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VENUE<br />
THE OPELIKA<br />
CENTER<br />
FOR THE<br />
PERFORMING<br />
ARTS<br />
graduating, he attended the University of Texas<br />
in Austin, Texas, for a master’s degree.<br />
Phillip met his wife Connie in high school<br />
in Beauregard. They married in 1973 after she<br />
graduated from Auburn University and he was<br />
working on his master’ degree. They moved<br />
back to Opelika in 1975. Phillip taught classes,<br />
while Connie went into banking.<br />
His music professors at Auburn influenced<br />
his love of music. During this time, Phillip and<br />
mutual music lovers would drive on Highway<br />
29 to Atlanta every night of Metropolitan Opera<br />
week in May, to see a different performance<br />
each night.<br />
“Hearing the great musical artists of the<br />
second half of the 20th century,” he says,<br />
“informed my sense of what quality is and how<br />
audiences can respond when you are in the<br />
presence of greatness. I learned what live performances<br />
can do to uplift people.”<br />
In 1980, Phillip became part of the staff at<br />
First Baptist Church in Opelika as the pianist.<br />
He also gave piano classes at his home.<br />
In 1981, he was invited to join the board of the<br />
Opelika Arts Association (OAA), which is now<br />
East Alabama Arts (EAA). There were many<br />
people in Opelika interested in the arts and<br />
music. When Philip became a part of the board,<br />
he suggested offering concerts to the community.<br />
Members of the board would make calls<br />
and arrange support for the performances.<br />
The OAA began the Spring Festival Series,<br />
with concerts held in downtown Opelika<br />
church sanctuaries. One of these was the<br />
Birmingham Opera for “Amahl and the Night<br />
Visitors.” Others featured regional classical<br />
ensembles or soloists. These were held for<br />
about five years.<br />
After the new Opelika High School had<br />
been built, there were discussions of building<br />
an auditorium not just for students but<br />
for community use. “When the school board<br />
and superintendent Dr. Clyde Zeanah decided<br />
to build the Performing Arts Center as a dual<br />
facility to serve the high school and community<br />
as theater space,” remembers Phillip, “it<br />
opened up many possibilities.” The OAA was<br />
asked to create a performing arts series which<br />
established the working relationship with the<br />
city school system.<br />
Phillip, who had assembled the spring<br />
festival concerts, became the director of the<br />
Performance Series. In the spring of 1987, OAA<br />
held an open house as the auditorium was<br />
being finished to announce the series and have<br />
the season ticket holders select their seats.<br />
After 36 years, many of the original subscribers<br />
are patrons.<br />
The Performance Series opened in<br />
September 1987 with the Alabama Symphony<br />
Orchestra featuring pianists Joan Yarbrough<br />
and Robert Cowan. The orchestra also opened<br />
the next three seasons with Robert McDuffie,<br />
Marvin Hamlisch, and a concert staging of<br />
West Side Story. Receptions were held afterwards<br />
at some of the shows for season ticket<br />
holders.<br />
Phillip developed close relationships with<br />
many booking managements. One agent, Eric<br />
Amada, who assisted Phillip with the second<br />
season, decided to attend the Robert McDuffie<br />
performance to see what was happening in the<br />
The Opelika Center for the<br />
Performing Arts has hosted over<br />
twenty international orchestras<br />
including The National Symphony<br />
Orchestra and the Alabama<br />
Symphony, fifty nationally touring<br />
Broadway productions including<br />
“Annie,” “In the Heights,” and<br />
“South Pacific“, nine performances<br />
of the New York City Opera National<br />
Company, twenty-one major ballet<br />
and dance companies including<br />
Paul Taylor Dance Company and<br />
David Parsons Dance, and twentyone<br />
jazz celebrities and popular<br />
entertainers including Shirley Horn,<br />
John Pizarelli, Roseanne Cash, and<br />
The 5 Browns.<br />
For nearly thirty years, the Opelika<br />
Center for the Performing Arts has<br />
been the place where audiences<br />
experience the world’s finest artists<br />
and musicians. Some of the visiting<br />
artists and guests such as Michael<br />
Kaiser, President of the Alvin Ailey<br />
Dance Theater in 1992 and former<br />
President of the John F. Kennedy<br />
Center for the Performing Arts<br />
counts the company's performance<br />
in the hall as one of the most<br />
memorable in their careers.<br />
LOCATION<br />
Opelika Center for the<br />
Performing Arts<br />
1700 Lafayette Parkway<br />
Opelika, AL 36801<br />
Phone: 334.749.8105<br />
E-mail: info@eastalabamaarts.org<br />
www.eastalabamaarts.org.<br />
EAST ALABAMA LIVING 19
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