28 Best Performing Arts in North Carolina, USA

Pack a picnic and bring a folding chair or blanket for this free mountain-music concert. Shindig on the Green has been held for more than 50 years most Saturdays from late June through August. The shows, held in Pack Square Park in the heart of Asheville, run from around 7 to 10 pm. The same sponsoring organization, the Folk Heritage Committee, also puts on the Mountain Dance and Folk Festival, the oldest music festival of its type in the United States, dating to 1928. It is held "along about sundown" on three nights the first weekend in August.

This internationally known festival, held annually in June and July, brings dance performances to various locations throughout town.

One of the oldest community theater groups in the country, Asheville Community Theatre stages amateur productions year-round in its own building.

At its 2,100-seat Belk Theater and smaller Booth Playhouse and Stage Door Theater, this performing arts center houses several resident companies, including the Charlotte Symphony, Charlotte Ballet, and Opera Carolina.

What opened in 1927 as a vaudeville theater has matured and diversified into a performing-arts center that showcases dance, music, films, and plays. The interior, with its gilded classical-style ornamentation and marble statues, is its own attraction.

Dating from 1926, this Beaux Arts space hosts classical, jazz, and rock concerts, as well as film events and international film festivals. Check online for a full calendar of indie, retro, and all-around interesting films and live performances.

Founded in 1949, this playhouse stages professional shows and a host of children's programs in the Old Greensborough historic district. Little-known comedy gems are its specialty.

The intimate 500-seat Diana Wortham Theatre is home to more than 200 musical, dance, and theatrical events each year. A planned $3 million expansion is expected to add two more smaller performance spaces and upgrade the main theater. There's parking next to the theater or nearby, under the Aloft Hotel.

The Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts has several different performance spaces. The 2,369-seat Memorial Auditorium, the crown jewel of the complex, is home to the North Carolina Theatre and the nationally acclaimed Carolina Ballet. The 1,700-seat Meymandi Concert Hall hosts the North Carolina Symphony. The 600-seat Fletcher Opera Theater provides a showcase for the A. J. Fletcher Opera Institute, while the 170-seat Kennedy Theater stages shows by smaller theater groups.

The Eastern Music Festival, a classical music celebration whose guests have included Billy Joel, André Watts, and Wynton Marsalis, brings a month of more than four dozen concerts to Greensboro's Guilford College and music venues throughout the city. It starts in late June.

The vast Greensboro Coliseum Complex hosts sporting, music, and entertainment events throughout the year, including the Central Carolina Fair. Jimi Hendrix, Phish, and Garth Brooks have all performed here. It's also home to the Greensboro Swarm, of the NBA's G League, and next door to the ACC Hall of Champions.

The well-respected Highlands Playhouse, an Equity theater, puts on three or four productions each summer. It also doubles as a movie theater, with new and classic films screened year-round.

A project of the Southern Appalachian Historical Association (SAHA), Horn in the West is an outdoor drama by Kermit Hunter that traces the story of Daniel Boone and other pioneers, as well as the Cherokee, during the American Revolution. The drama has been presented since 1952. Performances are held nightly, Tuesday through Sunday from late June to mid-August. SAHA also operates the Hickory Ridge Living History Museum,adjacent to the Horn in the West amphitheater. The museum can be visited before the show.

The first professional black theater company in North Carolina, this repertory offers performances throughout the year that educate and inspire. Every other August, it hosts the National Black Theatre Festival, a weeklong showcase of African American arts, which attracts tens of thousands of people to venues all over the city.

Since 1979, the North Carolina Jazz Festival has heated up a chilly early February weekend with nightly sets in the Hotel Ballast on the riverfront (special overnight rates for festival attendees). World-famous musicians perform in a variety of styles, including swing and Dixieland.

From an alley off Walnut Street, this professional company puts on edgy, contemporary plays, although it also does audience favorites, such as a series of Jeeves comedies.

The professional theater in residence at UNC, PlayMakers Repertory's productions range from old-time radio dramas to large-scale musicals, using a variety of ingenious sets.

Near UNC Charlotte, this amphitheater hosts some of the biggest acts that come to town, from the Dave Matthews Band to the Backstreet Boys.

This restored 1929 movie palace hosts performances by the Winston-Salem Symphony and Piedmont Opera, as well as student productions by the University of North Carolina School of the Arts.

A restored opera house in continuous use since 1858, Thalian Hall hosts dozens of theater, dance, stand-up comedy, cinema society, and musical performances each year.

The 2,400-seat Thomas Wolfe Auditorium, in the U.S. Cellular Center Asheville (formerly Asheville Civic Center), hosts larger events, including traveling Broadway shows and performances of the Asheville Symphony. In the U.S. Cellular Center is also the newly named ExploreAsheville.com Arena, which seats 7,200 and is used to stage concerts and other large events.

More than 6 million people have seen this colorful historical drama, which tells the story of the Cherokee people from 1780 to the present day. First presented in 1950, the outdoor spectacle has been updated over the years with new scripts and costumes. The show runs from early June to mid-August. Contemporary plays are also presented in the 2,100-seat Mountainside Theater.

Accommodating up to 20,000 fans, the Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek amphitheater hosts big-name touring musicians like Widespread Panic and the Black Crowes.