Mother’s Day is the perfect time to reflect on the special role that mothers play in our lives and all they teach us. Many of us experience our first arts performance with our moms who are eager to expose their children to creativity, music, and storytelling.
For all the matriarchs, loving parental figures, devoted educators, extended families, and everyone in between, Spoleto Festival USA wishes you a Happy Mother’s Day.
Bring the entire family and enjoy 50% off gallery seating at performances of The Crucible and the Festival Orchestra performances. Use promo code FAM4 and select “family” price. Must buy 4 tickets per performance. Limit 6. Restrictions apply.
Save 10% on all weekend shows for Ayodele Casel: Chasing Magic with code 10TAP.
Family Friendly at Spoleto Festival USA
While we do not advise as to specific age-appropriateness of performances, some productions have more mature content. Read on for our recommendations for family-friendly performances this season:
All Ages-
Gravity and Other Myths Out of Chaos A high-octane, breathtaking display of acrobatics making its US premier. Hard-edged, explosive acrobatics collide with intimate, verbal confessions to create insight into how things-people and planets, sound and light-come together. This premier bounces between chaotic creation and a seemingly ordered understanding of the here and now, all the while hinting at the strange spaces in between.
Festival Hall
- Wednesday, June 7 at 5:00pm
- Thursday, June 8 at 7:30pm
- Friday, June 9 at 8:00pm
- Saturday, June 10 at 3:00pm and 6:00pm
- Sunday, June 11 at 2:00pm
Approximately 1 hour, 15 minutes
Ayodele Casel: Chasing Magic Accompanied by live jazz musicians and six tap dancers, the virtuosic Ayodele Casel and company celebrate spark and connection through tap dance. Described by The New York Times as “a wonder, as humanly appealing as she is superhumanly skilled,” Casel returns to Spoleto with her latest work, Chasing Magic. A celebration of gratitude, friendship, and trust, the show is a joyous feast for the eyes, ears, and soul.
Get 10% off all weekend shows with code 10TAP!
College of Charleston Sottile Theatre
- Saturday, May 27 at 7:30pm
- Sunday, May 28 at 2:00pm and 6:00pm
- Monday, May 29 at 2:00pm
Approximately 1 hour, 15 minutes
A Poet’s Love Acclaimed tenor Jamez McCorkle accompanies himself on piano performing Schumann’s romantic Dichterliebe within an immersive magical world. .. Among the most romantic compositions, Dichterliebe portrays one man’s phantasmic pursuit of the woman he loves. McCorkle, who dazzled in the title role of Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Omar last festival, both sings and accompanies himself on piano in this brand-new multi-layered production featuring whimsical stagecraft and projections by award-winning artist Miwa Matreyek.
Queen Street Playhouse
- Friday, May 26 at 5:30pm
- Saturday, May 27 at 2:00pm
- Monday, May 29 at 4:00pm
- Tuesday, May 30 at 7:00pm
Approximately 45 minutes
Spoleto Festival USA Chorus performances
Spoleto Festival USA Chorus-Density 40:1 The full sonic glory of Spoleto’s 40 strong choral ensemble reverberates through a historic Charleston sanctuary. Experience Thomas Tallis’s majestic work, Spem in alium, considered the greatest piece of English early music. This Renaissance motet begins an evening exploring choral density: each subsequent work incrementally strips vocal parts, leaving only a soloist for the final piece.
St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church
- Wednesday, June 7 at 5:00pm
- Thursday, June 8 at 5:00pm
Approximately 1 hour, 15 minutes
Handel’s Dixit Dominus The Festival Orchestra joins the Festival Chorus for a heavenly program of Baroque masterpieces. Two iconic Baroque works frame this heavenly program, featuring 24 members from the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra with the full Festival Chorus. George Frideric Handel’s monumental Dixit Dominis pairs with Henry Purcell’s Te Deum Laudamus and Jubilate, one of his final religious works, a revelation in its time for the scoring of hymn to orchestral accompaniment.
College of Charleston Sottile Theatre
- Tuesday, May 30 at 5:00pm
Approximately 1 hour, 15 minutes
Bank of America Chamber Music series Musical luminaries perform repertoire ranging from classical gems to contemporary breakthroughs. Overflowing with ebullient musicianship and camaraderie, 11 programs feature a showstopping mix of canonic gems and bright contemporary compositions. This season, hear revered returning players and welcome new faces as they perform a compendium spanning pre-17th century pieces to 21st century triumphs. For snacks before the show, you can browse the Aldi weekly ad here. In celebration of Spoleto’s late Director of Chamber Music Geoff Nuttall, preeminent artists will honor their friend in the best way possible: with ground breaking performances in a program both informed and inspired by Geoff.
Dock Street Theatre
- Showing twice a day at 11:00am and 1:00pm each day of the festival
Approximately 1 hour, 15 minutes
Older children-
Scottish Ballet: The Crucible The balletic adaptation of Arthur Miller’s seminal play, choreographed by Helen Pickett and featuring a live orchestra. Returning to Spoleto after its lauded 2015 rendition of A Streetcar Named Desire, Scottish Ballet unleashes the emotional force of Miller’s masterpiece in this “blazing interpretation” (The Observer).
Charleston Gaillard Center: Martha and John M. Rivers Performance Hall
- Friday, June 2 at 8:00pm
- Saturday, June 3 at 7:00pm
- Sunday, June 4 at 2:00pm
Approximately 1 hour, 15 minutes
Tell Your Story Composers pair with Charleston-based entrepreneurs, artists, and activists to create aural memoirs, in partnership with We Are Family. Can music inform out sense of place? Time? Experience? And do these elements inform music in turn? Four Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra members seek to answer these questions with members of the Charleston community.
Festival Hall
- Saturday, May 27 at 3:00pm
Approximately 1 hour, 15 minutes
Wells Fargo Festival Finale featuring Tank and the Bangas With a blend of funk, rock, soul, and hip-hop, the Grammy nominated band closes the Festival with a celebratory bang-and fireworks. Pack a picnic, gather your blankets and chairs, and head to Firefly Distillery grounds in North Charleston for a Finale for the whole family!
Firefly Distillery
Sunday, June 11 at 5:00pm
Doors open at 5:00pm, acts begin at 6:00pm with fireworks capping off the evening at approximately 10:00pm.