In Focus: CLC Performing Arts Center Gets Ready for Fall Season

The Central Lakes College Performing Arts Center in Brainerd puts on 24 shows over the course of a year, and now, organizers are gearing up for their next slate of shows with their fall season.

“I think the value that the Performing Arts Center really provides to the Brainerd Lakes Area is that access to really high-quality entertainment that otherwise may not be available to us,” said CLC Performing Arts Center Director Joseph Yow. “And that’s what I really like about my job, is being able to find the experiences that people around here seem to connect to and that they want to go out and experience with their family and friends, and doing so in a way that’s really accessible.”

Highlights of the upcoming season include performances from Emmy-nominated singer Angela Ingersoll and “Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors.”

“This is a season that is really about creating memories together,” said Yow. “We want people to come here to have experiences with their family, with their friends, have an amazing night of seeing something that is really high-quality entertainment for the Brainerd Lakes Area, and then go home, be able to talk about it for a year afterwards.”

But people won’t just be able to watch world class entertainment at the CLC Performing Arts Center—they’ll have the opportunity to be a part of it as well.

“We have an amazing group of community theater performers,” Yow continued. “We’ve worked really hard to expand that group to include all comers, including all ages and all experience levels. We try to pick the shows that when we do them, we know the audience is going have a great time at them. They’re going to have a moving experience. And the actors who participate in them are going to say, ‘This is a valued use of my time.'”

The ultimate goal for the organization is to provide the area with entertaining, cost-effective productions that will leave audience members wanting more.

“These events are memories in the making for people,” added Yow. “They are the ones that when families get together later on to talk about how their year went, to talk about special times that they’ve had together, it’s going out to to events like this. Humming the songs on your way out the door afterwards and talking about what was your favorite moment. That’s what we want to create.”

The first show of the fall season will feature Angela Ingersoll, who will be singing songs made famous by Judy Garland. Performances will run September 18 and 19 at 7 p.m. at CLC’s Chalberg Theatre.

More information on the CLC Performing Arts Center’s fall season can be found here.