Performing at the Meiley-Swallow Theater on North Central College's campus located in the heart of historic downtown Naperville, BrightSide Theatre is the newest professional theatre in the western suburbs.

A unique blend of award-winners, premieres, modern works and timeless classics meant to reflect upon and inform our community will inhabit BrightSide's stage.

We provide a unique location to host a captivating array of theatrical events, music concerts, dance recitals, literary showcases, and art exhibitions

Our Center features electric music, dance shows, fine plays of all genres, niche events, and art exhibits. Our center houses interactive training venues, including an acting studio. Our acclaimed Dhrishti brand brings in artists from all over the world to create exquisite experiences for you.

Theater Performance
The Dhrishti Theatre will host a number of theatrical performances and events, while our studios also allow us to support a wide range of dance and yoga workshops. With the power of our audio and video systems and our recording and instructional capabilities, the Dhrishti Center takes the guesswork out of finding the perfect location for your performance!

Dance and Music Schools
Our state-of-the-art venue is the perfect location for music instruction, dance lessons, recitals, and instruction for other forms of art. We provide our Bose Matrix audio and video system, recording capabilities, and other instructional tools to promote artistic learning in innovative ways. There is Wi-Fi, free parking, and available food and beverage services for full-day school sessions.

Art Gallery
The Dhrishti Center For Performing Arts gallery offers custom 'atmospheres' for hosting art exhibitions and sales events. It is a sublime setting for hanging or displaying artwork ranging from paintings and multimedia art to sculptures and cultural artifacts. There is free parking, Wi-Fi, and food and beverage hospitality services available.

As a black box theatre, the Bartley and Maricela Madden Theatre brings together actors and audience up close and personal with its flexible seating and staging configurations. Madden Theatre is an ideal setting for experimental theatrical performances and a great space for film screenings, jazz and dance performances and lectures.

In addition to being used for many of the College's theatre and dance classes, Madden Theatre hosts performances in the Cabaret Series of the College's fine and performing arts season. Such artists as Spider Saloff, performance duo Beckie Menzie and Tom Michael, and Barbra Streisand impressionist Steven Brinberg have engaged audiences in an intimate nightclub-type setting.

The removable seating can be configured in a variety of ways: in the round, in traditional lecture-style, to one side, or whatever arrangement the event requires. The venue features high-tech lighting and sound systems, which production staff can arrange to suit any need.

The versatile space is available for rentals and features its own lobby, making it ideal for hosting conferences and events for up to 150 people. With its own entrance off Chicago Avenue-but connected to the rest of the Fine Arts Center-Madden Theatre can be used at the same time as the Wentz Concert Hall. The building's state-of-the-art acoustics and sound-proof design ensure no sound disruption or interference from either inside or outside the building.

The Bartley and Maricela Madden Theatre is named in honor of a Naperville couple and neighbors of the College who made a generous gift to the Fine Arts Center. Maricela is a 1999 fine arts graduate of North Central College and Bart Madden is an independent scholar and retired financier.

Magical Starlight Theatre was formed in September 1994 and is a program of The Naperville Park District. Magical Starlight's express mission is to produce quality, family-oriented theatrical presentations.

Magical Starlight strives to include community actors and production staff of all ages in its productions. Included have been such classics as The Wizard of Oz, Charlie And The Chocolate Factory and Peter Pan. Magical Starlight provides a unique opportunity for adults and young people to work together as peers and learn from one another. In addition, a conscious effort is made to include as many family members as possible in all aspects of each production.

Pfeiffer Hall is a grand venue with a large proscenium stage. Built before the start of the Great Depression, this auditorium has been a magnet for the arts in Chicago's western suburbs for more than 85 years.

Dedicated as the Barbara Pfeiffer Memorial Hall, the venue was the largest performance theater in Illinois west of Chicago when it opened. In addition to hosting North Central College's musical and theatrical performances and weekly chapel services for many decades, Pfeiffer Hall has hosted many speakers over the years, including Robert Frost, Martin Luther King Jr., Henry Kissinger, Cornel West and Barack Obama.

