Monthly Archives: February 2014

UALR Theatre production SPEECH AND DEBATE continues this weekend

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Speech&Debate-400wideStephen Karam’s award winning comedy Speech and Debate continues at UALR through this weekend.

It is being performed at 8pm Thur and Fri, 7pm on Saturday and 2:30pm on Sunday at the University Theatre on the UALR campus.

This production is directed by visiting professor, Robert Neblett. The play, a dark comedy with music, concerns three misfit teenagers, Howie (openly gay), Solomon (nerdy), and Diwata (frumpy and obsessed with musicals), and their attempts to expose a drama teacher who preys on teen boys. It employs humor and dance as it explores this.

Each of the scenes is a title of an event in competitive forensics.

The Art of Carroll Cloar at the Ark Arts Center

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Carroll Cloar, The Smiling Moon Cafe, 1965, casein tempera on Masonite, 25 in. x 36 in., Private Collection, ©Estate of Carroll Cloar

Carroll Cloar, The Smiling Moon Cafe, 1965, casein tempera on Masonite, 25 in. x 36 in., Private Collection, ©Estate of Carroll Cloar

The Crossroads of Memory: Carroll Cloar and the American South exhibit opens tomorrow and runs through June 1.  There is a member reception tonight.

The paintings of Carroll Cloar (1913-1993), rank among the most haunting and beautiful evocations ever made of the American South. Drawing upon family stories, photographs of ancestors, rural scenery, small town life, and memories of his childhood on an Arkansas farm, Cloar captured the quiet richness of a simpler world.

Marking the centenary of the artist’s birth, The Crossroads of Memory: Carroll Cloar and the American South will include approximately seventy paintings, ranging from early Realist masterpieces to the poignant pictures of his later career.

An exhibition organized by the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art and the Arkansas Arts Center curated by Stanton Thomas, Curator of European and Decorative Art at the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, the exhibition will feature works from major public collections as well as rarely seen pictures still in private hands.

Presented in Arkansas by: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Lisenne Rockefeller; Stella Boyle Smith Trust.

Sponsored in Arkansas by: Anonymous; Bailey Foundation; Sandra and Bob Connor; Terri and Chuck Erwin; Friday, Eldredge & Clark, LLP; Eileen and Ricardo Sotomora; John Tyson & Tyson Foods, Inc.; Arkansas Farm Bureau/Agriculture Council of Arkansas; Capital Hotel; Cindy and Greg Feltus; Munro Foundation; J.D. Simpson; Don Tilton; Gus and Ellis Walton.

The Thursday night lecture is sold out. You will have another chance to hear from the lecturer, Stanton Thomas, Ph.D., on Friday at noon during Feed Your Mind Friday in the galleries.

Science of Passion tonight at the Museum of Discovery

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Feb 14 SAD-01This monthly event is for the grown-ups. Why? Because, science is fun…at any age! Science After Dark provides visitors the opportunity to have fun and learn about science in a unique setting. Museum educators pick a science-related topic and build an entertaining, interactive evening around it. You never know what will sprout, pop, fizzle, or glow. We invite you to discover the science of having fun.

 

February Science After Dark

Science is for Lovers

The Science of Passion

Wednesday, February 26

6-8pm

  • Enjoy chocolate and cheeses
  • Wine with Jay Bruno
  • The Physiology of Passion & Arousal
  • Aphrodisiacs, Man- we’ll explore the myths and facts behind aphrodisiacs (foods and herbs said to enhance your passion) as well as anaphrodisiacs (mood-killers)
  • A heart dissection
  • Circuit Bloxxx- building circuits for adults only!
  • Love and Robots- with I-MOD, the museum’s robot
  • We’ll also show a film series by Isabella Rosselini that explores the romantic habits of the animal kingdom through performance art.

 

Cash bar and pizza sold by the slice

Admission: $5 per person; members FREE

www.facebook.com/scienceafterdark

 

Architect Michael Rotondi discusses Hybrid of Extremes tonight

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RotondiTonight at the Arkansas Arts Center, the latest in the continuing series of lectures about architecture. HYBRID OF EXTREMES, a lecture by Michael Rotondi, FAIA, architect and educator. He is founding partner and principal of RoTo Architects, Los Angeles, and a Professor in Practice of the Arizona State University School of Architecture.

