Announcing the 2023-24 Clover Sonoma Family Fun Series!
One of the most extensive family series programs in California, LBC’s Clover Sonoma Family Fun Series has presented for four decades in one of the largest theaters designated for family shows, and the 2023-24 season is now open for new subscribers!
“Our Family Fun Series aims to give families of Sonoma County more opportunities to come together – kids, parents, grandparents, aunties, and uncles – to share enriching, cultural entertainment in a community setting,” said Melanie Weir, LBC’s Associate Director of Education and Community Engagement and current President of California Presenters, a nonprofit presenters’ organization. “Live family theater can be the new shared experiences that reinforce family bonds and create memories to last a lifetime. It’s also the perfect entry point to prepare kids to be lovers of the arts and theatre for the rest of their lives.”
Sponsored by Clover Sonoma and Exchange Bank, the Family Fun Series presents dynamic, child-positive stage performances that employ vibrant costuming and staging to capture the imagination of patrons of all ages. Many performances are inspired by children’s books or topics like science and cultural exploration, and each performance also presents themes that foster social emotional learning, such as overcoming adversity, processing feelings, and creative thinking.
This year, LBC plans five fresh, uplifting performances from internationally acclaimed artists, including “Dinosaur World Live,” “The Magic School Bus,” “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” “Pete the Cat’s Big Hollywood Adventure,” and “Giraffe’s Can’t Dance – The Musical!”
As always, the Family Fun Series is more than just the performance. Family members can create fun crafts related to the performance’s theme for an hour in the lobby prior to each show. They also get to visit with Clover Sonoma’s Clo the Cow, and because the program coincides with dinner time, LBC adds pizza to the concessions menu, and Clover Sonoma milk is available for free.
Presented as a subscriber program, the series gives families the chance to make sure they have several memorable outings on their calendar for the year. Subscriber benefits include securing the same reserved seats for every show, meeting the casts, and an exclusive invitation for a VIP backstage tour. Tickets are set at family-friendly prices to make the experience accessible to all, and subscriptions offer even more savings.
By experiencing LBC’s Family Fun Series, kids can understand that anyone can be an arts lover, and it doesn’t require special skills or interests. Instead, Sonoma County’s kids can discover something of themselves everywhere they look in the new context of the theater: in its larger-than-life grandeur, in the wonder of animated sets and props, and in the risk/reward of public performance. In this way, LBC gives children the opportunity to step into an expanded version of themselves by taking small, sometimes vulnerable strides, like interacting with ushers, exploring their curiosity about acoustics or lighting, and adapting to theater etiquette when all they’ve known is watching movies in the cinema or at home.
Subscription packages for the Clover Sonoma Family Fun Series are currently available. Individual tickets go on sale for Members beginning August 15 and for the public on August 25. For more information about individual shows and to purchase subscriptions and tickets, visit lutherburbankcenter.org/family-fun.