The University of Mobile’s Center for Performing Arts has unveiled its lineup for the 2015-2016 season, offering a mix of musical performances ranging from big band standards to a comedic tribute to George and Ira Gershwin. The series will once again include the university’s popular Christmas Spectacular, a holiday production that has drawn television audiences beyond the Gulf Coast in past years.
University officials said the season is designed to offer something for a range of audiences, from longtime fans of classical and holiday programming to those drawn to more contemporary or comedic performances. The slate mixes tribute shows, seasonal productions and ensemble concerts, giving residents of Mobile and Baldwin counties a full calendar of professional-caliber entertainment without a trip to New Orleans or Atlanta.
A change in pricing
This season, organizers are introducing graduated pricing based on seating section for the Christmas show, a change from previous years’ flat pricing structure. The move brings the university’s biggest annual production in line with how most touring venues price their houses, reserving the center sections for higher-priced tickets while keeping seats on the sides and back available at lower cost.
The change applies specifically to the Christmas Spectacular, the production that has outgrown its flat-pricing roots as demand has climbed. Organizers say the tiered approach should spread demand across the house more evenly, giving families options at multiple price points rather than a single rate regardless of seat location. Prices for the graduated sections were to be detailed with the season’s full ticketing information.
Tickets and receptions
Season tickets are priced at $90 per person, with a discounted group rate of $75 per person available for parties of 10 or more. Season ticket holders will be invited to a dessert reception at each event, held at the Saraland Performing Arts Center, the venue that hosts the series and has become familiar ground for the university’s off-campus audiences.
Individual event tickets go on sale starting Sept. 1 and will also be available at the door on the day of each performance, subject to availability. The group rate has proven popular with churches, senior organizations and school groups across the region, which account for a substantial share of the series’ audience each year. University staff encourage groups to book early for the Christmas production, which sells out fastest.
The Christmas Spectacular
The Christmas Spectacular has become the anchor of the university’s performing arts calendar, a large-scale holiday production featuring student ensembles, staging and music that has been televised in markets beyond the Gulf Coast in past years. The show draws audiences from across the region each December and has grown large enough that university officials now plan its logistics a full year ahead.
This season’s graduated pricing marks the show’s biggest ticketing change in years, reflecting its evolution from a campus concert into a regional holiday event. University officials encouraged residents interested in attending to plan ahead, noting that some performances, particularly the Christmas program, have sold out in previous years given the show’s growing popularity.
From big band to Gershwin
Beyond the holiday centerpiece, the season pairs the timeless with the theatrical. Big band standards evoke the swing era’s golden age, a repertoire that has remained a reliable draw for audiences who grew up with it and younger listeners discovering it through revival movements. At the other end of the calendar, the comedic tribute to George and Ira Gershwin promises a lighter look at the songbook of the brothers whose standards — from “I Got Rhythm” to “Someone to Watch Over Me” — defined American popular song for generations.
The programming reflects the university’s strategy of alternating styles across the season so that no two consecutive events appeal to the same narrow audience. Officials said the season is designed to offer something for everyone, and the mix of eras and genres is intended to introduce season ticket holders to music they might not otherwise seek out while giving each show its own distinct character.
The university’s performing arts tradition
University administrators overseeing the school’s music and worship leadership programs said the season reflects the university’s continued investment in bringing professional-caliber performing arts programming to the Mobile area, an offering they say has grown in scope and audience in recent years. The university’s music programs are among its signature academic strengths, training vocalists, instrumentalists and worship leaders who perform throughout the region.
Those programs give the seasonal productions a depth of talent unusual for a school of the university’s size, with student performers working alongside faculty and guest artists. The performances double as capstone experiences for music majors, and many graduates of the programs have gone on to careers in church music, education and professional performance across the Southeast.
A fixture of the cultural calendar
The Center for Performing Arts has become a fixture of the region’s cultural calendar, drawing residents from across Mobile and Baldwin counties for its annual slate of concerts and theatrical productions. The Saraland Performing Arts Center location puts the series within easy reach of audiences in northern Mobile County, where the university’s home campus sits, while remaining a short drive for eastern shore residents.
Additional information about the season, including a full schedule of performance dates and details of the graduated Christmas pricing, is expected to be released as the Sept. 1 individual ticket sale approaches. Season tickets, meanwhile, are on sale now through the university, and officials note that the $90 season price amounts to a considerable discount over buying each event separately.
About the University of Mobile
The University of Mobile is a private Christian university located in northern Mobile County, with an enrollment of students drawn primarily from the Gulf Coast region. Its Center for Performing Arts serves as the public face of the school’s arts programs, hosting a season of events that opens the campus to thousands of community members each year who might never otherwise set foot on it.
The university’s emphasis on music and worship leadership reflects its faith-based mission, and its ensembles travel throughout the region performing for churches and community events. That outreach has built a loyal following for the annual season, with many attendees first encountering the university’s performers at a church appearance or community festival before buying tickets to a full production.
The Saraland venue
Hosting the season at the Saraland Performing Arts Center gives the productions a professional stage in one of Mobile County’s fastest-growing cities. Saraland has expanded rapidly in recent decades, and its performing arts center has become a hub for cultural events in the northern part of the county, hosting school productions, community concerts and touring acts alongside the university’s season.
The venue’s size strikes a balance that works for the series: large enough to stage the full Christmas Spectacular with its staging and ensemble numbers, intimate enough that even back-row seats stay close to the performance. The dessert receptions that follow each event have become a signature of the season, giving audiences a chance to meet performers and university staff in a relaxed setting.
Planning a season around the holidays
The shape of the season — opening in the fall, peaking with the Christmas Spectacular, and closing with spring events — follows the rhythm of Gulf Coast community life, when audiences are most available between the back-to-school season and summer travel. The Sept. 1 individual ticket date gives buyers a chance to sample a single show before committing to the full season, though the university’s pricing makes the season pass the better value for anyone planning to attend more than two events.
With the lineup announced and ticketing details coming into focus, organizers say the 2015-2016 season is positioned to build on the center’s growing reputation as one of the Mobile area’s most reliable sources of family-friendly, professional-caliber entertainment — and to fill the Saraland Performing Arts Center once again when the Christmas lights come up.
Why the arts season matters to the region
For a metro area of Mobile’s size, a consistent professional performing arts season is not something to take for granted. Residents of the city and its suburbs have long had to weigh trips to larger markets for touring Broadway-style productions and major concert tours, and the university’s series fills a gap by bringing polished productions close to home at prices families can manage. The $90 season ticket costs about what a single seat at a big-market touring show runs, an economics that has not been lost on the series’ growing audience.
Local arts leaders have also pointed to the season’s economic ripple effects: audiences arriving for a show in Saraland frequent nearby restaurants before performances, and the events give the growing city a cultural anchor that complements its residential growth. The university, in turn, gains a stage for its students and a visible demonstration of the quality of its academic programs.
Looking ahead to opening night
As the Sept. 1 on-sale date approaches, the university’s box office staff will begin fielding the familiar questions from season regulars: which dates fall on weekends, how the new Christmas pricing works, and whether the group rate applies to church and school bookings it has in past years. Organizers expect the same pattern as prior seasons — strong season sales through the fall, a surge of individual purchases in November, and a final push for Christmas Spectacular seats as the holidays approach.
Between now and opening night, the university’s student performers will begin rehearsals for a season that will stretch across the academic year, from the first downbeat of the big band show to the final Gershwin punchline. For audiences across Mobile and Baldwin counties, the 2015-2016 season offers a full year of reasons to make the drive to Saraland.