The auditorium features main-floor seating for 588 and balcony seating for 469. The hall also houses classrooms and practice rooms for the College's departments of music and theatre and continuing education music programs for the community, as well as faculty offices for North Central's speech communication department.

Over the years Pfeiffer Hall has undergone renovations to its exterior, interior furnishings, sound systems and air comfort systems.

Pfeiffer Hall is named in honor of Barbara Pfeiffer by her sons, Henry and G.A. Pfeiffer who gave the lead gift for the building. The Pfeiffer family has been a generous benefactor of the College.

Founded in 1966 by North Central College theatre professor Don "Doc" Shanower, Summer Place Theatre has spent the last fifty years providing professional quality theatre arts entertainment to the Naperville community. The all-volunteer board, crew and cast work hard together to produce entertaining plays and musicals for the Naperville area.

The Summer Place occupies the Naperville Central High School auditorium during the summer months, performing favorite musicals like South Pacific and Jesus Christ Superstar, and plays like Father of the Bride and Cheaper by the Dozen. They also collaborate with the Naperville Park District in the fall for their annual Ghost Stories in the Park... In the Dark!, an evening of spooky storytelling at the Grand Pavilion near Centennial Beach. Other performances, workshops, and theatre classes keep the Summer Place busy year-round.

The Summer Place, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that receives funding through sales of affordably priced tickets, program ads, concessions, from a small number of grants and from the kind donations of its patrons. It provides a great deal to Naperville: the opportunity to gather to create a work of art, and to share that work with its citizens at a very low cost.

The thrust stage theatre in Meiley-Swallow Hall is ideal for intimate musical and theatre productions, as well as speakers, panel discussions and presentations. The cozy setting is home to many of the College's theatre department productions, studio theatre productions and summer jazz concert series and is open for use by community artists and groups.

Through its partnership with Anderson's Bookshops in Naperville-one of the nation's leading independent bookstores-the theatre at Meiley-Swallow Hall has hosted author talks by such notables as Bill Bryson, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Antonio Sacre, Garth Stein and Donald Miller.

The theatre is located inside Meiley-Swallow Hall, formerly Grace Evangelical Church and former Central Baptist Church, purchased by North Central College and renovated to house North Central College's fine arts performance, exhibit and curricular programs. The hall also includes instructional and exhibit space for the North Central College art department, digital classrooms for the interactive media studies program, and offices.

Meiley-Swallow Hall is named in honor of the late Judy G. Meiley Swallow Stevenson, an entrepreneur and business leader, life trustee and generous benefactor to North Central College. The building was purchased with funds from the estates of two North Central College alumnae, sisters Marie Gantzert of the class of 1933 and Bernice Gantzert of the class of 1938.

Wentz Concert Hall is hailed as a gem-the premier destination in Chicago's western suburbs to appreciate performances of classical, jazz and contemporary music. The acoustics in Wentz Concert Hall are designed by Talaske Sound Thinking, acoustical consultants for Chicago's critically acclaimed Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park. The venue also is ideally suited for recording. Hear what artists who have performed in Wentz Concert Hall say about the quality of the venue's acoustics.

Wentz Concert Hall can be "tuned" through the motorized extension and retraction of sound-absorbing curtains. Two massive sound chambers, one on each side of the stage and invisible to the audience, enhance the audio characteristics and allow sound to bounce off multiple planes as it is directed to the audience.

Wentz Concert Hall has hosted such notable classical performers as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Yo-Yo Ma and Lyric Opera of Chicago soloist Elizabeth Futral; jazz legends Herb Alpert, Herbie Hancock and Ramsey Lewis; and such contemporary artists as Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Colbie Caillat and Los Lonely Boys. The hall is the west suburban home of the Chicago Sinfonietta, home of the DuPage Symphony Orchestra and is an incomparable venue to showcase bands, orchestras and choirs of area high schools as well as the College's multitude of musical ensembles and soloists.

Located at Chicago Avenue and Ellsworth Street in downtown Naperville, the Wentz Concert Hall at the Fine Arts Center is named in honor of Dr. Myron Wentz, a visionary scientist, entrepreneur and lover of music who provided the lead gift for the Fine Arts Center. Dr. Wentz is also a North Central College alumnus of the class of 1963.