hoffman_seatsWelcome to a new season of incredible performing arts at Centre College. With the 2014-2015 lineup, the Norton Center continues to present top artists from around the globe. From award winners, celebrities, and virtuosic performers to innovators and Broadway’s best, our aim is to ensure that the programmatic variety on our stages is always as strong as the artistic quality.

All live performing arts venues have three things in common: an area where people perform, an area where people watch and the space surrounding the two. But your experience at the Norton Center is different because we make every effort to bring you as close to the stage as possible! How do we do it?

Our theaters are intimate spaces. With only about 1,470 seats in Newlin Hall and 370 seats in Weisiger Theatre, world-class artistry is literally at your fingertips. The acoustics in both theatres (with much thanks to the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation’s incredible architecture) consistently provide clear sound, whether acoustic or amplified, spoken word or music. Newlin Hall’s Orchestra level only has nine rows, making it and much of the Grand Tier balcony feel like front row seats. With the Weisiger Theatre’s structural design, its eight rows wrap around three quarters of the performance space and audience members are practically on stage with the artists.

Our artists interact with the campus and community. The Norton Center makes every effort to encourage visiting artists to participate in engagement activities like post-show talk-backs, lecture/demonstrations, workshops and masterclasses, panel discussion with Centre faculty and community leaders, and mini-performances at venues outside of the Norton Center like the Boyle County Public Library or McDowell Place Senior Center.

From the front row to the last, our hope is that these uniquely Norton Center features result in a stronger and more memorable performance experience..

We hope to see you at many of this season’s Norton Center performances!

Warmly,

Steve

Steve Hoffman
Executive Director