Category Archives: Government

THE HOBBIT closes 2018-2019 Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre season

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The HobbitThe 2018–2019 Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre closes this spring with The Hobbit. The show runs April 26 – May 12, 2019.

Performances of The Hobbit are Fridays at 7 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $12.50 each or $10 for members of the Arkansas Arts Center.

Bilbo Baggins is swept away – a reluctant hero on the adventure of his lifetime. In the company of thirteen rough and tumble dwarves and one cryptic wizard, Bilbo braves danger at every turn on this exciting quest for dragon’s gold. Mister Bilbo Baggins cordially invites you to travel with him “There and Back Again” in this new adaptation of Tolkien’s classic tale. So come and join the quest. There’s a partner’s share of treasure waiting just for you.

The play is based on The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien and licensed by Middle-earth Enterprises. It was adapted for the stage by Keith Smith. The Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre’s production of The Hobbit is directed by John Isner. Bradley D. Anderson is the Artistic Director. The set was designed by Keith Smith, costume design by Nikki Gray, properties design by Cathleen Brignac, and lighting design by Mike Stacks. Liz McMath is the stage manager. The Hobbit is a trademark of The Saul Zaentz Company d/b/a Middle-earth Enterprises under license to Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre.

The cast includes:

  • Mike Stacks of Conway as Balin and Great Goblin
  • Bethany Post of Austintown, Ohio as Bard
  • Anthony McBride of Benton as Bilbo
  • Anna Mammarelli of Little Rock as Elf Guard
  • Paige Carpenter of Lonsdale as Elf King and Bolg
  • Jared Gibson of San Antonio, Texas as Elrond
  • Mark Hansen of Little Rock as Gandalf
  • Stephen Jones of Little Rock as Thorin
  • Grace Stacks of Conway as Thursh

Angelina Bearden, Paige Carpenter, Jared Gibson, Matthew Cantone, Simon Gess, Sophia Gonzales, Isabella Gonzales, Mackenzie Holtzclaw, Bella Kerby, Rachel Lara, Stephanie Lyle, Anna Mammarelli, Bethany Post, Taliah Pulley, Madelin Reyes, Grace Stacks, and Madison Stolzer are the ensemble.

The Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre will offer several events in conjunction with The Hobbit, including a Pay-What-You-Can preview, opening night celebration and a pajama party. Full programming details can be found below.

Friday, April 26, 2019
Opening Night Dinner at Watercolor in the Park – 5 p.m.
Join us for dinner at Watercolor in the Park before the 7 p.m. opening night performance of The Hobbit! Creative coloring placemats featuring activities and artwork from the show will be available for children to enjoy. Seatings at 5 p.m., 5:15 p.m., 5:30 p.m., 5:45 p.m., and 6 p.m. Reservations recommended. Call 501-396-0390 for reservations

Friday, April 26, 2019
Opening Night Celebration: The Hobbit – 7 p.m.
After the show, enjoy a meet and greet with the cast, snacks and punch to celebrate the opening night of The Hobbit.

Thursday, May 2, 2019
Adult Night at The Hobbit – 6 p.m.
Back by popular demand! Join us in the Lower Lobby before the 7 p.m. performance of The Hobbit. We’ll adventure “there and back again” with specialty drinks and snacks. 21+ event. $20 or $10 for members of the Arkansas Arts Center.

Friday, May 3, 2019
Pajama Night at The Hobbit – 7 p.m.
Toss on those cute pajamas and join us at the Children’s Theatre for the 7 p.m. performance of The Hobbit. Stickers are available at the Box Office before the show for children (and parents!) wearing pajamas.

Saturday, May 4, 2019
ASL Interpreted Performance – 2 p.m.
There will be American Sign Language interpreters at the 2 p.m. performance of The Hobbit. Visit the Box Office before the performance for seating assistance.

Friday events for the 2019 Arkansas Literary Festival

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The Arkansas Literary Festival’s Author! Author! party is tonight (Friday, April 26).  But before that, some of the current festival authors visit future authors.

Many authors have participated in the Fest’s Writers in the Schools (WITS) initiative over the years. The authors travel to schools in the Central Arkansas region speaking directly to students. While today’s students are already authors, interacting with these published authors gives them the opportunity to be inspired by people who have persevered through writers block, frustrations, rejections, successes, and excitement.

This year’s WITS presenters include Higgins Bond, Rick Campbell, Andrés Cerpa, Geffrey Davis, Elizabeth Eckford, Laurie B. Friedman, Lillian Li, Carla Killough McClafferty, Roman Muradov, Chigozie Obioma, Ian S. Port, Joe David Rice, and Maurice Carlos Ruffin.  Sponsored by Wright, Lindsey & Jennings LLP

Then tonight at 7pm is the aforementioned Author! Author! party on the top floor of the CALS Main Library building in Library Square.  It gives attendees the chance to toast the Arkansas Literary Festival authors at this fête featuring hors d’oeuvres and libations. Books will be available for purchase during the party geared for adults. Tickets are $25 in advance and $40 at the door.

