Though relatively new to working in Muskegon’s downtown entertainment scene, Eric Messing recalls it as the place where he was first exposed to the performing arts.

Russian playwright Anton Chekhov and his life will be recreated onstage this month in a one-man drama, Anton, Himself: First and Last.

When we think of Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th President of the United States, we tend to think of the Vietnam War. Not many know that just days after LBJ stepped in as president following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, he approached Congress with his first priority as president: the Civil Rights Act of 1965.

“Miller.” For many residents of Southwest Michigan, that one word conjures up visions of an auditorium that has spent 50 years as a backdrop for performers, making them laugh, cry, ponder and cheer.

One spring morning in 1968, a young preacher prepares to travel from Atlanta to Memphis to support striking sanitation workers.

This winter, a visual tour of Harlem will transport Kalamazoo Institute of Arts visitors to one of the most iconic communities in the world.

An array of unique art and site-specific installations that explore themes of identity, both personal and political, make up the UICA’s winter exhibition.

Ava Ordman has been playing trombone for more than half a century. For 24 years, she performed as principal trombonist with the Grand Rapids Symphony, and during her tenure there she recorded Donald Erb’s Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra.

There is a scene early on in Finding Neverland where playwright J.M. Barrie (Billy Harrigan Tighe) is talking about the play he’s working on with theater producer Charles Frohman (Matthew Quinn). Charles tells him that the play can’t be too short or too long. It also can’t be too funny or too serious. It needs to make people think but not think too hard. Finding that perfect balance isn’t always easy in a play, but Finding Neverland makes it look as effortless as lifting a feather.

When Andrea Arvanigian soulfully sings “Love is who we are and no season can contain it,” from Sara Bareilles’ sweet 2011 song “Love is Christmas” in the second act of The Barn Theatre School’s Christmas Cabaret, it’s impossible not to feel the truth of those lyrics straight from the heart of all the performers most regularly seen here during the summer months.