Green Day's AMERICAN IDIOT on stage Feb. 28, 29

The smash-hit musical AMERICAN IDIOT, based on Green Day’s Grammy-winning multiplatinum album, tells the story of three lifelong friends forced to choose between their dreams and the safety of suburbia. The touring Broadway musical makes its Penn State debut with two performances at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, February 28 and 29, in Eisenhower Auditorium.

Purchase tickets for the show, which are $59 and $53 for an adult, $44 and $38 for a University Park student, and $54 and 48 for a person 18 and younger.

Featuring the hit songs “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” “21 Guns,” “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” “Holiday,” and the blockbuster title track, AMERICAN IDIOT takes the American musical where it’s never gone before. With direction by Michael Mayer (Spring Awakening), choreography by Steven Hoggett (Black Watch), and orchestrations and arrangements by Tom Kitt (Next to Normal), the result is an experience Charles Isherwood of The New York Times declares “thrilling, emotionally charged, and as moving as any Broadway musical I’ve seen this year!”

“Convulsive movement is interspersed with mime and jerky ballet, all of it unmistakably channeling the youthful feelings — of elation, but more often of rage and despair, fear, and longing — that are the heart of the show,” writes David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter.

AMERICAN IDIOT includes mature themes and language.

ABC 23, FOX 8, and MAJIC 99 are the media sponsors. Artistic Viewpoints, an informal moderated discussion featuring a visiting artist or local expert, is offered in Eisenhower one hour before each performance and is free for ticket holders. Artistic Viewpoints seating is available on a first-arrival basis.

Spirit of Uganda children sing and dance March 13

Uganda is a nation of children. Half of the country’s more than thirty-three million people are 14 and younger. Spirit of Uganda, a professional training and touring program of the non-profit organization Empower African Children, comes to Eisenhower Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 13, to share the music and dance of the lush and diverse East African country.

Spirit of Uganda’s twenty-two performers, ages 11 to 21, personify the resilience and promise of Africa’s next generation. In addition to performing, they serve as ambassadors for Uganda’s 2.4 million orphans and advocates for AIDS awareness and prevention. Spirit of Uganda’s performances raise funds to support the many orphaned and vulnerable children served by Dallas-based Empower African Children.

Purchase tickets for the performance, which are $38 for an adult, $15 for a University Park student, and $28 for a person 18 and younger.

“Whatever these performers do, in whatever different bright attire, they do with discipline, fervor and joy,” writes a Village Voice reviewer. “The pounding feet and agile bodies, the drums and vibrant human voices all send a message — one of courage and hope.”

Spirit of Uganda celebrates cultural roots and contemporary creations with standing drums, dramatic choreography, layered rhythms and call-and-response vocals.

“An ebullient guide, Artistic Director Peter Kasule ushers us into the patchwork of ancient kingdoms and ethnic groups that constitutes modern Uganda, combining traditional rhythms with new forms into numbers so dynamic they are transformative,” observes a Newsday critic.

Audio description, which is especially helpful to patrons with sight loss, is available for this performance at no extra charge to ticket holders. Central Pennsylvania Fans of World Music sponsors the presentation. This tour of Spirit of Uganda is made possible by a grant from Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation with support from the National Endowment for the Arts. Artistic Viewpoints, an informal moderated discussion featuring Alexis Hefley, Empower African Children founder and president, is offered in Eisenhower one hour before the performance. Seating for Artistic Viewpoints is available on a first-arrival basis.

Wynton Marsalis and big band play jazz March 16

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra has performed five times before large and enthusiastic Center for the Performing Arts audiences. The ensemble, directed by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis, returns for a sixth gig at 7:30 p.m. Friday, March 16, in Eisenhower Auditorium.

Purchase tickets for the concert, which are $55 for an adult, $25 for a University Park student, and $48 for a person 18 and younger.

Jazz at Lincoln Center is one of the world’s foremost cultural and educational resources devoted to jazz. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, featuring fifteen of the finest jazz soloists and ensemble players in America, has been the center’s resident ensemble since 1988.

