Wellmark Family Series in Des Moines
Des Moines Performing Arts is bringing the Wellmark Family Series back for its 13th year and another amazing season. This series of live shows are perfect for introducing the littlest members of your family to the theater and live performances. The 2023 series sponsored by Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, will offer four shows that are a one-hour performance. Perfect for the youngest attention span and fun for the whole family. The Wellmark Family Series is not your typical live theater show. Each performance will encourage your family to use their imaginations, get young minds moving, and have fun!
In addition, before each performance families can participate in a Discovery Party with educational opportunities that correlate with the performance. Discovery Parties are held 1-hour before the start of the show and consist of demonstrations, music, activities, and more. This is a great way to introduce the show you are about to see to your children.
4-Show Package Pricing Starts at $47
Des Moines Performing Arts is offering a super affordable way for the entire family to enjoy the Wellmark Family Series. You can purchase season tickets for all four productions being held at the Des Moines Civic Center starting at $47. Purchase season ticket packages on the Des Moines Performing Arts website or at the Des Moines Civic Center ticket office.
Purchasing a package brings benefits that include:
- Convenient payment plans
- Save up to 15% on package add-on shows
- Best seats at the best prices
- Flexible ticket exchanges
- Easy show substitution
2022 Wellmark Family Series Shows:
Winnie the Pooh: The New Musical
November 5, 2022, on the Civic Center Stage
11 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Disney’s iconic Winnie the Pooh, Christopher Robin, and their best friends Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo, Rabbit, and Owl (oh… and don’t forget Tigger too!) have come to life in a beautifully crafted musical stage adaptation. Featuring the Sherman Brothers’ classic Grammy Award-winning music with further songs by A.A. Milne, this beautiful fresh stage adaptation is told with stunning life-sized puppetry through the eyes of the characters we all know and love, in a new story from the Hundred Acre Wood. Purchase your tickets here.
Collision of Rhythm
January 21, 2023, on the Civic Center Stage
11 a.m.
Collision of Rhythm is a duo comprised of tap-dancing classical virtuoso, Aaron Williams, and beatbox-juggling keynote speaker, Bronkar Lee. Though there are only two of them, they fill the stage as a 12-person ensemble would, moving from instrument to instrument with a high level of skill and diversity. What’s created is a richly explosive experience like nothing else out there — rhythm-centered, but also full of melodic movement and dynamic depth. With drumming, tap dancing, rhythmic juggling, marimba, piano, saxophone, flute and so much more, the show has been described as “Stomp meets Blue Man meets Cirque du Soleil.” Purchase your tickets here.
123 Andrés
March 4, 2023, on the Civic Center Stage
11 a.m.
123 Andrés, the husband-and-wife team of Andrés and Christina, is a Latin Grammy-winning duo with a lively show that includes audience participation with families singing and dancing. The pair has performed for audiences across the U.S., Puerto Rico, Panama, Mexico, and Colombia. Enjoy a joyful set of their signature songs in Spanish and English. Purchase your tickets here.
Air Play
April 29, 2023, on the Civic Center Stage
11 a.m. and 2 p.m. (Sensory friendly showing)
In Air Play umbrellas fly, fabrics soar over the audience, balloons swallow people, and snow swirls, filling the stage. With stunning images and gales of laughter, Air Play bounces on the edge of definition: part comedy, part sculpture, part circus, part theater.
A circus-style adventure of two siblings journeying through a surreal land of air, Air Play transforms ordinary objects into uncommon beauty. Created by circus performers Seth Bloom and Christina Gelsone in collaboration with kinetic sculptor Daniel Wurtzel, Air Play was devised through years of experimentation with simple materials, movement, and technology. Air Play is a visual poem, using no words, and brings to life the very air we breathe. Purchase your tickets here.
Wellmark Family Series Package Add-Ons
The following two shows are shows you can add to your 4-show package. Such a great deal! There are two add-ons available this year.
In The Year of the Boar & Jackie Robinson
February 18, 2023, at the Temple Theater
11 a.m.
In 1947, the Year of the Boar, a young girl leaves China with her parents for a new beginning in America… But it’s harder than she expected. Though her classmates in Brooklyn come from a variety of backgrounds, Shirley is the only one who doesn’t speak English, and she worries that she will never have a friend.
But through a new love of the Brooklyn Dodgers (especially her hero Jackie Robinson), Shirley begins to feel at home. Based on the book by Bette Bao Lord and told through humor, Chinese and English, and a rich multimedia staging, the play celebrates the bravery and sacrifice of those who bring new perspectives to our country.
Ugly Duckling
April 1, 2023, at the Temple Theater
11 a.m and 2 p.m. (Sensory friendly showing)
Meet the most unusual duckling the pond has ever seen! In their nest at the edge of a pond, the baby ducklings wait impatiently for Mummy’s enormous egg to hatch. But their new brother doesn’t look like everyone else. He doesn’t even quack like a proper duckling!
Teased and called Ugly by his siblings, our hero goes on an adventure in search of a place to fit in. As the woodland trees change from dark weathered branches to silver sticks of frost, the lost and lonely fledgling hides in brushwood and stares skyward at the migrating swans, yearning to belong and marveling at their beauty…. Where does he really belong?
Visit dmpa.org for an entire list of shows and performances such as the National Geographic Live series, Prairie Meadows Temple Comedy Series (great date night idea), and more!
Take a look at our experience a few years ago at the Brown Bear, Brown Bear & Other Eric Carle Stories a few years ago.
