There’s No Place Like Home
Overture Center continues to work closely with our resident arts companies throughout this time of great uncertainty. We all continue to watch, wait and develop plans while this pandemic continues to significantly impact our field and the health of our community.
As each company makes plans for digital programming and considers the timing of their return to in-person events, Overture stands ready to help bring those plans to fruition. Resident companies will communicate directly with their audiences and the community as plans evolve. We know that safety needs, economic considerations and contractual obligations vary widely between these arts organizations, so there will not be a one-size-fits-all process for returning to live performance.
As always, you can reach out to Overture Center or to any of our resident companies with questions or concerns. This is an extraordinarily challenging time for all of us, and we remain grateful for your moral and financial support to come through this together.
Overture Center for the Arts includes 10 award-winning resident arts organizations. Although they call Overture home, they offer independent, innovative and diverse experiences suitable for a wide range of audiences. Visit the website of each organization by clicking on their name and discover what a thrilling variety of performances and visual arts displays are available to you and how you can support them. Tickets to performances are available through the Overture Center Ticket Office and Overture.org.
Resident Companies:
Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society
Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society performs its summer chamber music festival at Overture Center, the historic Stoughton Opera House, and in Hillside Theater at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin. Each June, BDDS performs six different programs (twice), and three educational programs, for a total of 15 powerful concerts. Combining both locally and nationally-known guest artists, new and traditional chamber music, and delightful surprises, BDDS presents chamber music as the “serious fun” that has become their hallmark. Madisonians attest that BDDS is the highlight of their summer.
CTM’s mission is to create vibrant theater experiences that engage, educate and inspire young people and their communities.
For the last 49 continuous seasons, CTM has produced over 200 plays for young audiences with a total audience reach of over 400,000 young people and their families. CTM is the only youth-focused resident company of the Overture Center for the Arts and produces five mainstage productions each year, runs a year-round drama school, and offers multiple educational outreach programs including the acclaimed Young Playwrights Program and Festival. By casting adult and child actors in professionally produced plays, we have occupied a unique niche, since 1965, as Madison’s theater for all ages.
Forward Theater Company is a professional, not-for-profit theater company that produces three contemporary plays each year, in addition to offering monologue festivals and premieres of original works.
Forward was founded on a commitment to the cultural fabric of the Madison community, and works to provide locally produced, exceptional theater experiences for area audiences and give professional actors, designers, and directors who live in the area an artistic home. The company is also committed to the civic life of Madison, with strong outreach efforts and partnerships with community groups and educational programs.
Kanopy Dance Company combines the dramatic physicality of modern dance, contemporary ballet and dance-theater. Kanopy’s award-winning co-artistic directors, Robert E. Cleary and Lisa Thurrell, are celebrated dancers and choreographers.
Kanopy has earned a strong regional and national presence working collaboratively with cutting edge companies and attracting dancers and choreographers who are shaping the modern dance scene. In 2013, Kanopy also formed an ongoing cultural partnership with NYC’s Martha Graham Dance Company. In addition to performing at the Overture Center and touring to Chicago, Minneapolis and New York City, Kanopy engages in numerous outreach programs throughout the region.
Kanopy’s Dance Academy, taught by world acclaimed guest artists and Kanopy’s exceptional faculty, offers a comprehensive program of modern dance, choreography and ballet for dancers of all ages and backgrounds to help train artists and art lovers. Kanopy 2, its “second” company, offers a rigorous pre-professional training program open to exceptional students of dance by audition only.
Li Chiao-Ping Dance (LCPD) was founded by Artistic Director Li Chiao-Ping in 1990 and has been performing in Dane County, Wisconsin since 1995. The company produces three major performances each year and offers workshops and touring programs throughout North America. LCPD is dedicated to producing programs of emotionally charged and athletic works with striking visual design and the music of contemporary composers. Li Chiao-Ping Dance is also committed to making dance accessible to a wide variety of people – both as audience members and as participants. The company collaborates with K-12 schools schools to offer free performances for kids and continues to teach movement workshops at senior center communities
For nearly 40 years, Madison Ballet has been an integral part of the vibrant Dane County arts community. Full scale productions of inspiring traditional ballets, innovative contemporary performances, and the timeless holiday tradition of The Nutcracker reach more than 13,000 people each year. The School of Madison Ballet empowers students of all ages and skill levels with the poise, confidence, discipline, and fundamental life skills intrinsic to the study of dance. Outreach programming, presented in partnership with dozens of local school and community groups, enriches thousands of young people’s lives by introducing them to the joy of dance.
Founded in 1961, Madison Opera is one of only three professional opera companies in Wisconsin. It presents an annual season of three mainstage productions, ranging from classic operas to modern masterpieces, and a vast array of engagement activities for both adults and youth. Its annual free summer concert, Opera in the Park, has the highest per capita attendance of any similar event in the U.S.
The Madison Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1926, enriches the cultural and educational environment of south-central Wisconsin with a full season of high quality concerts featuring established and emerging soloists of international renown, an organ series that includes free concerts, and nationally recognized education and community engagement programs. Under the artistic leadership of Music Director John DeMain (hailed as “a gifted orchestra builder” by the New York Times), the Symphony has grown to be one of America’s leading regional orchestras and continues to educate and entertain audiences of all ages, while advocating for music as a universal language of expression and understanding.)
The James Watrous Gallery is a place to explore and learn about art from Wisconsin. Solo exhibits present a significant body of artwork by a single artist, while our curated shows often draw connections between art and other disciplines. We strive to create a welcoming environment that encourages engagement and inquiry.
The James Watrous Gallery is a program of the Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters. For more information, gallery hours and an exhibition schedule, click here.
Maestro Andrew Sewell and the musicians of the Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra (WCO) bring world-class music to more than 250,000 music lovers annually. No other arts organization in Wisconsin performs for more people each year. Founded in 1960, the WCO is one of Madison’s gems, a national caliber chamber orchestra behind the now four-decade summer tradition of Concerts on the Square. The WCO also presents the classical Masterworks Series at the Overture Center, the annual sell-out Messiah and education concerts for families and children.
