Yesterday’s Architeaser was one of the crests on the YMCA building downtown on Broadway. Built in 1928, this 43,151 square foot building was placed on the National Register of Historic places in 1979.
Here is today’s Architeaser. With the shield and fleur de lis, it pays homage to Little Rock’s French roots.
The Arkansas Repertory Theatre presents TheatreSquared’s 2012 Arkansas New Play Fest on Thursday, May 17 and Friday, May 18 at The Oxford American building at 1300 Main Street.
Arkansas New Play Fest features professional staged readings. Each script is rehearsed, staged and performed by professional artists, script in hand, for the public and playwright.
Following each reading, there will be a talk back session with the playwright and the cast.
Thursday, May 17
7 p.m. Uprooted by Clinnesha Dillon Sibley
9 p.m. The Ballad Of Rusty and Roy by Troy And Jonny Schremmer
Friday, May 18
7 p.m. The Spiritualist by Robert Ford
9 p.m. The Football Project by Samuel Brett Williams
Featured Plays
UPROOTED
by Clinnesha Dillon Sibley
A richly drawn treatment of a timeless scenario by an award-winning Arkansas playwright. What happens when long-separated siblings reunite after the death of a parent? When successful film actress Venus Kettle returns to Indianola, Mississippi, to her mother’s “home going,” she is greeted by her sisters with a wide range of emotions, from enthusiastic glee to cold-shoulder resentment. In the meantime the play follows the parallel story of Venus’s brother, who is incarcerated in a facility in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. Uprooted is moving tribute to the redemptive power of family.
THE FOOTBALL PROJECT
by Samuel Brett Williams
November, 1998: a high school football team boarded a bus to travel to play in the state championship game. The entire town came out to see the team off—but the bus never left. One third-string player who played for mere seconds in the previous game forged his grades and caused the team to be disqualified from the championship. The town’s response was unprecedented. There were death threats, thoughts of suicide, vandalism and then a surprising amount of goodwill and even a bit of unexpected heroism. A snapshot of a town in crisis, examining one of the rare places that the ordinary and the epic, the petty and the profound collide: high school football.
THE SPIRITUALIST
by Robert Ford
TheatreSquared Artistic Director Robert Ford brings The Spiritualist back to the Arkansas New Play Festival for a second year of development, adding new revisions and, for the first time, original music. Inspired by true events, this comedic drama introduces Rosemary Dunn, an English widow who cooks for the school lunch service and communes with the spirits of dead composers. When an enterprising American reporter tries to unmask the self-proclaimed psychic as a fraud, he finds there may be more at play than simple musical sleight-of-hand.
THE BALLAD OF RUSTY AND ROY
by Troy and Jonny Schremmer
This new play with live, original music, follows the story of two half-brothers, both musicians with roots in Texas who have found their way to New York City along starkly divergent paths. One has an enthusiastic following on the New York music scene, the other among toddlers at the neighborhood church playgroup where he works. Circumstances reunite the two brothers, but a deeply troubled past involving a boyhood road trip threatens to tear them apart once again. Featuring songs – and performances – by Dusty Brown, who himself has a burgeoning career as a singer-songwriter in New York, an early version of The Ballad of Rusty and Roy was featured at the New York Fringe Festival.
Tickets are $7 per show or $20 for a two-day pass to all four readings.
Yesterday’s Architeaser was a crest (with two smaller crests) on the exterior of the garage building which now houses Enterprise Rent-A-Car on Broadway. The building was constructed in 1920.
Here is today’s Architeaser. Though it may look like it belongs in the banquet room at the old Camelot Hotel, it is actually on an exterior.
The Weekend Theater’s production of A…My Name Is Alice wraps up this weekend.
The show was conceived by Joan Micklin Silver and Julianne Boyd, with contributions from multiple collaborators. It opens Friday, May 4 and runs on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through May 20. Showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sundays. Tickets are $20 for general admission and $16 for students and seniors age 65 and over.
The cast features area actors Antisha Anderson-Scruggs, Jane Morgan Balgavy, Sarah Scott Blakey, Rachel Hampton, Erin Martinez, Danette Scott Perry, Samantha Porter, and Beth Ross, who will portray various characters in the 20 or so scenes. When casting the show, director Duane Jackson was looking for women of all ages, sizes, shapes, colors, and life experiences.
While each scene is self-contained, the overarching connection is always the lives of women: the friendships they share, the trials they face, and the joys of sharing this journey of life. Most consist of songs, and there are a couple of monologues, as well as a series of short poems interspersed throughout the show.
Among the scenes are “Sisters,” which details a lifelong sibling rivalry that reaches a bittersweet conclusion. “At My Age” is a duet between a 50-something widow and a teenager, both preparing for long-awaited dates with excitement and trepidation. In “Good Thing I Learned to Dance,” a woman goes from past to present recalling how dancing gave her a sort-of-safe way to let out her inner “bad girl.”
To make reservations or get more information, visit the online ticketing system at http://www.weekendtheater.org; tickets will also be sold at the door on performance days, based on availability. Reservations are no longer accepted by phone, but you can get information about the production by calling (501) 374-3761.
Yesterday’s Architeaser was a crest on the exterior of the Lafayette Building. Originally constructed in 1925 as a hotel, it has been a commercial structure since 1953. Recently the building has been renovated and is now a mixed-use structure of offices and residential units. It was designed by St. Louis architect George Barnett.
Here is today’s Architeaser. This crest actually also contains two smaller crests within it.
One fish, two fish, yellow fish, learn to fish.
The John Gould Fletcher Library and the Arkansas Game & Fish Commission (AG&FC) will hold a two-part Beginner’s Fishing Clinic on Thursday, May 17, at 6 p.m. at the Fletcher Library, and Saturday, May 19, at 9 a.m. at MacArthur Park pond for children ages 15 years and under.
At the clinic’s first session, an AG&FC biologist will teach participants about gear, bait, rigging, fish handling, and AG&FC pond locations. The first forty children who attend the clinic’s first session will receive a coupon for a free fishing rod and reel, which can be redeemed at the May 19 session. At the clinic’s second session, participants will be able to fish in MacArthur Park pond and receive advice from an AG&FC biologist on fish handling.
To receive the rod and reel, participants must attend both sessions of the clinic.
The John Gould Fletcher Library is located at 823 North Buchanan Street is one of 12 branches operated by the Central Arkansas Library System. All events are free and open to the public. For more information on the fishing event, call Fletcher Library at 663-5457 or visit www.cals.org.
Yesterday’s Architeaser was a crest on the side of the Beal-Burrow Dry Goods Building. Built in 1920, this Charles Thompson structure is a Prairie School structure on Markham. It is now part of the Block 2 Lofts Development.
Here is another crest which can be found on a downtown building.
Little Rock Culture Vulture 