Yearly Archives: 2012

Sculpture Vulture: Dee Brown

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20120519-114242.jpg Today the Sculpture Vulture continues with the Arkansas Heritage Month emphasis on sculptures of Arkansans.

Visitors to the Dee Brown Library are greeted by Kevin Kresse’s 2004 sculpture of the celebrated author. The bronze likeness depicts Brown with a bepenciled hand raised to his chin as if in the midst of a wondrous thought while writing. The titles of some of his books surround the pedestal including his most famous book: 1971’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

Brown was a graduate of Little Rock High and Arkansas State Teachers College (now Little Rock Central and University of Central Arkansas, respectively). After a career as a librarian and bivocational but prolific author, he returned to Little Rock in 1973 and focused full time on his writing. He died in 2002.

Architeaser May 19

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Yesterday’s Architeaser was a silver gilt crest at the old Arkansas Gazette building. Built in 1908, it was designed by architect George Mann. In 1976 it was added to the national Register of Historic Places. after the Gazette closed in 1991, it later served as the headquarters for Bill Clinton’s Presidential campaign. Since 2008, it has been part of the eSTEM school campus.

Here is today’s Architeaser. While it is not covered, an awning and sign below it, may shift focus away for passers by.

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Arkansas Festival Ballet’s ALADDIN

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Arkansas Festival Ballet presents a full-length story ballet Aladdin this weekend.  Performances began last night and continue today at 2pm and 7:30pm as well as Sunday at 2pm.  This will conclude the twelfth season for Arkansas Festival Ballet.

The production boasts a relatively new score by Carl Davis.  It was commissioned in 2000 for the Scottish Ballet.  Among the nearly 100 dancers are four lead dancers: Allison Stearns and Meredith Short, and Calvin Chester and Nathan Young.

The performances will be at the Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre in MacArthur Park.

Architeaser May 18

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Yesterday’s Architeaser was one of the crests near the top of the Museum Center building in the River Market. Built as a railroad terminal in 1927, it later served as the press building for the Arkansas Democrat. In 1998, a $12 million adaptive reuse was completed. The building is now home to restaurants, offices and the namesake Museum of Discovery. This weekend it will be the headquarters for the museum’s annual Dino Dash.

Here is today’s Architeaser. It may be the only silver-gilt crest in Little Rock.

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13th Annual Dino Dash this weekend

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This Saturday, the 13th annual Museum of Discovery Dino Dash & Discovery Fest, will take place in Little Rock’s River Market District. Dino Dash is a 5K walk/run for ages 5 years and older, and a 1K Family Fun Run for all ages. All proceeds benefit the Museum of Discovery’s many educational programs.

Dino Dash participants can register online at www.museumofdiscovery.org . Fees are $25/individual or $20/team member until May 18, and $30 on race day. Race registration includes a fully supported race with police coverage and a safe route, a 2012 Dino Dash t-shirt and goody bag (while supplies last), and free admission to the Museum on race day, a street festival with games, entertainment, exhibits and refreshments. The 5K begins at 8:00 a.m. and the1K begins at 9:00 a.m. Both races begin and end in the River Market District near the Museum of Discovery at 3rd and Sherman. Prizes are awarded to top three finishers in 5K age groups and all 1K participants age 1-10 receive a medal and a dinosaur prize.

“We’re looking forward to showing off the museum this year, since we were closed in 2011. It will allow Dino Dash participants the opportunity to visit our newly renovated science center,” said Nan Selz, executive director for the museum.

For those who don’t race, the museum’s Discovery Fest is free and open to the public. It will be held from 7:30 – 10:30 a.m. in front of the museum, and will feature hands-on science activities, refreshments and entertainment.

Also returning are the prizes, which will be awarded to the top 3 finishers in each 5K division courtesy in part by Go! Running. Prizes will be awarded to the top 3 boy and the top 3 girl finishers in the 1K courtesy of the Sachar Family. All 1K finishers ages 1-10 will receive a medal and dino prize. The largest school team wins a pizza party at the Museum. The largest non-school team wins a free Museum rental (for up to 2 hours). Prizes will be awarded to the top two pushers in the three-wheeled stroller division. Stroller Division entrants are not eligible for division awards.

2012 Dino Dash sponsors include: Bancorp South; Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield; Arkansas Children’s Hospital; Janet and Glenn Davis; Melody and Chris Piazza; Legacy Termite and Pest Control; Arkansas Pediatric Clinic; First Security Bank; Go! Running; Little Rock Athletic Club; Allied Technologies Group LLC; New York Life/Chad and Missy Franks; Notre Dame Alumni Group; the Shue Family; the Sachar Family; Premier Refreshment Services; Crich Design House; Custom XM; and Coca-Cola.

Established in 1927, the Museum of Discovery is Little Rock’s oldest museum. Following its 2011 closing and a 10-month renovation, the Museum of Discovery re-opened in January 2012. It is central Arkansas’s leading informal educational resource in areas of science, technology, engineering and math. The museum’s mission is to ignite a passion for science, technology and math in a dynamic, interactive environment.

Architeaser May 17

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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.

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2012 Arkansas New Play Fest

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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.