“The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra is basically indisputably excellent,” writes a Chicagocritic.com reviewer.

The versatile orchestra entertains in New York City, across the United States, and around the globe in concert halls, dance venues, jazz clubs, and public parks. The big band also performs with symphony orchestras, ballet troupes, jazz students, and an ever-expanding roster of guest artists.

Marsalis, along with his father and brothers, was named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 2011. He was also the first jazz composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for music.

Corvette America sponsors the presentation. Jazz Spectrum on THE LION 90.7 FM is the media sponsor. Artistic Viewpoints, an informal moderated discussion featuring a visiting artist or local expert, is offered in Eisenhower one hour before the performance and is free for ticket holders. Artistic Viewpoints seating is available on a first-arrival basis.

Humorist Sedaris comes to Eisenhower April 13

David Sedaris, a regular National Public Radio contributor and author of the previous bestsellers Naked, Me Talk Pretty One Day, and Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, comes to Eisenhower Auditorium at 8 p.m. Friday, April 13.

Celebrating the release of his new title Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary, a book of acerbic, outrageously funny fables that features animals with unmistakably human failings, Sedaris visits State College for an evening of engaging recollections and all-new readings.

Purchase tickets for An Evening with David Sedaris, which are $45 for a seat in the orchestra section and $40 for a seat in the grand tier or balcony.

Grand tier and balcony tickets for University Park students are $20 each. The University Park student price is available to Penn Staters with valid student IDs and is limited to two tickets per student. The student tickets are not available online. Student tickets must be purchased in person at Eisenhower Auditorium, Penn State Downtown Theatre Center, HUB-Robeson Center Information Desk, or Bryce Jordan Center. The offer is not valid on previous purchases.

Tweaking the familiar until it warps, Sedaris mines poignant comedy from his peculiar childhood, his bizarre career path, and his move with his lover to France. Including his last release, the New York Times No. 1 bestselling book, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Sedaris’ wickedly witty observations of the ordinary-bizarre are always sure to deliver insights and laughs.

One of six children in a second-generation Greek-American family, Sedaris grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. In 1977, he dropped out of Kent State University to hitchhike around the country. Aside from working as an elf, Sedaris has had a number of charmingly quirky jobs as a house painter, an apple picker, an aide in a mental hospital, a creative writing teacher at the Art Institute of Chicago, and an apartment cleaner.

Sedaris made his comic debut recounting his strange-but-true experiences of being a Macy’s elf, reading his “Santaland Diaries” on National Public Radio’s Morning Edition in 1992. His sardonic humor and incisive social critique have made him one of NPR’s most popular and humorous commentators. In 2001, he was named Humorist of the Year by Time magazine and received the Thurber Prize for American Humor.

The Sedaris appearance is a promoter event. Parking in the Eisenhower Parking Deck is $4 per vehicle for this event. Patrons with Penn State faculty/staff parking permits will not be charged for parking.

Recycle candy wrappers at Eisenhower Auditorium

The Center for the Performing Arts is participating in a “green” initiative by collecting candy wrappers that are recycled and converted into various products. Through a TerraCycle® program called the Candy Wrapper Brigade®, which awards points for each wrapper collected, the Center for the Performing Arts plans to use accumulated points to provide clean drinking water for families in a developing country.

Patrons attending Center for the Performing Arts and other presentations at Eisenhower Auditorium are encouraged to place used candy wrappers in lobby collection boxes. Eligible waste — from auditorium concession sales or from home or office use — includes individual candy wrappers, large candy bags, and multi-pack candy bags.

Each year millions of candy wrappers are needlessly thrown away, and most end up in landfills. TerraCycle partners with Mars®, Wrigley®, and Cadbury® to create a second life for candy packaging, but all brands of wrappers are accepted for the recycling program.

The clean water initiative provides safe drinking water, through construction of water projects, to people living in poverty who otherwise lack access to the essential element. The charity partners with local organizations in seventeen developing countries, mainly in Sub-Saharan African and South Asia.

Learn more about TerraCycle.