Ford Center stages community musical State Fair in Oxford

The Gertrude C. Ford Center for the Performing Arts is turning its summer musical into a community gathering, bringing Oxford families, university personnel and professional performers together for Rodgers and Hammerstein’s State Fair. The production is designed as a local collaboration, not a one-time touring stop, and it gives residents a chance to see neighbors and campus partners share the same stage.

The show is scheduled for Friday, June 26, and Saturday, June 27, both at 7:30 p.m. in the Ford Center’s 1,250-seat auditorium at 351 University Ave. on the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford. Tickets are listed at $20 for Orchestra/Parterre seats and $40 for Boxes, with the UM Box Office in the Ford Center handling ticketing for non-athletic productions and events on campus.

State Fair centers on the Frake family, who leave their farm in the summer of 1946 for an adventure at the Iowa State Fair. Mom and Pop set their sights on blue ribbons, while their children, Margy and Wayne, find romance and heartbreak on the midway. That familiar story line gives the production a wide appeal while still leaving room for a cast that includes performers ages 10 and older.

The Ford Center says the community musical is supported by Nancy Starnes and built as a community-engagement project between the center, the university and the Oxford community. That structure is part of what makes the show stand out on Lafayette County’s summer calendar. Instead of separating audience and performer, it draws in local participants who help shape the final production and make the event feel rooted in Oxford itself.

That local character also fits the Ford Center’s broader mission. The university describes the venue as serving the intellectual and cultural environment of the University of Mississippi and the region through performing arts, public affairs and the humanities. A family-centered musical with community singers, dancers and backstage help puts that mission in plain view, while also giving the campus and downtown a shared event that residents can reach without leaving Oxford.

For a city where campus life and community life often overlap, State Fair is one of the season’s clearest examples of how the Ford Center turns the performing arts into a local event people can point to, attend and recognize as their own.