Yearly Archives: 2012

Goldilocks and Red Riding Hood take stage at Ark Arts Center

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Bears, a Wolf, and Fun are along for the journey

The Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre will present Goldilocks and Little Red Riding Hood January 20 – February 5, 2012. Performances are held Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Goldilocks and Little Red Riding Hood take the stage together in this exciting musical production. These two classic stories are told by a friendly, ever‐present quartet of singers that perform fun and catchy tunes written by Children’s Theatre composer Lori Isner.

“In this adaptation of Goldilocks and Little Red Riding Hood, we have approached these two very old stories in a new and fresh way,” said Artistic Director Bradley Anderson. “We have used music as a way to make the wolf and bears less threatening and more, well, just plain humorous. The musical element of our adaptation is more than just a silly way to tell some once‐scary stories. Rather, it gives the play a universal appeal and is a delight for audiences of all ages.”

Rachel Haislip is the flaxen-haired heronie and Katherine Campbell is the crimson-clad leading lady.  Others in the cast include Josh Rice, Anna Holman, Mark Hansen, Mattingly Bartole, Aleigh Morton and Nate Buursma.

Goldilocks and Little Red Riding Hood is adapted by Bradley Anderson with music by Lori Isner.  Alan Keith Smith directed and designed the scenery for the production.  Others on the creative team include Miranda Young (props), Erin Larkin (costumes) and Adam Britt (lighting).

Tickets are $14 for adults and $11 for children. Call 501-372-4000 or visit http://www.arkarts.com

Flashback Friday: MOD Reopening

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Last Saturday, the Museum of Discovery reopened after several months of renovations.  The doors opened at 9:00am and by 3:00pm the crowds were still streaming through.  The crowd was a diverse mix of ages, races and and neighborhoods who were interacting with the exhibits and each other.  Here are some photos from opening day.

Clinton School next week features filmmaker, Rep play

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The University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service speaker series brings a wide variety of engaging speakers to Little Rock throughout the year.  For example, next week features an Ambassador and a World Food Prize Laureate.

Two of the programs next week have a cultural bent.

On Monday, January 23 at 6:00pm, Louie Psihoyos will discuss “The Ultimate Weapon of Mass Construction.  He is director of the 2009 Oscar winning film for best documentary, “The Cove,” which uncovers how a small seaside village in Japan serves as a microcosm of massive ecological crimes happening worldwide.

At the Clinton School, Psihoyos will discuss the importance of using art to inspire activism and show clips from his next eco-thriller about the sixth mass extinction on Earth. The new film will feature Scientist Roger Payne, who declares that in the near future all the famines and world wars experienced by humanity will be a footnote compared to the destruction humanity is creating on the planet.
Fittingly, the Clinton School will host the Academy Award winner the night before this year’s Oscar nominations are announced.  The day after the Oscar nominations come out, the Clinton School will feature a program about a stage adaptation of an Oscar winning film.
The Arkansas Repertory Theatre is producing the stage version of Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird (which won Oscars when it was made into a film).  On Wednesday, January 25 at 12 noon, Arkansas Repertory Theatre producing artistic director Bob Hupp will host the cast of The Rep’s upcoming production of the play for a panel discussion.
Hupp and the cast will discuss the history of the famous novel, its compelling themes of compassion, justice, integrity and courage and their work to bring the story to The Rep stage. As it is told through the eyes of Scout, the tomboyish young daughter of small-town lawyer Atticus Finch, it becomes clear that To Kill a Mockingbird is a love story: a father’s love for his children, their love for him and a love for the South.
Both programs will take place at Sturgis Hall.   Reservations can be made by emailing publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu, or calling 501-683-5239.

CALS Launches Music Festival

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Earlier this month, the Central Arkansas Library System announced plans to create an annual music festival featuring Arkansas music and Arkansas artists. The tentative launch for the festival, which would last a couple of days, would be in the fall of 2012.

This would be a project of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies.  CALS has started advertising for someone to be the coordinator.  The intention is that the music festival would eventually be self-sufficient, though CALS would make a loan for start-up money.

CALS Executive Director Bobby Roberts told Arkansas Business, “If I were going to pick some area where Arkansas has excelled it is in music,” Roberts said. “It’s just a great heritage.” He cited musicians and composers such as Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty and William Grant Still. “I’d like to see us do all kinds of music,” Roberts said, from classical to country to rock to gospel.

