3 Reasons to Love the Thunder Bay Theatre in Alpena

3 Reasons to Love the Thunder Bay Theatre

3 Reasons to Celebrate the Thunder Bay Theatre in Alpena

Michigan Family Travel is excited to highlight the work of a very active professional, non-profit theatre located on the beautiful sunrise side of Michigan, the Thunder Bay Theatre, located in Alpena, Michigan.

Here are 3 reasons why you might want to check them out.

1. Interesting Productions. The Thunder Bay Theatre is a year-round professional theatre that has been putting on shows in Alpena since 1983. Their 2017 season includes a great variety of family friendly theatre including the recent The Jungle Book as well as upcoming shows A Grand Night for Singing, opening March 24 and Oklahoma, opening July 26th-just in time for your trip up north!

Your older children may also enjoy their upcoming productions of The Addams Family and Hamlet. Seeing Shakespeare live on stage will be a wonderful help for them supplement their reading of the bard in school. There is nothing like seeing Shakespeare live- the power of the language, the intensity of the action-it opens up a whole new world of appreciation for the power of great literature.

2. Family Friendly.  While not every production is suitable for every single family member, each season includes a wide variety of productions that will appeal to a wide variety of age groups, including productions, like The Jungle Book, that are inclusive of younger children.

I also want to highlight their educational outreach. They have a traveling show which performs in elementary schools in Northeast Michigan to help entertain and teach important lessons as well. This year, the traveling educational show is one of my favorites, 3 Billy Goats Gruff. In addition to the performance of this wonderful tale, they provide a one hour workshop dedicated to helping students use their imagination and creativity through self-expression. What a wonderful resource.  

3. Community Centered. The Thunder Bay Theatre has a mission to provide great professional theatre, but also to include community talent as well. More importantly, their educational outreach, dedication to servicing the Northeast area of Michigan with quality, affordable professional theatre is impressive. They recently earned membership in the Theatre Communication Group, becoming only the fourth group in the state to earn membership. This will allow them to pursue additional grant opportunities that will help them provide quality productions at a fair value.

I also love their commitment to support military veterans and their families through their discounted tickets and efforts to become a Blue Star Theatre, which will allow them to increase their support to veterans and their families. This level of commitment is impressive. 

I am very excited about the show opening this weekend, A Grand Night for Singing- A Rodgers and Hammerstein Revue. It will feature some of the best music from some of the best songwriters of the modern era, including “Maria” from West Side Story, “ O What a Beautiful Morn’ “from Oklahoma and one of Hammerstein’s favorite songs, “A Surrey with the Fringe on Top.” The show runs March 24- April 9. Click here to listen to the simply joyful "A Surrey with the Fringe on Top" from Oklahoma on iTunes. 

Enjoy and Travel Local!