Later at 10:30pm is “The Birth of Loud” Concert. Loosely inspired by Ian S. Port’s new book about the “guitar-pioneering rivalry that shaped rock ‘n’ roll,” Isaac Alexander and Joshua Asante each take the stage, guitar in hand, followed by a mighty set featuring singer/songwriter Bonnie Montgomery and her guitarist. $5 at the door (415 Main Street in Argenta)

A GAME OF THRONES themed Science After Dark tonight at the Museum of Discovery

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Science After Dark is Coming…on Thursday, April 25.
When you play this game of thrones, you win (you won’t die…you’re welcome.) Brace yourself for an evening of adventure in fantasy as we explore some of the science behind your favorite show. Admission is $5 or free for members. You must be at least 21 to enter.

-Fighting Arena Demos with Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) local branch The Barony of Small Gray Bear at 6:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m. & 8:30 p.m.
-Dragon-like animals
-“Did your Family Battle for the Throne?” (or maybe just over cattle) Genealogy with Central Arkansas Library System (CALS) – Butler Center
-Archery with Arkansas Game and Fish Commission
-Thrones with Baron & Barroness
-“Winter is Coming” (Destroying things with Liquid Nitrogen)
-Pelts and Furs with Old State House Museum
-Sinking ships with fire Crossbows (Whoa.)
-Weapon Throwing
– Arkansas Poison and Drug Information Center
– MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History
And much, much more!!

Tickets are $5 or free for members and may be purchased at the door or online at https://museumofdiscovery.org/event/april2019/. Each Science After Dark, we will support a local charity and this month we are accepting donations for Arkansas Foodbank. You can also sign up to volunteer with us at the Foodbank on Tuesday, June 11 from 6-8 p.m. at http://cerv.is/m?0334gpyrxNj!

Presenting sponsors are Fassler Hall Little Rock and Dust Bowl Lanes & Lounge Little Rock and sponsors are Rock Town Distillery and Stone’s Throw Brewing

2019 Arkansas Literary Festival events on tap for today

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Though there have been a few events earlier, today (April 25) offers several events to kick off the 2019 Arkansas Literary Festival.

During the day at the Clinton Presidential Center and also the Museum of Discovery is a Day of Science and Reading. Students meet Miami-based author Laurie Friedman, Mallory McDonald, Super Sitter and Can You Say Catastrophe? and Nashville-based illustrator, Higgins Bond, A Place for Turtles and Lorraine: The Girl Who Sang the Storm Away. Both successful presenters are originally from the Natural State. Limited seating is available. 

Tonight at 6pm at the ESSE Purse Museum a program will feature Anita Davis, the museum’s founder.  The author of What’s Inside?: A Century of Women and Handbags, 1900–1999, she is a native Arkansan and lifelong collector who loves outsider art, Gladys Knight, dream work, her two daughters, and learning about the mysteries of life. Her varied life experience includes owning a mail-order catalog called Pure and Simple in the 1980s and co-owning Vagabonds coffee house and vintage store in the 1990s. She has a talent for finding valuables (“They’re valuable to me!”) in unexpected places and has led the revitalization of Little Rock’s SoMa neighborhood, where ESSE Purse Museum & Store is located. What’s Inside? is an extension of her endeavor to explore concepts of art, history, and the feminine at ESSE – the only purse museum in the United States and one of only three in the world.

At 7pm at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater, Elliot Ackerman & Charmaine Craig participate in a discussion entitled, The Human Element of War. Despite the dehumanization that goes hand in hand with war and the media coverage of conflict, moments of deep humanity can be glimpsed even in the most harrowing of circumstances. How do we ensure that those moments are not overlooked, and that our stories – even fictional ones – reflect the nuances of a historical moment? Join 2017 National Book Award Finalist Elliot Ackerman (Dark at the Crossing) and 2017 Longlister Charmaine Craig (Miss Burma) for a discussion on depicting conflict, preserving humanity, and finding truth in fiction. This session is presented in partnership with the National Book Foundation, presenter of the National Book Awards.

Start of Little Rock’s park system with land swap to create Arsenal Park

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April 23, 1892, marked the beginning of the City of Little Rock’s public park sLR City Parkystem.  On that date, the City officially took possession of land which would become what is now known as MacArthur Park.

The park land had originally served as a horse racetrack in the early days of Little Rock.  By 1836, the federal government purchased the land for construction of a military arsenal.  The flagship building, the Arsenal Tower building, is the only remaining structure from that time period.

