GPAC at 25 offers ‘dizzying’ lineup of national, international acts
Daily Memphian - Jill Johnson Piper
When Germantown Performing Arts Center opened its doors in 1994, there was a mean-spirited joke going around. It went, “What’s a Germantown housewife’s favorite whine? 'I want to go to Destin.'”
While slamming both Florida and whining (both of which can be entertaining), at the heart of the joke was the perception that Germantown was an elitist bedroom community concerned with first-world problems like a shortage of Starbucks.
That hardly describes Germantown today, a city of 44,000 with 29 parks, five medical centers and the 10th ranked high school (Houston) in Tennessee. Evolving alongside Germantown, is GPAC, the 864-seat theater at the corner of Exeter and Neshoba.
Now in its 25th season, GPAC brings a dizzying schedule of programming by diverse national and international acts ranging from dance, popular music and symphony to National Geographic explorers and jazz stylists.
February’s been a big month at the center. Friday and Saturday, Feb. 14 and 15, Opera Memphis is in the house with the Puccini Double Bill, “Suor Angelica” and “Gianni Schicchi,” Puccini’s only comedy. Next weekend brings the Collage Dance Collective, just back from French Guiana, to perform “RISE” on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 22 and 23.
On Leap Day, Feb. 29, an ensemble show called “Georgia On My Mind” will recall the very first concert at GPAC, the real Ray Charles in 1994. Early this month, GPAC announced the 2020-2021 season with Aaron Neville in the opening position. And construction proceeds apace on their outdoor venue, The Grove at GPAC, opening to the public in May.
“This is the time to get involved,” said Paul Chandler, executive director of GPAC. Marked by 11 sell-outs, their 25th season has been the venue’s most successful. Chandler attributed the synergy to a convergence of factors: the engagement of GPAC’s core audience, programming with an emphasis on variety, and anticipation about The Grove, the green space adjacent to the center on the side facing Neshoba.
Collage Dance Collective, headquartered in the Broad Avenue Arts District, is celebrating its 10th season with the GPAC performance. The company has just returned from appearances in Washington, D.C., and French Guiana, a territorial subdivision of France on the northeast coast of South America. Dancers from the Collage resident company of eight professionals performed on both trips.
Next weekend Collage will perform “RISE,” an original ballet developed by artistic director Kevin Thomas, based on Dr. Martin Luther King’s “Mountaintop” speech. This year’s program will also feature world premieres of Amy Hall Garner’s “Saint Glory” and a section of “Trilogy” choreographed by Kevin Iega Jeff.
GPAC has three types of shows: “presenter” shows, including the likes of Pilobolus, Ricky Skaggs and Sutton Foster, which form the core season. A second type is the “promoter” show, when collaborating agents and proven promoters can rent the house for acts like David Sedaris, the Indigo Girls or National Geographic Live. A third type of show at GPAC is the legacy user, including IRIS Orchestra. IRIS contributed five concerts to the 2019/20 season.
Altogether, the house is booked about 46 out of 52 weekends, said programming director Emily Hefley. Audience surveys have shown that 60% of the core audience comes from East Memphis and Midtown, Chandler said.
The biggest development at GPAC in 2020 is geographic. Construction on an outdoor theater with a food and beverage pavilion is on schedule, despite drenching rains this month. Plans for The Grove grew from a 2016 experiment: a food-truck-and-music night in the empty wooded lot on the Neshoba side. “We thought maybe 500 people would come and 3,000 showed up,” Chandler said. “Midway, we ran out of beer and had to go Kroger and buy all of theirs.”
With demonstrated demand for an outdoor venue, the City of Germantown contributed $2.5 million toward completion of The Grove, along with private donors. The First Horizon Foundation Plaza will serve adult beverages and food when it opens in May. So far, 19 acts have been scheduled for the spring and summer months.
The Grove will be only the second performing arts center in the country to have a Daktronics video wall capable of simulcasting the performance inside to an outdoor audience. The other is at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
“This video wall is so high def, you can see it at noon,” Chandler said. Measuring 32-by-20 feet, the video wall runs back and forth on a track. It can supplement effects for live bands or be used to screen films about the performing arts. You might enjoy “Woodstock” or a Hollywood musical in a lawn chair.
Having a real stage with wings means that theatrical productions, orchestras, dance troupes and big bands can have their shows without technical bits in full view of the audience like most outdoor venues. “You don’t want to be involved in an uplifting performance and see some guy running the soundboard and texting his girlfriend,” Chandler said. “When The Grove greens up, it will be lush, big and beautiful.”
The 2020/2021 season splits 12 coming acts into three series: an American Music Series, a Jazz Series and a Center Stage Series. Aaron Neville, nationally acclaimed vocalist with New Orleans roots, opens the season on Sept. 26.
October brings a two-day Jazz Festival, featuring Gregory Porter, Herb Alpert and Lani Hall, Katie Thiroux, Joyce Cobb and more.
In 2021, you can look for DeeDee Bridgewater and Memphis Soulphony in February, and the Hot Sardines in March. More than a million people have viewed the Sardines’ brassy cover of Marilyn Monroe’s “Running Wild” from “Some Like It Hot” on Youtube.com.