Based in Los Angeles, Michael Rotondi has been the co-founder of two esteemed architectural firms. He and Thom Mayne, with whom he had a productive partnership, founded Morphosis in 1975. Almost two decades later he established RoTo Architects, a firm committed to enlarging the scope of architectural practice to include issues of socio-economic concern and the environment.

The 2009 recipient of the Los Angeles Chapter the American Institute of Architects gold medal for creating a body of work of lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture, Rotondi has emphasized  architecture’s role  in “making the world a better place”. He has stressed the importance of architects being aware of the impact of their work on people, places and communities.

Rotondi and a group of friends were instrumental in the 1972 founding of the Los Angeles based California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). Among the school’s first graduates, the innovative young architect who had earned a degree from California State Polytechnic University in 1971, later served as SCI-Arc’s director (1987-1997). Currently a member of its Board of Trustees, he also teaches there. Rotondi has lectured and taught all over the world.

Rotondi’s participation in Architecture and Design Network’s 13/14 lecture series has been made possible by the Fayetteville based University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture where he ls this year’s John G. Williams Distinguished Visiting Professor.

In addition to the School of Architecture, Network supporters include the Arkansas Arts Center and the Central Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. All ADN lectures are free and open to the public. For additional information contact ardenetwork@icloud.com.

Southern Tales of the Bard on Tuesday

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schedule~~element27Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre has once again joined the Oxford American magazine to bring a special Shakespearean edition of “Tales from the South” at South on Main, one of Little Rock’s premier dining destinations.

February 25th
Doors open at 5 p.m.; Tales begin at 7:30 p.m.
South on Main
1304 South Main St.
Little Rock, AR 72202

Forsooth y’all! If you missed either of the first two “Shakespeare in the South” evenings, fear not! Greg Brownderville, Stacey Margaret Jones and Sara Shumaker will be weaving whimsical tales during this year’s evening of Southern storytelling. Music will be provided by Bonnie Montgomery while Phillip Rex Huddleston will be the featured visual artist.

Tickets are required to attend the event, and the cost of admission does not cover dining. A portion of the proceeds goes toward Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre’s 2014 summer season.

Reserved seats at a table are $15 each. Purchasing a reserved ticket online guarantees you a table. General admission tickets are $10 each. General admission seating doesn’t include a table and is available on a first-come-first-served basis.

Little Rock Look Back: Byron Morse, LR’s 55th Mayor

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20130222-185157.jpgOn February 23, 1917, future Little Rock Mayor Byron R. Morse was born. A founder of the real estate firm of Rector-Phillips- Morse, he was long active in civic affairs of Little Rock.

Mayor Morse was first elected to the City Board of Directors in November 1960. In 1963, he was chosen as Little Rock Mayor. After serving two years as Mayor, he chose to not seek re-election to the City Board. In 1980, he was appointed to the City Board to fill out an unexpired term. He was later asked to fill another unexpired term but declined.

In 1983, he was elected national president of the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors. Mayor Morse also served as president of the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, the Little Rock United Way, the Little Rock Red Cross, and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Little Rock Boy’s Club. He was a member of the Fifty for the Future. On July 25, 2001, Mayor Morse died.

Acclaimed musical BABY is latest offering of CTLR

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Baby CTLRThe latest offering of the Community Theatre of Little Rock (now in its 58th season) is BABY.  This Tony nominated musical from acclaimed duo Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire, examines how parents-to-be experience the emotional stresses and triumphs, as well as the desperate lows and the comic highs that accompany the anticipation and arrival of a baby.

BABY tells the story of three couples on a university campus as they deal with the painful, rewarding and agonizingly funny consequences of this universal experience. There are the college students, barely at the beginning of their adult lives; the thirtysomethings, having trouble conceiving but determined to try; and the middle aged parents, looking forward to seeing their last child graduate from college when a night of unexpected passion lands them back where they started.

The cast is led by Miki Thompson, Jeremy Elliot, Elizabeth Reha, Bob Bidewell, Erin Murphey Martinez and Justin Pike.  Others in the cast are Pammi Fabert, Mary Ann Hansen Cheryl Troillett, Duane Jackson, Danny Troillett, Case Dillard, Libby Smith and Doug Robillard.  The production was directed by Michael Henderson with music direction by Matthew Mentgen.  Jerry Woods is the executive producer.

The show opened last weekend and continues through March 2.  Show times are 7:30pm on Fridays and Saturdays; Sunday matinees are at 2pm.