The land served as a military outpost until 1892.  On April 23, 1892, a land swap took place where in the City of Little Rock was given the property with the stipulation that it would be “forever exclusively devoted to the uses and purposes of a public park.” (Never mind that the federal government took part of the land back for the construction of the Wilbur Mills Freeway.)  In return for giving the City this land, the federal government took possession of land on the north side of the Arkansas River (then part of Little Rock) – that 1,000 acres became Fort Logan H. Roots.

After clearing most of the buildings from the land and preparing it for recreation, the park opened on July 4, 1893, with the name Arsenal Park. Since it was the City’s first and only park at the time, residents started referring to it as City Park. In time, the designation Arsenal Park fell from use.  In fact, it is referred to as City Park exclusively and officially in City documents throughout the first 42 years of the 20th Century.

The City Council’s action to name it MacArthur Park in March 1942, was accompanied by petitions encouraging the action which were submitted by the Arkansas Authors and Composers Society, the Arkansas Engineers Club and the Pulaski County Republican Central Committee.

City records do not indicate if anyone registered opposition to the name change. It would be another decade before General MacArthur would return to the site of his birth, a place he had not visited since his infancy.

Little Rock Look Back: Charles Moyer, LR’s 44th and 49th mayor

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On April 18, 1880, future Little Rock Mayor Charles E. Moyer was born in Glenwood, Minnesota. A man of contradictions, he was both a candidate backed by (and probably personally involved in) the Ku Klux Klan, yet he also brought the Goodwill Industries organization to Little Rock and Arkansas to help those less fortunate.

He came to Little Rock shortly after the turn of the 20th century as a clerk in the Post Office, and later served as a mail carrier. He then worked for Plunkett-Jarrell Wholesale Grocer Company in Little Rock. On January 1, 1921, he took office as County Judge for Pulaski County. In 1924, he ran against incumbent mayor Ben Brickhouse in the Democratic primary. Since Brickhouse had displeased the Klan, which was an active part of Democratic politics in Little Rock and throughout the nation at the time, Moyer won the primary.

Mayor Moyer led the City of Little Rock from April 1925 through April 1929. In 1927, the last lynching in Little Rock took place. While race-baiting crowds were surrounding City Hall demanding an African American prisoner be released to them for vigilante justice, Mayor Moyer was in hiding at an undisclosed location. Not able to get the prisoner they wanted, they took out their venom on another man who had assaulted a white woman and her daughter.

Mayor Moyer sought a third term, but was defeated in the 1928 Democratic primary.  After leaving office in 1929, Moyer moved for a time to Batesville. He returned to Little Rock and was a chief deputy sheriff. From 1937 to 1941, he served as Pulaski County Assessor. In 1941, he returned to the office of Little Rock Mayor after J. V. Satterfield opted to serve only one term and did not seek re-election. Mayor Moyer led Little Rock through most of World War II. He left office in April 1945 and died on May 29, 1945, barely one month after leaving City Hall.

Little Rock Look Back: Benjamin Harrison is first current POTUS to visit LR

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On April 17, 1891, Benjamin Harrison became the first sitting president to visit Arkansas.  He was on a cross-country railroad trip having left DC on April 13.

The morning of the 17th he spoke in Memphis and then took the train to Little Rock.  Accompanying him from Memphis to Little Rock were a delegation which included Governor and Mrs. James P. Eagle, Mayor H. L. Fletcher and Col. Logan H. Roots.  Also in the party was Mrs. W. G. Whipple, a former first lady of Little Rock.

They arrived in Little Rock in the afternoon.  A parade took them from the train station to the State House (now the Old State House Museum) where the Governor formally welcomed the President and his party.

In his brief remarks, President Harrison spoke of the hospitality and the natural resources available in Arkansas.  He also touched on the Civil War, which at the time was less than 30 years in the past. He noted “The commonwealth rests upon the free suffrage of its citizens and their devotion to the Constitution and the flag is the bulwark of its life.  We have agreed, I am sure, that we will do no more fighting among ourselves.” These remarks were met enthusiastically by the crowd assembled.

The President concluded is brief remarks thanking the State officials and the citizenry.  He then took the train to Texarkana where he made his third set of remarks of the day.

Benjamin Harrison was on the Presidential ticket two times. The first time he lost the popular vote but won the Electoral College defeating incumbent Grover Cleveland. The second time he lost both the popular and electoral votes to Cleveland.  He did not carry Arkansas in either election. Though he was the first sitting president to visit Little Rock, there is nothing here named for him.  Since there was already a Harrison Street named after his grandfather, he is skipped between Cleveland and McKinley in the presidential streets.