Author Archives: Scott

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About Scott

A cultural thinker with a life long interest in the arts and humanities: theatre, music, architecture, photography, history, urban planning, etc.

ASO celebrates American Songbook

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20121020-054530.jpgThis weekend the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra features a celebration of works from some of America’s greatest songwriters.

Vocalists Chauncey Packer and Rachel E. Copeland join Philip Mann and the ASO to perform tunes from George Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” and Hoagy Carmichael’s “Stardust” to Strayhorn’s “Lush Life” and Nat King Cole’s “Unforgettable.”

American tenor Chauncey Packer is an exciting talent on the stages of opera houses in Europe and the United States. In recent years, Mr. Packer has performed the roles of Steuermann DER FLIEGENDE HÖLLANDER with New Orleans Opera, Amon AKHNATEN with Atlanta Opera, Alfredo LA TRAVIATA with Pensacola Opera, and Rodolfo LA BOHÈME with Soo Theatre and Mobile Opera. This young tenor is highly in-demand for his captivating portrayal of Sportin’ Life PORGY AND BESS.

Lyric Coloratura Rachel E. Copeland continues to receive acclaim as a thriving young artist combining her crystalline voice with her compelling and energetic stage presence.  As Ms. Copeland’s career and reputation continue to grow, the 2012-2013 season sees her with repeat engagements with Opera North Carolina and Opera Per Tutti.

The selections for the concerts will include:

GERSHWIN – Cuban Overture
GERSHWIN – There’s A Boat That’s Leavin’ Soon for New York from Porgy and Bess
GERSHWIN/Holcombe – Gershwin Medley
CARMICHAEL – Stardust
STRAYHORN/Holcombe – Lush Life
COLE/Holcombe – Unforgettable
ELLINGTON/Holcombe – Duke Ellington Medley
HOLCOMBE – Songs of the South
GERSHWIN – Summertime from Porgy and Bess
ELLINGTON – Grand Slam Jam
RODGERS/HAMMERSTIEN/Walker – Soliloquy from Carousel
BERLIN/Ades – Irving Berlin – A Symphonic Portrait

The concerts take place at 8pm on Saturday, March 16 and 3pm on Sunday, March 17 at Robinson Center Music Hall.

BRAIN AWARENESS DAY at Museum of Discovery

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20120814-171022.jpgMuseum of Discovery will host Brain Awareness Day Saturday, March 16, in conjunction with National Brain Awareness Week.   The event will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and will include demonstrations and exhibits presented by the Arkansas Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience. The first 725 visitors will receive $2 off their admission.

Representatives from the Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR), the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), Hendrix College and University of Central Arkansas (UCA) will offer hands-on exhibits and demonstrations on the brain for visitors of all ages.

“Scientific outreach activities such as Brain Awareness events are very important to help kindle interest in science and encourage scientific achievement in young students who participate,” said Dr. Jeff Padberg, assistant professor of neuroscience at UCA. “Engaging the youth of Arkansas in scientific exploration of the world around them, as well as increasing scientific literacy of students at an early age, are the goals of this event.”

 

Brain Awareness Day demonstrations include:

  • “Your Brain on Jell-O” is an interactive exhibit that will allow children to touch artificial brains made of Jell-O and powdered milk.   The activity will show the fragility of the human brain as well as demonstrate its overall size, shape and form. Children 5 and older will use cake frosting to place artificial arteries on the Jell-O brains. Children 4 and younger will use a “brain mold” to make a moon sand brain.
  • “Behavioral Tasks” will show how an Operant Test Battery assesses the intelligence of a monkey
  • “Your Brain and You!” is a hands-on exhibit that will offer many activities describing the shape of the brain. Visitors can color and create their own brain headband and sculpt brains out of clay. Adults will receive information on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) research being conducted at the Brain Imaging Research Center at UAMS while children will learn how MRIs work from a display using magnets and iron filings.
  • “What Can We Learn from Animal Brains?” will show why some animals can give clues as to how the human brain works. Stained sections of armadillo and rat brains will be presented on a microscope along with a rat atlas.
  • “Visual Illusions: Fooling the Brain!” will provide a variety of visual illusions and explain how the mechanisms employed by the eyes and brain that support visual perception can also be deceiving.

