The Community College of Rhode Island will rededicate the recently refurbished Bobby Hackett Theater with an evening celebrating the college’s talented musicians, actors, singers and performers in “50 Years of Performing Arts at CCRI” on Friday, Nov. 21 at the Knight Campus in Warwick.

The show will begin at 7 p.m., but doors will open at 6:30 for an open house with a local favorite, rhythm and blues band Steve Smith and the Nakeds.

The evening will begin with a rededication of the theater to Hackett, a Providence-born jazz musician whose career spanned six decades and saw performances with music legends from Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman to Louis Armstrong and Tony Bennett.

Featured performances that night include aerial silk acrobat and alumna Jamie Glowacki, whose introduction to circus and performance came when she starred in “Walking on Air,” an original musical about a European circus, while she was a student here. She had to learn how to juggle and walk on her hands for the role and eventually learned how to walk on the high wire.

She later toured the world in musical theater and circus productions, but trapeze is brutal on the body; she retired at 34 and began training in aerial silk performance when she was 40. “I loved being back in the air and, because you’re working on fabric, it’s just much more forgiving on the body,” she said. “It’s a beautiful, sensual apparatus that allows you to really express anything. The one I’ll be performing at the theater event is kind of love story-ish. There are all kinds of tricks you can do to really craft a story.”

The event also will feature Performing Arts Department students, faculty and alumni staging scenes from plays performed through the decades and musical entertainment from the cast of “Hello Broadway 2014.” After the show, magician Bruce Kalvert ’76 will entertain and there will be special appearances from Mozart and Shakespeare as well as dessert and refreshments in the Great Hall to celebrate CCRI’s 50th anniversary.

Tickets cost $25 for general admission, $5 for students with valid college ID. Visit www.ccri.edu/foundation or call 825-2190 for reservations. Tickets will be available at the box office the night of the show.