For many people, there is an innate longing for traveling and experiencing cultures from foreign lands: the Scottish Isles, the ancient Chinese traditions, the music of South Africa. Luckily, the Athens community will not have to travel far. It’s all at the Performing Arts Center.
As the 2018-2019 season begins at the University of Georgia’s Performing Arts Center (PAC), many new and promising changes are coming to the center.
For the most part, these changes center on the exciting new musical, dance, and theatre acts gracing the stage. Director Jeffrey Martin, who is leading his first full season at the center, says that bringing global acts to Athens is one of his main goals.
“I just feel like a major university has a responsibility to expose our students and the community to a wide variety of culture throughout the world,” Martin says, “so we’ve got 13 countries represented on the season this year, everything from Scotland, to the Philippines, to Spain, and many more.”
One upcoming musician Martin is particularly excited for is British composer Max Richter, who will be playing at the center on Sept. 30.
“[Richter] works in many different media, so it’s a rare opportunity to see him live in concert because usually his work is done in a recorded format on film or television, so that’s very exciting,” Martin says.
This will be Richter’s first tour in the United States.
Along with the new musical acts, the center is also making some changes to its ticketing service and concession stands.
Credit cards will now be accepted at the concession stands, and many new snacks have been added to the menu.
Additionally, patrons will now have the chance to choose mobile delivery for their tickets for select events.
“That’ll be very a convenient feature for people who don’t want to have to print out their tickets or collect them at Will Call. They can just pull up their ticket on their phone, and that can be scanned at the door of the concert hall when they come to the performance,” Martin says.
Ticket prices vary based on the show. University of Georgia Students, however, can purchase tickets from $6-$10.
Between the convenient new features for patrons and the performances around the world, the Performing Arts Center hopes to help Athenians travel the world in just one season.
For more information and to see the season’s full line-up, please visit https://pac.uga.edu/.