View the complete schedules for the Center for the Arts and the Hylton Performing Arts Center.
1,001 Plays
Mason School of Theater
Thursday, March 9 at 7:30 p.m.
Virtual Event
1,001 Plays is an annual 10-minute play festival presented by Global Partners worldwide — the first international new play exchange of its kind. Students write, perform, direct and dramaturg original works for the stage, exploring multiple perspectives on a single idea. These short student works are performed live online and followed by a talkback, allowing both students and audiences the opportunity to share, reflect and respond.
Virginia Opera: La Traviata
Composed by Giuseppe Verdi
Saturday, March 11 at 8 p.m.
Sunday, March 12 at 2 p.m.
Center for the Arts
Featuring one of the most demanding, sumptuous, and recognizable scores of all time, Virginia Opera concludes its season with Giuseppe Verdi’s tours de force La Traviata. Verdi’s three-act tragic and romantic opera follows a sophisticated courtesan, Violetta, who falls in love with a man she cannot have, Alfredo Germont. La Traviata will hold you spellbound from the first to last note. Sung in Italian with English surtitles.
KODO
One Earth Tour 2023: Tsuzumi
Saturday, March 18 at 8 p.m.
Center for the Arts
Experience the power, grace, and joy that KODO’s athletic percussionists bring to the stage in their much-anticipated 40th anniversary performance: Tsuzumi. As masters of the ancient art of Japanese taiko drumming, KODO bewitches audiences with visually stunning performances that combine raw athleticism and refined percussive virtuosity. Their One Earth Tour 2023 traces the group’s origins back to the beginning to reflect on its history and reaffirm what has shaped KODO today. This performance is appropriate for all ages.
Dervish
Sunday, March 19 at 4 p.m.
Hylton Performing Arts Center
Take a musical journey along Ireland’s rugged and wild coastline with traditional Irish music icons, Dervish. The internationally acclaimed ensemble includes some of Ireland’s finest traditional musicians, including Cathy Jordan (vocals and drums), Shane Mitchell (accordion), Liam Kelly (flute/whistle), Brian McDonagh (mandola/mandolin), Tom Morrow (fiddle), and Michael Holmes (bouzouki). Don’t miss “the most compelling, most soulful Irish traditional folk band playing today” (The News Journal). This performance is appropriate for all ages.
Visual Voices Lecture Series with Koyoltzintli Miranda-Rivadeneira
Mason School of Art
Thursday, March 23 at 4:45 p.m.
Virtual via Zoom
Koyoltzintli Miranda-Rivadeneira is an Ecuadorian American artist and curandera from Queens, New York who investigates Indigenous ways of relating to the land, through photography, video, ceramics, and sound. The artist captures within a multifaceted exchange between herself and the land, achieving levels of intimacy as both a creator and a subject, an intimacy that is often withheld through the Westernized lens of photography and video’s history of colonial bias.
2023 Mason Dance Company Gala Concert
Mason School of Dance
March 24 and 25 at 8 p.m.
Center for the Arts
The highlight of the Mason Dance Company. This concert features works by important artists of our time, performed by talented dancers at the start of their professional careers.
The Adventures of Harold and the Purple Crayon
Family Series
Enchantment Theatre Company
Sunday, March 26 at 1 p.m. and 4 p.m.*
*The 4 p.m. performance of The Adventures of Harold and the Purple Crayon will be sensory-friendly. These performances are designed to create a welcoming and comfortable arts experience for people with autism or other disabilities.
Center for the Arts
The Adventures of Harold and the Purple Crayon follows the zany adventures of an inventive young boy. Harold creates the world he wants to explore, using nothing more than a big purple crayon and his sky’s-the-limit imagination. Combining life-size puppets, pantomime, dance, magic, and original music, The Adventures of Harold and the Purple Crayon will delight and amaze its audiences—anyone, in fact, whose heart is young and adventurous. Recommended for ages 5 and up.
Big Band Showdown
Dewberry School of Music
Monday, March 27 at 8 p.m.
Center for the Arts
Join the Mason Jazz Ensemble (director Jim Carroll) and the Jazz Workshop (director John Kocur) for an evening that celebrates the hot sounds and swinging beats of the Big Band era!
The Hunchback of Seville
Mason School of Theater
March 30, 31**, April 1, 5, 6, 7 at 8 p.m.
April 1 and 8*** at 2 p.m.
** ASL Interpreted Performance and Talkback
***Audio Described Performance
Harris Theatre
At the turn of the 16th century, Christopher Columbus has just returned from the New World with gold in his pockets and blood on his hands. Maxima Terriblé Segunda, the brilliant, adopted sister of dying Her Royal Highness Queen Isabella, is living out her life locked away in a tower…until it is decided that the future of the country is in her nerdy, reclusive hands. In a bitingly funny and madcap take on Spanish history and colonialism, Maxima weaves her way through mountains of prejudice, politics, religion, and the horrors of history.
Cirque FLIP Fabrique
Muse
Friday, March 31 at 8 p.m.
Saturday, April 1 at 2 p.m.
Center for the Arts
In this all-new, high-energy production, the seven acrobats of FLIP Fabrique don high heels, then football shoulder pads to dazzle audiences of all ages. Set to an original score by beatmaker Millimetric and featuring live onstage vocals by singer Flavia Nascimento, this performance combines breathtaking artistry and athleticism. Prepare for whimsy and wonder as mighty women, elegant men, and gravity-defying humans rejoice in who they are. Recommended for ages 8 and up.
Daniel Hope and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra
America
Sunday, April 2 at 2 p.m.
Center for the Arts
Violin luminary Daniel Hope returns with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra to reveal the charisma of American music in a program named after his new album, America. This concert celebrates our country’s most recognizable tunes, including Copland’s iconic “Hoe-down” from Rodeo and “At the River” from Old American Songs; Gershwin’s Song Suite featuring “I Got Rhythm” and “Summertime,” “Barber’s Adagio for Strings,” music by Duke Ellington and Florence Price, highlights from Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, and “Echorus” by Philip Glass. With new classical and jazz arrangements by Paul Bateman, Hope illuminates the American spirit. The acclaimed musicians of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra create the perfect partnership with Hope’s violin mastery for this concert of music that features chamber orchestra, jazz trio, piano, vocals, and percussion. Don’t miss this concert overflowing with beautiful American music that resonates in the hall and in your soul. This performance is appropriate for all ages.
Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra
Jim Carroll, conductor
Bobby Floyd, organ
Saturday, April 8 at 8 p.m.
Center for the Arts
Calling all cool cats to head to the Center for the Arts for a swinging evening of jazz with Northern Virginia’s own Metropolitan Jazz Orchestra, featuring keyboardist/organist Bobby Floyd on the Hammond organ and led by founder, artistic director, and virtuoso saxophonist Jim Carroll. Don’t miss this signature event including some of the most remarkable jazz musicians in the metro region.