“Hosting Brain Awareness Day is in lockstep with our mission at the Museum of Discovery,” said Kelley Bass, museum CEO. “We strive to ignite a passion for science, technology and math in a dynamic, interactive environment – and that’s all about engaging the brains of our visitors. So many of our programs and exhibits are about helping visitors understand how things work, as are so many of the exhibits and demonstrations that will be featured during Brain Awareness Day. It’s a perfect fit.”

For more information on Brain Awareness Day at Museum of Discovery, contact 501-396-7050.

CALS opens new Children’s Library and Learning Center today

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CALS-Childrens-Library-and-Learning-Center-1-630x472Books, plants, vegetable soup, playwriting, and computers. Children will be able to learn more about each of these at the Central Arkansas Library System’s (CALS) Children’s Library and Learning Center, 4800 W. 10 St., when it opens today.

Set on a six-acre site, the $12 million, 30,000 square foot Children’s Library includes a computer lab with fourteen computers, teaching kitchen, large activity area, individual and group study rooms, theater, and community room in addition to a collection of more than 21,000 books, DVDs, and CDs.

In 2007, Little Rock voters approved a bond issue to provide funding for the Children’s Library.

Community input from library patrons as young as eleven years old helped CALS fine tune the concept of a vibrant, happy place for families with children to come for hands-on learning and enrichment. Activities and programs will be geared toward preschool, elementary, and middle school students and key subject areas will focus on the amenities of the site. The teaching kitchen is large enough to accommodate an entire class in learning about all facets of culinary arts, including nutrition, growing, cooking, and eating food.

In the 165-seat theater, children can experience all aspects of theater, including designing and building sets, writing plays, acting, and costume design. The state-of-the-art sound system, lighting, and projection screens will also be used for movies, concerts, and lectures.

The Children’s Library’s grounds are integral to the entire facility’s program. A greenhouse and teaching garden will help children learn about growing healthy foods as well as provide produce that will be used in the teaching kitchen programs. The grounds reflect the topography of Arkansas’s ecosystems, from the native hardwood trees in the highlands to vegetation of the wetland areas, which are both planted and original to the site. Walking paths offer families an attractive place for exercise while learning the names of the trees and plants, and an amphitheater has seating for outdoor programs or nature watching.

Homework and projects may be completed in the lab with fourteen computers or on laptops available for checkout using free Wi-Fi access. Early childhood computers and iPads with literacy apps allow small children to practice reading and computer skills. A limited number of computers and materials are available for adults who bring their children.

The Children’s Library will be open Monday – Thursday from 10 a.m. – 7 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Architectural, engineering, construction, and landscaping services were provided by Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects; East-Harding Construction; Engineering Consultants, Inc.; TME, Inc.; McClelland Consulting Engineers, Inc.; Viridian; Ecological Design Group, Inc.; Grubbs, Hoskyn, Barton and Wyatt, Inc.; and Landscape Architecture, Inc. Additional funding for streets, parking, and walking paths came from the City of Little Rock and Pulaski County.

For more information contact 918-3086.

Actor Robert Walden to speak at Clinton School today

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WaldenAs part of the ongoing efforts of the Clinton School of Public Service to bring innovative and interesting programming, today at noon the school is hosting a forum on the power of film to effect change.

Robert Walden is an Emmy-nominated actor best known for his portrayal of the reporter Joe Rossi on the television series Lou Grant. As artistic director of the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute Film Forum, Walden has assembled award-winning Hollywood professionals — directors, writers, teachers, coaches and actors — for three days of workshops, classes, panels and networking, March 21-24, at the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute on Petit Jean Mountain.

