154th Emancipation Day Celebration

Friday, September 15, 2017
6:00 pm – Homecoming Reception, 2nd Floor
7:00 pm – Featured Performance, Auditorium

The 2017 Homecoming Reception and Concert will be held Friday, September 15, 2017 at the historic Ariel Opera House located at 426 Second Avenue, Gallipolis, Ohio beginning at 6:00 pm.

History of the Annual Emancipation Day

The Emancipation Proclamation has been celebrated and observed in Gallia County, Ohio continuously since 1863. The Gallia County Emancipation Day Celebration is reported to be one of the longest continuous running celebrations of the Emancipation Proclamation in the United States.

Historically, the celebration originally was always celebrated on the 22nd of September. This coincided with President Lincoln’s historic signing of the Emancipation Proclamation which declared slaves “thenceforth and forever more free.” It was conducted in a religious atmosphere. Activities & games such as baseball, sack racing, hog calling and greasy pole climbing were included to stimulate the interest and maintain enthusiasm. Bands, famous orators, politicians, parades, dance and queen contests were also included in the celebration.

Squire Parsons Gospel Music

Friday, October 13 at 7:00 p.m.
FREE – No tickets necessary
JOY 990 AM Radio is pleased to present gospel artist Squire Parsons.

Squire Parsons, a native of West Virginia was raised in a Christian home and was introduced to gospel music by his parents. His father, Squire Parsons, Sr., was a choir director in their home church and taught shaped note gospel music.

Squire has served as interim music director, church soloist, elementary school music teacher, high school band director and in 1975 he became the baritone singer for the Kingsmen Quartet. In 1979 Squire went into solo ministry.

Since 1978, Squire Parsons has been nominated by the SINGING NEWS’ fans for “Favorite Baritone”, “Favorite Gospel Songwriter” and “Favorite Gospel Singer”. He was named “Favorite Baritone” in 1986 and 1987. In 1986, 1992, 1993, 1994, and 1995 – “Favorite Gospel Songwriter”. In 1988 he was named “Favorite Southern Gospel Male Singer”.

A love offering will be accepted.

Carl Michael Magic & Illusion

Saturday, October 21 at 7:00 p.m.
Sunday, October 22 at 3:00 p.m.

The art of magic is making the impossible possible. To bring the audience out of their everyday world and connect them to what lies beyond. Surprise, shock and astonishment are simply the means to a greater goal: to awaken the sense of mystery and awe that lies dormant in all of us.

For millennia, the secrecy, inexplicably and mystery of magic and illusion have enraptured mankind, tapping into the primal human yearning to pierce the veil of reality. In every age, great performers have emerged to update and redefine this most ancient of art forms. Carl Michael is such a performer.

From childhood, Carl Michael has immersed himself in the study and practice of magic and illusion. His voracious quest for perfection, relentless work ethic, enormous talent, and astonishing skill and creativity have yielded one of the most brilliant young illusionists of our day.

We invite you to enter the world of Carl Michael. It is a world where everything you know is wrong, what is real and what is illusion merge into a new kind of possibility, a new take on reality.

Your journey awaits you. We invite you to begin. carlmichaelmagic.com

Meredith Willson’s THE MUSIC MAN

Friday, June 16 at 7:00 p.m. &
Saturday June 17 at 7:00 p.m.

Purchase Tickets
The historic Ariel Opera House presents the Ariel Players in The Music Man.

The Music Man is the classic musical written by Meredith Willson and is loosely based on his small town upbringing. Con man Harold Hill comes to Iowa in 1912 to sell band instruments and uniforms to the unsuspecting residents of River City. Marion, the librarian and piano teacher, sees right through him but eventually falls for his charms when he helps her younger brother overcome his lisp. Hill unites the town via music, including the bickering school board members that he forms into a barber shop quartet. In near continuous production by amateurs and professionals since its premiere in 1957, the show won 5 Tony awards including Best Musical and a Grammy for Best Musical Theatre Album. Some of the well known songs from The Music Man include 76 Trombones, Goodnight Ladies, The Wells Fargo Wagon and Goodnight My Someone.
THE MUSIC MAN is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI).
All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI.
www.MTIShows.com

The Ariel’s Summer Tuba-Time! 2017

Monday, July 3, 2017 at 4:00pm
Click Here to Pre-Register Now!
Tuba and Euphonium players of all ages can come join the fun! Musicians will meet at the Ariel-Ann Carson Dater Performing Arts Centre at 4:00 p.m. for an on-stage rehearsal. Summer Tuba-Time music books will be available for purchase ($15 incl. tax) at rehearsal.

Monday, July 3, 2017 at 7:30pm
FREE CONCERT! – 7:30 p.m. at the City Park
No tickets required.
A fun time to be had by all! Join us at the 2017 River Recreation in Gallipolis City Park to celebrate Independence Day with the joyful sounds of the Ariel’s Summer Tuba-Time!

Summer Tuba-Time concerts are presented with permission from the Harvey Phillips Foundation, Inc.

DREW HASTINGS- Comedian, Mayor, Farmer & Author

Friday, July 14 at 7:00 p.m.

Purchase Tickets
Join the Ariel Opera House in welcoming the most unlikely farmer and Mayor you’ve ever met, Drew Hastings.

As a Comedian, Drew Hastings has been a well-known standup for 20-plus years with television comedy specials, Tonight Show appearances, and a regular favorite on the National Bob & Tom Radio Show.  As a Farmer. A lifelong, loft living, city dweller, he left Los Angeles at age 50 to take up farming in rural Ohio which he describes as “Farmageddon”.  As Mayor: he was just re-elected as Mayor of the small, rural City of Hillsboro, Ohio, where his politically incorrect candor would get most elected officials recalled, (they’ve tried twice) yet somehow he thrives.

WBYG 99.5 & K92FM’s Tom Payne and Steven Figiel will be on hand to host the show! Don’t miss the laughs – get your tickets today!

Sponsored by WBYG 99.5FM, Big Country

Auditions for “The Music Man”

THE STORY OF JOHN GEE: The Ariel’s Black History Celebration

Sunday, February 12, 2017
at 2:00 p.m.

The Story of John Gee, Hero of Gallipolis, is presented as part of the Ariel Opera House’s celebration of Black History month. Gee was born in Cincinnati in 1798 and came to Gallipolis between 1818 and 1822 as a free African American. Intelligent, industrious, hard-working and gifted in several areas, Gee built up his business building fine houses (some of which are still standing today), raised a large family, was active in his church and was a philanthropist. He donated the land for the “Colored Cemetery” and for his church. He built sidewalks in the town where he was the largest landowner of the time, all of this while living on the border of a slave state. At night, he was a known conductor of the Underground Railroad rescuing countless numbers of men, women and children desperate to escape slavery. Join us as historian Elaine Armstrong weaves the story and The Ohio Valley Symphony Woodwind Quintet performs music of the times including that of African American composer William Grant Still.

This is a free event!