14 Best Performing Arts in Central North Carolina, North Carolina

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

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.

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.

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 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 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.

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.

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.

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.