Since 2006, Woodbine Productions has been bringing the finest performers to South Dakota State University with the primary intent of inspiring SDSU students and introducing the entire Brookings community to the highest caliber talent available. Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor, these performances and all affiliated expenses are underwritten enabling all ticket proceeds to support scholarships for students involved in music at South Dakota State University. Woodbine Productions offers this most philanthropic door a standing ovation and encourages you to ask yourself after every performance, “Did you have a good time?
2023-24 Season
Woodbine Productions
Puccini’s "La Bohème" Teatro Lirico D'Europa
Friday, September 22, 2023 | 7:30 pm
Oscar Larson Theatre
The Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center
$45, $35, and $25
La Bohème, an Opera in four acts by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini (Italian librettoby Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa) that premiered at the Teatro Regio in Turin, Italy, on February 1, 1896. The story, a sweetly tragic romance, was based on the episodic novel Scènes de la vie de bohème (1847–49; “Scenes of Bohemian Life”) by French writer Henri Murger. A success from the beginning, it is one of the most frequently performed of all operas.
Sung in Italian with super titles in English.
Bringing Broadway to Brookings
Monday, October 16, 2023 | 7:30 pm
Larson Memorial Concert Hall
The Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center
$55, $45, and $35
Brian Stokes Mitchell received Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle awards for his star turn in Kiss Me, Kate. He also gave Tony-nominated performances in Man of La Mancha, August Wilson’s King Hedley II, and Ragtime. Other notable Broadway shows include Kiss of the Spider Woman, Jelly’s Last Jam, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, and most recently Shuffle Along. Off Broadway performances include Do Re Mi, Carnival, Kismet, and The Bandwagon at City Center Encores and Much Ado About Nothing at the Delacorte Theatre’s Shakespeare in the Park. Regional performances include Sweeney Todd at the Sondheim Celebration at The Kennedy Center with Christine Baranski and The Light in the Piazza at the Los Angeles Opera with Renee Fleming.
"Metropolis", Silent Film & Pipe Organ Featuring Ben Model
Friday, November 17, 2023 | 7:30 pm
Saturday, November 18, 2023 | 7:30 pm
Founders Recital Hall
The Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center
$25
The School of Performing Arts welcomes you to see one of the most important releases in the history of film, Fritz Lang’s 1927 silent masterwork, "Metropolis". The film is known as the first full-length feature in the science-fiction genre, bringing together a vision of what life might be one-hundred years into the future – 2026! Inspired by the New York skyline, modernist art deco style, and futuristic robots, the film is a must-see for those who enjoy viewing masterworks of film. The film will be accompanied on the magnificent Founders Recital Hall organ by silent-film historian and acclaimed musician Ben Model.
Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra
Friday, February 23, 2024 | 7:30 pm
Oscar Larson Theatre
The Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center
$45, $35, and $25
As an acclaimed trombonist, composer, and producer, Delfeayo Marsalis has also dedicated his prolific career to music theatre and education. Along with the Marsalis family of musicians, including his father, Ellis, the artist was destined to a life in music.
Delfeayo also formed the Uptown Music Theatre in 2000, a non-profit organization that empowers youth through musical theatre training. He has written sixteen musicals to date, based on history and/or uniting the community. In addition, he has composed over 90 songs that help introduce kids to jazz through musical theatre and has reached over 5,000 students nationally with his Swinging with the Cool School soft introduction to jazz workshops.
Chanticleer
Tuesday, April 2, 2024 | 7:30 pm
Larson Memorial Concert Hall
The Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center
$35, $25, and $15
The GRAMMY® Award-winning vocal ensemble Chanticleer is known around the world as “an orchestra of voices” for its wide-ranging repertoire and dazzling virtuosity. Founded in San Francisco in 1978 by singer and musicologist Louis Botto, Chanticleer quickly took its place as one of the most prolific recording and touring ensembles in the world, selling over one million recordings and performing thousands of live concerts to audiences around the world.
Chanticleer’s repertoire is rooted in the renaissance and has expanded to include a wide range of classical, gospel, jazz, popular music, and a deep commitment to the commissioning of new compositions and arrangements. The ensemble has committed much of its vast recording catalogue to these commissions, garnering GRAMMY® Awards for its recording of Sir John Tavener’s “Lamentations & Praises” and the ambitious collection of commissioned works entitled “Colors of Love”.