The Open Jams are back following a hiatus and they keep getting better with each show. The Iowa Rock 'n' Roll Music Association and Pearson Lakes Art Center joined forces to bring back the popular evenings of local entertainment...

The snow and rain came, showering the Lauridsen Performing Arts stage last Thursday with unwanted moisture. But Six Appeal did not let water deter them from giving a wonderful performance at the Pearson Lakes Art Center in Okoboji. The PLAC staff moved in a portable stage and set up the sound system in the Pomerantz Hall on the lower level of the center. ...

A Hard Day’s Night, a Beatles tribute band, performed at the Pearson Lakes Art Center Friday night but there was nothing hard about the experience … except finding parking. The show was sold out as Beatles fans flocked into the Lauridsen Performing Arts Theatre ready to rock 'n' roll that evening. The group didn’t disappoint fans of iconic music from the '60s, '70s and beyond...

For 10 years now, Dave Rowley, Ryan Sather and Damon Dotson have entertained audiences at the Pearson Lakes Art Center with a Christmas show. This year, there were a few changes; most designed to enhance the traditional show. First of all, we missed Dotson. ...

Musician extraordinaire Glenn Henriksen rounded up a few of his very talented friends and performed a salute to U.S. military veterans resulting in a fabulous evening of music and salutations. Henriksen, known for his ability to play everything from classical to rock, did not let the crowd down Thursday night at the Pearson Lakes Art Center in Okoboji...

By Doris Welle Performance Reviewer A toast by Ruth Ann Burke and Bob Kirschbaum opened the anniversary celebration of Stephens College’s 60 years of owning and operating the Okoboji Summer Theatre (OST). Burke is the executive director of OST. She was joined on stage for the toast by Pearson Lakes Art Center CEO Kirschbaum. PLAC and OST occupy adjoining properties on Highway 71 on the northern boundaries of the town of Okoboji and have worked side by side for decades...

It was fun, nostalgic and filled with fabulous music. That is the way the 12th annual Dave Rowley and Friends concert at the Pearson Lakes Art Center Friday night will go down in the history books. Rowley and friends: Ryan Sather, Gary Lambert, Brent Wallin, Carlis Faurot and Perry Pearson get together once a year and cut loose, giving a sold-out crowd an evening of pure enjoyment...

For a dozen years, the Pearson Lakes Art Center has been the beneficiary of the talent of six great musicians. That annual event will take place on Friday night with the audience starting to purchase their tickets well in advance. "Dave Rowley and Friends" will play to a packed house in the Lauridsen Performing Arts Theatre at PLAC...

The stage was stark and bare. Four microphones with monitors, four stools with two bottles of water on each were the only adornments. The curtains were wide open and a spotlight shone down. Then four men ran onto the stage and an enchanting evening of music began at the Pearson Lakes Art Center in Okoboji. The Alley Cats, fresh off a cruise ship in Alaska, came to entertain us and they did it extremely well...

We all know that Celtic music has a lively beat and unique sound. We expected to enjoy that with an Irish pub mentality when Gaelic Storm took to the stage last Wednesday night. The Lauridsen Performing Arts Theatre at the Pearson Lakes Art Center quickly filled with Irish music lovers. We soon found ourselves laughing continually...

(I preface this review by saying my grandson Quinn was one of the children in the play so I was extremely nervous on opening night. I am writing this as unbiased and neutral in my thinking as I can possibly be.) The final offering of the 2016 Okoboji Summer Theatre season was the beloved classic "The Sound of Music." It is probably the only musical in which we can sing all the songs word-for-word. ...

"The Odd Couple" is a familiar story to us all thanks to Broadway and the television series. So why go see it again? The production of "The Odd Couple," currently on stage at the Okoboji Summer Theatre, is fantastic! You witness two seasoned actors, one a professor of acting at Stephens College and the other a movie and television actor from Hollywood, play off each other as truly funny men with opposite personalities coping with divorce...

"The Game's Afoot; Or Holmes for the Holidays" is the long name of this fairly new play that was listed as a farce. I automatically think of slamming doors when I see the word farce. This was thankfully a farce from the new breed of Broadway productions. Only one closet door is slammed and the mayhem is very funny...

There was not much to laugh about in our country back in The Depressions years of the 1930s. However, Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman managed to take those troubled times and create a very funny Broadway play, "You Can't Take It With You." The staff at Okoboji Summer Theatre has brought together a huge cast of acting students, professional actors and a talented director to present this classic. We in the opening night audience laughed and laughed...

BY DORIS WELLE -- PERFORMANCE REVIEWER "Cinderella" opened Tuesday night at the Okoboji Summer Theatre. This musical has combined the best of the best. The costumes, by Rachel Hoffmann, were unique, clever and colorful. They were amazing and I give Hoffmann a standing ovation for her ingenious creativity...

BY DORIS WELLE -- PERFORMANCE REVIEWER You would think holding a daytime wedding in a church would be simple enough to organize and pull off. "There Goes the Bride" gives us all a reality check and we find much humor to combat the stress. The play this week at Okoboji Summer Theatre is categorized as a farce. ...

Okoboji Summer Theatre inaugurated its 2016 season with a musical that is amazing to experience -- "The Spitfire Grill." If this is any indication, we are in for a summer of outstanding live theatre here in the Iowa Great Lakes region. While there are no tunes that you go home, singing in your head, the music told us the story in a most compelling way. ...

It was a night-long sing-a-long at the Pearson Lakes Art Center Wednesday when Sting Ray Anthony performed his '50s and '60s show. The Branson-based entertainer sang many favorites that kept the audience either singing along or swaying in their seats. Known for his Ritchie Valens renditions in the Winter Dance Party show that tours all over the United States, Ray is also an accomplished guitarist and consummate entertainer...

Lisa Rock knew she could please an audience without much trouble. All she had to do was sing songs by the Carpenters. There were many, many to choose from. However, the Chicago-based singer put together an outstanding six-piece band and entertained us well from beginning to end...

Transit Authority traveled down from Minneapolis to treat a large Pearson Lakes Art Center crowd to an evening of the best music possible last Thursday night. The Chicago tribute band is comprised of outstanding musicians, two of whom are Iowa RockNRoll Hall of Fame members. Keyboard player Mack McCormick, from Storm Lake, has been inducted twice in Iowa and twice in South Dakota. Bass player Butch Zierath from Sioux Falls is in the Iowa Hall once and South Dakota three times...