JOPLIN, Mo. — 2010 has been a pretty good year for staying entertained in Joplin. As we gear up for an action-packed 2011, we took a look back through our past issues to pick out our favorites from the last year.



Classic music

The year featured some great classical music. Pro Musica Joplin offered another solid lineup of players, including a third appearance of classical music at the Kitchen Pass. Missouri Southern State University and Memorial Hall also featured some great music, from Brazilian melodies to creative fusions of tribal and jazz styles.

Pianist Emanuel Ax finally made his return to Joplin, as well. The world-renowed player was originally scheduled for November 2009, but snow canceled that appearance. He finally gave his performance in October.

But our favorite classical music performance featured beautiful photography along with enchanting music. In February, Ensemble Galilei presented “A Universe of Dreams,” a combination of Celtic music and pictures of the universe taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. NPR’s Neal Conan was part of the concert; he did readings to some of the pieces of music.

The Fox Theater was the perfect setting for this awe-inspiring show. Encore!



Walk it out

The Discover Downtown Alliance featured a great series of Third Thursday Art Walks in 2010. Each one featured unique entertainment, from battling artists to a downtown fiesta.

Our favorite happened in July with the “Faces of Autism” exhibit, which featured photography of kids afflicted with autism spectrum disorders. Each of the photos featured kids doing everyday, normal things such as playing a violin, feeding a kangaroo at the zoo or playing in a park.

The exhibit made its point: That kids with autism look like every other kid. Well done.



New game

It’s not every day that a casino gets to invent a new game. The times that those games stick around are fewer and more far between.

Downstream Casino rolled out its version of craps in April, and a recent trip to the casino in December on a Saturday night showed the game is rolling hot.

Because of a quirk in Oklahoma’s gaming law, only card games and slot machines can be played in casinos. Card craps gets around that by using two rows of six cards each to simulate the dice roll.

That means the odds are just the same as a roll of the dice. For extra measure, players can toss a couple of promotional cubes for extra bonuses, but those dice don’t have an effect on the game, bets or odds.



On stage

The Joplin area is blessed with plenty of great theatrical groups. Not only do the high schools have pretty good theater departments, but other local theater groups are filled with energetic people who love producing good theater.

Creativity reigned in 2010: We saw a steampunk version of “The Importance of Being Earnest,” a husband and wife pairing at MSSU for “The Fiddler on the Roof,” a great community collaboration at the Fox Theater for “Jesus Christ Superstar” and the talented youth at McAuley High School put together their own Glee-style show choir and presented their first concert in December.

All that talent was best represented in May when two of those theater groups presented creative retellings of Shakespeare’s works.

Joplin Little Theatre went B-movie sci-fi with “Return to the Forbidden Planet,” a retelling of “The Tempest.” Actors donned out of this world costumes straight from campy classics of the ’60s, including a Dot Matrix-styled robot character with enough gold to make any Mizzou fan smile.

Stone’s Throw Dinner Theatre gave a “typecast” actor a dramatically different character. Paxton Williams, best known for his historical re-creation of George Washington Carver, played the titular warrior in “Othello.” Williams directed the adaptation to retell some of the play’s action in flashbacks, so that those who saw the dinner theater show didn’t also need to be fed breakfast.



Concerts

Joplin saw its share of decent concerts. Boomtown Days featured a lineup with more than just country acts and ’70s rock bands this year: They added Never Shout Never to the lineup for 2010, joining Daryl Worley and .38 Special.

Downstream Casino offered some great acts, such as Gregg Allman, Lee Ann Womack and Heart. Buffalo Run brought us Miranda Lambert, Kansas and Bret Michaels. And Jim Brickman performed a Christmas concert at Memorial Hall, which helped us forget that there was no Nutcracker Ballet in Joplin this year.

We got to interview a lot of those acts, but our favorite interview by far was with Christian band Mercy Me. We opened up the questions to readers who follow the Globe’s Facebook site, and did they ever ask some good questions. The interview went pretty well, and they played a great Joplin show.

And yes Ñ we’re still bitter that Bret Michaels never called us back.



Pounding pavement

Joplin was the finish line for a unique race in October. Almost 2,000 runners and countless others teamed up for the Mother Road Marathon across three states along Route 66.

The event drew rave reviews from runners who flock to similar events. In fact, the event was so successful that some ugly aftermath popped up.

This week, the city settled a legal dispute with promoter Dean Reinke, who helped the Joplin Convention and Visitors Bureau put on the marathon. Reinke will receive $20,000 and drop all of his claims of ownership of the name and trademark rights.

That means the CVB can get to work on an even better marathon in 2011.



Nightlife

A few new nightspots opened in Joplin in 2010, including the Vibe, a spot for under-21 folks to go.

Joplin’s second alternative bar, Just Us Bar and Grill, fills the space left by Champs, and Cotton and Irene’s reopened as Rumors. But our favorite by a landslide is a new piano bar on Main Street.

JB’s Piano Bar opened in November and seems to be more packed every time we go there. The combination of good drinks, great live music, smoke-free air and patrons’ fun-loving attitude makes for an unforgettable night out.



Unique events

Joplinites are creative folk, and it showed in the events held around the area:

~ Zombies marched across Fourth Street down Main Street. We loved the looks on the faces of diners at Club 609.

~ A kite festival braved bad weather and filled the skies over Schifferdecker Park with color.

~ Historic Murphysburg Preservation rebuilt a Dickensian city in the parking lot  of First United Methodist Church. The three-night DickensFest was a great addition to Joplin’s Holiday Experience.

~ The ghosts at Raycliff Manor opened their house for a special spring break spook session.

~ An inaugural event combined great beers and charity. Ozarks Beerfest raised funds for Big Brothers Big Sisters by hosting a place to taste almost 100 craft, import and micro-beers from around the world.