 

As this develops, the LR Culture Vulture will be sure to follow this exciting news.

Shakespeare’s South

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In partnership with the Arkansas Shakespeare Theater, acclaimed writers Graham Gordy, Trenton Lee Stewart, and Warwick Sabin will bring Shakespeare to the South for a very special Tales from the South on Tuesday evening, January 17, 2012, with stories centered around finding themselves, others, and even the South in the Bard. The live taping of the radio series will be at Starving Artist Café in the Argenta Arts District, Downtown North Little Rock. Live music by The Salty Dogs.

Doors open at 5pm, dinner is served 5pm-6:30pm and the show starts at 7pm. Tickets are $5 for the show, plus the cost of dinner. Seating is very limited. Tickets can be purchased online at www.talesfromthesouth.com.

“Tales from the South” is recorded on Tuesdays during “Dinner and a Show” at Starving Artist Café. The show airs locally on KUAR Thursdays at 7pm and is syndicated by World Radio Network, a satellite radio distribution service, available to more than 130 million listeners worldwide. Shows are also distributed nationwide to multiple public radio stations by PRX (Public Radio Exchange). Podcasts are available on ITunes, the NPR website, the KUAR website, the PRX website, and the “Tales from the South” website.

“Tales from the South” is presented by the Argenta Arts Foundation, with AY Magazine as the official media sponsor, publishing a story each month in the magazine. Additional support provided by William F. Laman Public Library, the North Little Rock Visitor’s Bureau and The Oxford American Magazine.

Fabcraft the focus of January 17 Art of Architecture lecture

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Perez

This month brings two editions of the “Art of Architecture” lecture series.  Tomorrow night (Tuesday, January 17), Santiago R. Perez will discuss Fabcraft: Crafting the Future with Digital Fabrication.  The program begins at 6:00pm in the lecture hall of the Arkansas Arts Center.

Santiago R. Pérez is the 21st Century Chair in Integrated Practice and Assistant Professor of Architecture at Fay Jones School of Architecture, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.  He will discuss recent work emerging from the new advanced fabrication, or FabLab, facility, which Pérez directs, at the Fay Jones School of Architecture.

The FabLab is under development in conjunction with the acquisition of new computer-controlled equipment, including a 5-axis CNC (computer numerically controlled) mill and steel plasma cutter, and the anticipated arrival of a fully articulated robot. These new initiatives are part of the ongoing research and teaching focus of Perez, who joined the school’s faculty in fall 2010.

Pérez will introduce the public to emerging digital fabrication projects, methods and tools, highlighting both current projects and recently exhibited or published work. The presentation will focus on innovation utilizing digital fabrication, computer numerically controlled tools and rapid prototyping. In particular, Pérez will discuss the relationship between traditional craft culture and making, and advanced, computationally assisted fabrication, toward a new confluence that he has termed “fabcraft.”

The term fabcraft can be understood as a new merger of craft and fabrication that combines the best of both worlds – the insights gained from knowledge of traditional craft processes, mixed with computational design and digital fabrication. The emergence of these robotic and computationally assisted tools in architecture is revolutionizing both the teaching and practice of architecture, and the increasing academic focus on making as an integral part of the design process.

The 2011-2012 Art of Architecture lecture series is sponsored by the Architecture and Design Network, with support from the Central Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the Arkansas Arts Center and the Fay Jones School of Architecture.

Sculpture Vulture: FUSION

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For 23 years, Vernon C. Johnson, Sr., worked as a security guard at the Central Arkansas Library System’s main branch.  Following his 2006 death, his friends and colleagues at CALS commissioned a sculpture as a memorial to him.

Michael Warrick’s Fusion is a limestone orb atop a pedestal.  Etched into the orb are handprints of various sizes as well as scallops and ridges.  As a befitting memorial to a man who helped everyone with whom he came into contact, the handprints are of various sizes representing both children and adults.

Sitting at the corner of 2nd and River Market (formerly Commerce) Streets, Fusion anchors the southeastern corner of the CALS campus downtown.  Tucked away into a landscaped area, it greets visitors on foot as well as in cars waiting at the nearby stop sign.  In so doing, it quietly interacts with visitors in the same way that Johnson did for over two decades at CALS.