2022–23 K–12 School Performance Series
This season, we’re bringing you six creative, diverse arts performances that are sure to entertain, engage and inspire your students—from classic children’s storytelling and Grammy Award-winning folk artists to jazz and mesmerizing modern dance.
Prior to each performance, educators receive a curriculum guide containing information about the performing artist or company, the art form, and grade-appropriate activities designed to help incorporate arts learning into the classroom.
Performances are $5 per student/chaperone.
Registration for our 2022–23 K–12 School Performance Series is open now!
CLICK HERE to complete your online registration form.
fall 2022
Sugar Skull! A Día de Muertos Musical Adventure
Monday, October 24, 2022
10 a.m. (Central)
Woltosz Theatre
Sugar Skull! A Día de Muertos Musical Adventure is a touring bilingual/bicultural musical for young audiences and families that uses traditional regional music and dance from Mexico to tell the story of twelve-year-old Vita Flores. Vita thinks her family has gone loco planning a celebration for deceased loved ones. Why throw a party for the dead? But when a spirited candy skeleton suddenly springs to life, Vita finds herself on a magical, musical journey to unravel the true meaning of Día de Muertos.
Meet Sugar Skull, a charismatic skeleton with a secret or two. With her skeletal new friend, Vita dances with ancient ancestors, sings with a sorrowful sorceress, escapes the trickster Chaneques and even meets the famous Catrina Calavera. But can this clever youth gather the missing pieces needed for her family ofrenda before it’s too late?
Sugar Skull! A Día de Muertos Musical Adventure is presented by Mexico Beyond Mariachi.
Suggested Grades
1—6
Curricular Connections
Character Development
Dance/Movement
Geography
Global Studies
History
Mexican and Latin American Culture
Music
Social Studies
Spanish
Storytelling
Theatre
spring 2023
Disney’s Winnie the Pooh
Wednesday, February 1, 2023
10 a.m. (Central)
Woltosz Theatre
Disney’s iconic Winnie the Pooh, Christopher Robin and their best friends Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, Rabbit and Owl (oh . . . and don’t forget Tigger, too!) have come to life in a beautifully crafted musical stage adaptation.
Featuring the Sherman Brothers’ classic Grammy Award-winning music with additional songs by A.A. Milne, this innovative and fresh stage adaptation is told with stunning life-sized puppetry through the eyes of the characters we all know and love, in a new story from the Hundred Acre Wood.
This production—hot off its New York premiere—is created by renowned family entertainment creator Jonathan Rockefeller and made by Rockefeller Productions alongside Disney Theatrical Productions.
Suggested Grades
K—3
Curricular Connections
Character Development
English/Language Arts
Literature
Puppetry
Social/Emotional Development
Storytelling
Theatre
MOMIX: Alice
Thursday, February 16, 2023
10 a.m. (Central)
Woltosz Theatre
Before there was surrealism there was Alice.
Travel down the rabbit hole MOMIX-style, with Moses Pendleton’s newest creation, Alice, inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. As Alice’s body grows and shrinks and grows again, Pendleton’s dancers extend themselves by means of props, ropes and other dancers.
Alice is full of imagery and absurd logic—an invitation to invent, to let imagination run and play outside.
As with every MOMIX production, you never quite know what you are going to get. Students will be taken on a journey that is both magical, mysterious, fun, eccentric and much more. As Alice falls down the rabbit hole and experiences every kind of transformation, so will you.
Suggested Grades
6–12
Curricular Connections
Character Development
Dance/Movement
Design
English/Language Arts
Literature
Science
Storytelling
Theatre
The Kennedy Center presents
Acoustic Rooster’s Barnyard Boogie
Starring Indigo Blume
Thursday, March 16, 2023
10 a.m. (Central)
Woltosz Theatre
Find your voice in this feathery adventure.
New York Times best-selling author Kwame Alexander brings two of his beloved children’s books—Acoustic Rooster and Indigo Blume—to the stage in a world premiere Kennedy Center commission. Alexander teams up with his writing partner Mary Rand Hess and long-time musical collaborator Randy Preston to tell a story about being scared, being brave and believing in yourself. With special guests like Duck Ellington and Ms. Dairy Parton—plus Preston appearing as Acoustic Rooster—this musical adaptation will have students dancing in their seats.
Acoustic Rooster’s Barnyard Boogie: Starring Indigo Blume is presented by The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Suggested Grades
K—3
Curricular Connections
Character Development
Dance/Movement
Design
English/Language Arts
Literature
Science
Storytelling
Theatre
Jazz at Lincoln Center Presents
Let Freedom Swing
Monday, March 20, 2023
10 a.m. (Central)
Woltosz Theatre
Let Freedom Swing brings outstanding jazz artists and performances to community audiences. Inspired by conversations between former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, Let Freedom Swing includes three jazz concerts: Jazz and Democracy, Jazz and the Great Migration, and Jazz and Civil Rights. Since 2013, Let Freedom Swing has reached nearly half a million students in over 3,000 concerts around the world.
Suggested Grades
6—12
Curricular Connections
Culture and Traditions
Global Studies
History
Music
Social Studies
Storytelling
Somos Amigos: Songs on Common Ground
with Sonia De Los Santos & The Okee Dokee Brothers
Friday, May 12, 2023
10 a.m. (Central)
Woltosz Theatre
Friendship is at the heart of this joyful collaboration between Mexican songstress and Latin Grammy nominee Sonia De Los Santos and the Grammy-winning Americana folk duo The Okee Dokee Brothers. This bilingual show includes both old and new songs that span the musical traditions of Mexico and the United States, illustrating the collective power of learning from each other. With an adventurous spirit and a common vision of peace and understanding, Somos Amigos: Songs on Common Ground encourages young and old to explore, dance, sing and laugh together.
Suggested Grades
K—5
Curricular Connections
Geography
Global Studies
History
Latin American Culture and Traditions
Music
Social Studies
Spanish
Storytelling
Bus Reimbursement Program
All schools attending one of our K–12 School Performance Series in-person engagements are eligible to participate in our bus reimbursement program. Funding for this program is limited, and requests will be considered on a first-come, first-served basis. Please let us know if you would like to receive additional information on our bus reimbursement program at the time of registration.
Jay and Susie Gogue Performing Arts Center at Auburn University
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Auburn University is an equal opportunity educational institution/employer.