The Iowa State Center recently announced the lineup for its Performing Arts Series for the 2013-2014 year. The Iowa State Daily sat down with Mark North, executive director of the Iowa State Center to discuss what goes into lining up these shows. 

Q: First of all, as a general manager at Stephens Auditorium, how do you go about lining up any of the shows?

The Performing Art Series is a process that begins in the prior fall. I attend a booking conference called Arts Midwest, which facilitates around the middle of the country. At that conference I meet with a number of agencies and bring back probably upwards of 100 possible attractions to look at.

I then share that information and links with the Performing Arts council, which is made up of students, faulty, staff, community members, and subscribers and donors to the performing arts. They provide input and opinion on shows and we meet mostly from September through February in which time we get that list of 100 plus down to a manageable number of 15 to 20 or so. 

Q: Do you contact people or do they contact you if they want their show at Stephens Auditorium?

It happens both ways. Like I said, I meet with the agents at the booking conference, and they provide me with what’s available in general routing periods when it’s coming though the Midwest. Then you have to take a look at when they’re coming through and how that lines up with the home football games. We try to stay away from music department events, graduations, semester breaks. All those kinds of things come into play when we program our events. 

Q: What can people expect from the shows?

From our series I think the first thing people can expect is high-quality national touring acts. It’s all professional. This year we’ve got just a great mix of things.

Comedian Bill Cosby kicking it off, the Broadway musicals this year, is a good line up. We start off with “Memphis,” the musical, which is great music, great choreography. We have a comedic musical theater show, “The Addams Family,” which is about the sitcom “The Addams Family.” That’ll be the first time it’s played in central Iowa.

There are returning gigs of “Beauty and the Beast” and “Mamma Mia!” and then we’re also doing “Bring It On: The Musical,” which was just nominated for two Tony awards: best musical and best choreography.

From a musical standpoint, Jazz at Lincoln Center with Marsalis, some bluegrass people — Bela Flack and Abigail Washburn and Del McCoury. The Ten Tenors Broadway is a great show, and of course we’ve got our usual classical music line up. Estonian National Symphony and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. A fun show I think people are really going to enjoy is the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain. 

Q: What do you expect from the line-ups that are coming this fall?

I’m optimistic that it will be received well and also that people are [going to] come out and see the attractions that we offer. Our ticket prices are very affordable, especially for ISU students. Tickets are generally $20 or $25 and they can buy a three punch card for $60 this year. We hope that the ISU students would take time and come out and experience these things. It’s good entertainment.

Q: How are you able to make ticket prices affordable to the local community? 

Some fundraising, that helps keep our prices low and for the ISU students, the Government of the Student Body buy down between the adult prices and the ISU student price. So it’s coming out of the student fees that they pay. It’s something that they really should take advantage of.

Q: Are the staff excited about any particular show? 

I think in general they’re pretty pleased with everything we have on this series. It was a nice surprise this past Tuesday to hear that “Bring It On” was nominated for two Tonys; we hadn’t expected that. That’s a nice little feather in that show’s cap. It’s always fun to bring a show to Central Iowa for the fist time. “The Addams Family” fits that bill and “Mamma Mia!” is a feel good musical, and everybody knows the music and it’s just a good time.

Q: Do you have any words of wisdom for ticket buyers? 

Subscription sales have started now, and if you order three or more shows before Sept. 9, you’ll get the best prices. After that you’ll end up paying the single ticket prices, which is higher. If you order five or more by Aug. 2, you get two free tickets to a selected show. My advice to ticket buyers is purchase now, check out the shows on our website www.center.iastate.edu and enjoy the series.