, New York who went on to become the world’s most successful music duo of all time. Using state of the art video projection, incredible lighting, and a full live band ‘The Simon & Garfunkel Story’ is a moving and powerful concert featuring all the hits such as “Mrs. Robinson”, “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, “Homeward Bound”, “Scarborough Fair”, “The Boxer”, “The Sound Of Silence” and many more. This is a show not to be missed!

Underwriting Sponsors:
Margie & Dale West, A Friend of the Auditorium
Major Sponsor:
Door County Medical Center
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