Start of a new season for the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts

The Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts kicks off 2016 this weekend with Groovin’ on a Sunday Afternoon featuring local musician John Dunnigan.

Groovin’ on a Sunday Afternoon is an ongoing series of intimate musical performances at the Bigfork Center. The events invite 100 ticket holders to enjoy food, drink, and socializing while enjoying music by a local artist. Each show has a nonprofit beneficiary that receives a percentage of the proceeds.

This Sunday, Jan. 10, doors open at 2 p.m. and Dunnigan will begin at 2:30 p.m. Proceeds from this show will benefit the Community Foundation for a Better Bigfork and ImagineIF Libraries.

The Groovin’ on a Sunday Afternoon partner organizations include 406 Women’s Magazine, the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts, the Flathead Community Foundation and the Northwest Artist Syndicate. Sponsors for this show are Bridge Street Cottages and the Bigfork Inn.

Dunnigan has been a local favorite since he began his career here in the mid-1970s.

“?If Jimmy Buffett, James Taylor and John Prine were joined together in some bizarre musical cloning experiment, the outcome would be John Dunnigan,” according to the performer’s website.

Dunnigan performs throughout Montana and the Northwest. His original tunes and hilarious delivery make you think, laugh, sing along and raise your glass in a toast to life.

Tickets for the Jan. 10 show are $10 in advance, available at Electric Avenue Gifts or Great Northern Gourmet in Bigfork or online at www.bigforkcenter.org. Remaining tickets will be $15 at the door.

The next Groovin’ on a Sunday Afternoon concert will be Sunday, March 6, featuring Andre Floyd and benefiting Child Bridge and Groove Trail.

THE BIGFORK Center for the Performing Arts has become a cultural hub for live entertainment events in downtown Bigfork, despite some recent controversy surrounding the lease terms for the facility. The Bigfork Center is owned and run by the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts Foundation, but is also the primary stage home to the Bigfork Summer Playhouse, Bigfork Playhouse Children’s Theatre, Bigfork Community Players and Northwest Ballet Co. The center also boasts film equipment for screening events and is frequently used for showcase performances, national touring acts and local private receptions and events.

The Bigfork Center has a full lineup of events coming this spring.

The Bigfork Playhouse Children’s Theatre will present “The Rockin’ Tale of Snow White” on Jan. 22-23, and Jan. 29-31. The Sunday, Jan. 31, show is a matinée beginning at 2 p.m.; all other performances begin at 7:30 p.m.

The tale of Snow White has never felt so fresh and new with this funny adaptation. New characters and comedic twists come to life as a modern mom reads the Brothers Grimm tale to her restless children. In addition to the well-known cast of the kind princess, evil queen, multiple dwarves and the morally conflicted Huntsman, this musical introduces some fresh faces, including rhyme-happy ladies-in-waiting and a stick-in-the-mud governmental representative out to ruin everyone’s good time.

This show will offer special ticket prices on Wednesday, Jan. 20, and Thursday, Jan. 21: All tickets purchased these two days are only $7 for any performance. The special ticket sales are open from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. these two days at the box office and online.

Regular ticket prices are $12 for adults, $10 for seniors, $9 for students and $8 for children younger than 10. Tickets are available at the door one hour prior to performances or online in advance.

This production is appropriate fun for the entire family. For tickets or more information, call 406-837-4886, email bpct@bigforksummerplayhouse.com or visit www.bigforksummerplayhouse.com.

ON VALENTINE'S weekend, the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts Foundation presents “Harmony of Rock — A Tribute to Three Dog Night and the Early 1970s.” The special tribute concert will be Friday, Feb. 12, at 7:30 p.m.

The cast of “The Harmony of Rock” accurately recreate the memorable music of one of the biggest hit-makers of the early ’70s, Three Dog Night. This show also features countless one-hit wonder chart busters from the harmony groups that shaped the era, as well as a few of the classic greats.

Tickets are $29 each and available in advance at Electric Avenue Gifts in Bigfork and online at www.bigforkcenter.org.

ON FEB. 26-28, the Bigfork Community Players present Woody Allen’s “Don’t Drink the Water,” directed by Larry Lefcourt.

Friday, Feb. 26, the performance begins at 7:30 p.m. Saturday will feature two shows, the first at 2 p.m. and the second at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 28, will have a matinée show at 2 p.m.

Tickets are available in advance at Bigfork Drug and the Pocketstone Cafe in Bigfork; the Kalispell Grand Hotel in Kalispell, and at the door.

Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for BCP members, students and seniors, and $5 children younger than 12.

Tickets may be reserved by emailing your name, the performance date and time, and the number of tickets you want to bigforkcommunityplayers@gmail.com. The Players will send you a confirmation email.

For more information, visit www.bigforkcommunityplayers.com.

OTHER UPCOMING performance events include “Seussical the Musical,” presented by the Bigfork Playhouse Children’s Theatre, March 18-20 and March 25-26; “Dearly Departed,” presented by the Bigfork Community Players, April 8-10; and “Cowabunga — Mooovies and Musicows,” presented by the Bigfork Summer Children’s Theatre and Bigfork ACES, April 15-17.

A full list of upcoming shows and details can be found online at www.bigforkcenter.org.

The Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts is located at 526 Electric Ave. in Bigfork. For more information, call 406-837-4885 or visit www.bigforkcenter.org.

Entertainment editor Stefanie Thompson can be reached at 758-4439 or ThisWeek@dailyinterlake.com.