Grand Forks in North Dakota is located near the Minnesota border and East Grand Forks with which it shares a community across the north-flowing Red River of the North. Grand Forks is home to over 56,000 people and has much to offer including the University of North Dakota, pleasant parks, and a greenway along the river, and a thriving arts community. If you enjoy performance arts then you will want to check out some of these local theatres and see what the talent of Grand Forks and the region has to offer.
Burtness Theatre and UND Theatre Arts
The University of North Dakota, or UND, offers a theatre program that features multiple performances throughout the academic year in their Burtness Theatre building. They offer the only university Musical Theatre program in the state and you can catch the prestigious student shows. The Burtness is the main performance space of the UND Theatre Arts and seats up to 365 people in its proscenium theatre. The building also has a laboratory theatre with flexible seating, and costume and scenic shops. This is one of the premier theatres in the state with its student productions of original works.
The Burtness Theatre was built in 1962 in the campus’s collegiate gothic architecture style and features an imposing square red brick exterior surrounded by dark green shrubbery, tall trees, and a pleasant lawn. It is dedicated to and named after Olger Burtness who was a UND graduate in the early 1900s. However, updated sound and lighting equipment ensures you have a high-quality theatre viewing experience. The Burtness Theatre is located at 281 Centennial Drive on the central campus near the English Coulee River and the Celebrate Park with its Adelphi Fountain.
Empire Arts Center and Theatre Company
The Empire Arts Center is located at 415 DeMers Avenue in historic downtown Grand Forks. Its building was once the first purpose-built movie house in town, the New Grand theater, which opened in 1919 to enthusiastic crowds. Now the theater is a cultural center of the town and hosts the UND Art Collections Gallery which displays local artists alongside works by such acclaimed artists as Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, and Audrey Flack, plus historic art from back as far as ancient Egypt. The Gallery’s hours are usually from 2-7 p.m. on Thursdays and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays.
The Empire Arts Center offers a variety of fun live shows where you can enjoy everything from musical acts to performances put on by the Empire Theatre Company which was formed in 2012 and showcases contemporary plays and musicals that you might not be able to see anywhere else in North Dakota. It’s unique in that it’s the only North Dakota theatre company to produce a full season of plays, usually having four or more over a theatre year that runs from August through June. At the Empire Theatre Company, you’ll find talented performances by local and national professional actors.
Fire Hall Theatre
One unique theatre you will want to check out is the Fire Hall Theatre. This quaint 100-seat theatre is housed in the historic tan brick Number One Fire Hall in downtown Grand Forks. It was bought and renovated in the 80s to become the home of the Greater Grand Forks Community Theatre, one of the oldest theatre groups in the county. The GGFCT is a non-profit, entirely volunteer-run group. The Fire Hall Theatre survived a serious flood with three feet of water in 1997 due to the flat terrain of Grand Forks and the Fire Hall’s location near the riverside.
Besides being an important showcase for local community theatre the Fire Hall also offers a Children’s Summer Camp where kids can learn and have fun acting with peers who share their interests. A month of rehearsals will end in two days of performances. The cost is $75 for elementary kids who will be rehearsing two days a week and $125 for middle school kids entering who have camp from Monday to Thursday. The Fire Hall Theatre is located at 412 2nd Avenue North by the Grand Forks High School and just minutes from the Red River of the North waterfront.
Chester Fritz Auditorium
The Chester Fritz Auditorium is another theatre of the UND. It was built in the 1960s, partly with a $1 million donation by Chester Fritz, a proud UND alumni and international financier. The rest of the money for this distinctive auditorium came from state and private funding. On October 12, 1972, the auditorium held its first event, a performance by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonic Choir. Since then it has played host to a large variety of shows from country-western to ballet, opera, and symphonies, as well as prestigious Broadway Theatre shows, and local UND events.
The Chester Fritz Auditorium is a grand building with over 2,300 red seats, and in the lobby you’ll find the Italian-made Starcher Chandelier with about 30 lamps and over five thousand prism, bead, and teardrop crystals. The Auditorium is a center for the performing arts that is one of the finest facilities for several stares around and brings many nationally acclaimed performers to its stage and photos of past performers line the halls. At the Chester Fritz Auditorium you can enjoy some world-class shows not usually found in North Dakota. It is located at 3475 University Ave Stop 9028.
Local theatre is an important part of any town’s community, and in Grand Forks you have some great locations to see it in. From professional actors to UND Theatre Arts students, to community theater and children’s performances, Grand Forks offers myriad theatre opportunities whether you want to enjoy a night out, or try your hand at a bit of theatre performance yourself. Have you been to all the theatres in Grand Forks? At Rydell Chevrolet GMC we’d love to know which is your favorite local theatre so drop us a line and let us know what you saw there.
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