Arkansas filmmaker Tim Jackson will interview Walden at the Clinton School about his work with more than 40 Oscar nominees and winners and the unique power of film and television to effect change.

The program will take place at Sturgis Hall on the Clinton School campus at 12 noon.

Later this year, Walden will be starring in the Arkansas Rep’s production of Death of a Salesman.

ASO INC tonight at Christ Church

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christchurch_scaledThe Stella Boyle Smith Intimate Neighborhood Concert Series is a new concert series by the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, featuring fantastic music in gorgeous, acoustically unique venues around Little Rock.

The series continues tonight at Christ Church in downtown Little Rock (corner of Scott and Capitol).

The program will consist of :
ELGAR: Introduction and Allegro, op. 47
HIGDON: Soliloquy
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
BARTOK: Romanian Folk Dances

The musicians performing tonight include the Quapaw Quartet, the Rockefeller Quartet and Beth Wheeler.  Philip Mann, the music director of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, will be conducting.

Tickets may be purchased on the ASO website or at the door.  But seating is limited.

MR CHAIRMAN – Wilbur Mills to be discussed tonight at Clinton School

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MillsBefore Bill Clinton burst on to the national scene, Arkansas had a triumvirate of leaders in Washington who were revered and feared.  One of those was Congressman Wilbur D. Mills.

The Clinton School of Public Service is hosting author Kay Goss will discuss to discuss her book on Mills.  Mr. Chairman: The Life and Legacy of Wilbur D. Mills chronicles the life and career of the longest continuously serving chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Democrat Wilbur D. Mills of Arkansas.

Mills served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1939 to 1977 and is noted for his role as the “architect” of many policies including Medicare, tax reform, interstate highways and Social Security. Goss is a former associate FEMA director under President Clinton. On the state level, she served 10 years as then-Governor Clinton’s senior assistant for intergovernmental relations.

Goss is speaking this evening from 6pm to 7pm at Sturgis Hall, on the Clinton School campus.  Reserve your seats by emailing publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu, or calling 501-683-5239.

UALR Helping Students Brush Up Their Shakespeare

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william-shakespeareUALR’s Department of English and Department of Theatre Arts and Dance is presenting the 2013 Shakespeare Scene Festival today from 9:30 a.m. to noon, in the University Theatre of the Center for Performing Arts.  The event started yesterday.

The Shakespeare Scene Festival, first held in 1998, brings together students from a variety of Central Arkansas schools to perform scenes from Shakespeare’s plays. A performance of a Shakespearean scene integrates several elements of literacy and literacy education including: intensive study of the English language, cooperative learning, process-based theatre as well as the discipline, creativity, and organization required to rehearse and perform a scene.

“The Shakespeare Scene Festival provides an exciting opportunity for middle and high school students in central Arkansas to come together with the UALR community in celebration of the works of Shakespeare,” says Dr. Kris McAbee, the festival’s director. “The student performers are rewarded for their hard work of grappling with these difficult and profound texts by getting to perform them in University Theatre in front of a large audience of their peers and community members. The festival also reminds us of the universality and timelessness of Shakespeare’s works. They are able to speak to the feelings, experiences, and concerns of Arkansas teenagers some 400 years after they were written.”

Classes from five different area schools are participating in the festival. Over 500 students are expected to attend and participate in 11 different performances. The works presented will include scenes from Macbeth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Taming of the Shrew, and Richard III, as well as creative adaptations like The Suessification of Romeo and Juliet.  Among the schools participating are Little Rock Central, Little Rock J. A. Fair, Little Rock Dunbar Middle School, Joseph T. Robinson Middle School and North Little Rock High School West.

Admission is free and open to the public. Each performance will last approximately 25 minutes.

For more information, visit ualr.edu/shakespeare or contact Dr. Kris McAbee, assistant professor of English, at kxmcabee@ualr.edu.