The Arts Association of East Alabama

The Performance Series at Opelika Center for the Performing Arts

Over 37 seasons, and counting, this warm, inviting, and personable space of 1150 seats has fostered and reflected the camaraderie and sense of community that is Opelika itself, hosting staged events of national and international significance, and creating roller-coaster emotional experiences from tears of joy and sorrow to gut-busting belly laughs. Our visiting artists are always made to feel right at home, from the attention and care they receive from our backstage crew and volunteers, and from the applause and shouts of acclaim of a discerning audience expressing appreciation for their best efforts.

NEW SEASON ANNOUNCEMENT

We are pleased to announce our 2025-2026 Performance Series season! Check the Opelika Observer. Click on the link below to go to our secure online order form, or call the office at 334-749-8105.

“Sweet Dreams” - Mandy Barnet Sings Patsy Cline

The 2025-2026 Season Subscription

EARLYBIRD PRICES JUNE 2 - 20 ONLY!

Prague Philharmonia . . . . .

January 24, 2026

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo

January 26, 2026

The Electric Light Orchestra Experience

February 5, 2026

The Choir of Man

February 10, 2026

The Vienna Boys Choir .

February 16, 2026

Cirque Kalabanté

March 8, 2026

Southside Center for the Arts

The Southside Center for the Arts is a realized and longtime dream come true for Opelika's oldest historic neighborhood.  Innovatively designed as a school building by Southern architectural legend Frank Lockwood, Southside Elementary opened in 1929, and for the next 70 years welcomed thousands of children into its classrooms.  

Now, as a cooperative venture between The Arts Association of East Alabama, Envision Opelika, and the City of Opelika, it is a building alive with the sights and sounds of performing arts, visual arts, literary arts, lectures, arts education activities, and community engagement events.  It houses the administrative offices of the Arts Association, Envision Opelika, as well as the Lee-Russell Opelika Senior Center; a 250-seat auditorium, meeting/conference/rehearsal rooms, and gallery space for student and professional art.  Restoration efforts have been true to the building's historic character with functional upgrades for contemporary use. 

Learn more about Southside Center for the Arts

Known as America’s Big Band, the Jazz Ambassadors are the premier touring jazz orchestra of the United States Army. Formed in 1969, this 19-piece ensemble has received critical acclaim throughout the United States and abroad performing America’s original art form, jazz.

Performances by the Jazz Ambassadors offer some of the most versatile programming of any big band. Concerts include classic big band standards, instrumental and vocal solo features, patriotic favorites, contemporary jazz works, and original arrangements and compositions by past and present members of the Jazz Ambassadors. Many of these original works are available for free download through Perspectives, a jazz education initiative by the Jazz Ambassadors.

All Concerts are free and open to the public but ticket reservations are required.

The touching one-woman comedy titled after Bombeck’s long-running newspaper column, is a candid commentary of her life that made her the champion of suburban housewives everywhere.

Kristy Meanor (Wetumpka Depot Players Artistic Director) inhabits the role in an extended monologue that traces the ups and downs of suburban home life that inspired Bombeck and triggered her career as an unlikely journalist -- a career that started small yet mushroomed to a syndicated column in some 900 newspapers, the writing of 15 best selling books, a successful lecture circuit, a stint on ABC's "Good Morning America", and a passionate support of the Equal Rights Amendment.