Category Archives: Holidays

QQA – Festivus

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Festivus Founder Frank Costanza inspects the original Festivus pole

An organization dedicated to historic preservation is making history by hosting the first ever official Festivus party in Little Rock.

Festivus is a festival for the rest of us.

No Festivus is complete without the airing of grievences or the feats of strength.  There will also be the official ceremonial pole which has no decorations because “tinsel is too distracting.”

When: Tuesday, December 13 6:00-9:00 p.m.

Where: Concordia Hall at the Arkansas Studies Institute

401 President Clinton Avenue Little Rock, Arkansas 72201

 Tickets are $50 and available at the door.  The price includes food and open bar.

Proceeds benefit the preservation programs of the Quapaw Quarter Association.

 

March of the Nutcracker

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Ballet Arkansas continues the tradition of presenting The Nutcracker this weekend at Robinson Center Music Hall.

The title role is being essayed by Ballet Arkansas company trainee Jake Catlett while Michael Bearden, Ballet Arkansas’ artistic adviser, is a guest artist and dances the role of the Cavalier.  Alternating in the role of Clara are Lauren Frances Wood and Kathryn Latham.  Other roles are being danced by Leslie Dodge (Sugar Plum Fairy), Lauren McCarty Horak (Snow Queen),Toby Lewellen (Snow King),  Anna Maris (Frau Von Stahlbuam and Dew Drop Fairy), Sean Porter (Rat King), Stephen Stone (Drosselmeyer), Allison Wilson (Rat Queen) and Perry Young (Herr Von Stahlbaum, Mother Ginger).

The choreography for this production was created by a Jana Beard, Sydney Ippolito, Marius Petipa, Traci Presley, and Allison Wilson.  Geoffrey Robson, associate conductor of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, will conduct musicians from the ASO in performing Tchaikovsky’s ballet score.  Tickets are available from the Arkansas Symphony box office at 666-1761 or http://www.arkansassymphony.org.

Wildwood Park for Arts: Holiday Tour of Homes

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Wildwood Park for the Arts celebrates not only performing arts but also gardening, culinary and design.  This weekend, the focus is on design as Wildwood presents the Holiday Tour of Homes.

Little Rock’s interior design legend Tom Chandler and regionally known design expert Chris Olsen have organized this visit to six houses in the Little Rock area.

Tickets are $25 plus a $1 service fee.  On Friday evening, there is a special preview which includes a seventh house.  Tickets for that are $66.

Homes being showcased range from Little Rock’s newer neighborhoods in the west to the oldest suburbs in Pulaski Heights.  The streets are:

 

  • Livree Lane in Chenal Downs
  • Spring Valley Lane in Valley Falls Estates
  • Bella Rosa Court
  • Woodbrook Court
  • Country Club Boulevard
  • Valley Club Circle in Pleasant Valley

 

For a complete listing and ticket information, visit Wildwood’s website.

CALS hosts annual Food for Fines week

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The Central Arkansas Library System has been hosting its annual Food for Fines this week.  It began on Monday, Dec. 5 and continues through Sunday, Dec. 11.

The Food for Fines program gives patrons an opportunity to help others in our communities while offsetting fines for overdue library materials. When returning overdue materials, patrons are encouraged to bring at least one non-perishable food item per overdue item to any of the library’s 12 branches in Pulaski and Perry County. Food items may not be used to cancel fines already on record for materials that have been returned prior to Food for Fines week.

Food collected during the drive will be donated to Arkansas Rice Depot’s Food for Kids program which provides backpacks and ready-to-eat food to over 600 public schools in Arkansas for more than 30,000 children. Items needed for Food for Kids are ravioli, peanut butter, tuna, canned fruit, pudding cups, cereal, and granola bars.

On stage at the Rep: Christmas Spirit(s)

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The Christmas Spirit is alive and well on stage of the Arkansas Repertory Theatre.  Actually three Christmas Spirits (past, present, and yet-to-be) are on stage as the Rep presents the Menken-Ahrens-Ockrent version of A Christmas Carol.

Alan Souza, director of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat returns to helm this production.  He and Bob Hupp, the Rep’s producing artistic director, have assembled a top notch creative team. Mike Nichols (scenery), Michael Bottari & Ronald Case (costumes), M. Jason Pruzin (sound), Lynda J. Kwallek (props) and Cory Pattak (lighting) are the design team.  Helen Gregory returns as music director while Marcos Santana provides choreography.

David Benoit returns to the Rep to play the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge. The ghostly quartet is played by Ryan G. Dunkin (Marley), Shua Potter (Christmas Past), Dennis Stowe (Christmas Present) and Marisa Kirby (Christmas Future).  Other leading roles include Kirt Thomas (Young Scrooge), Laura Medford (Emily), Adam Hose (Bob Cratchit), Lacy J. Dunn (Mrs. Cratchit), Katie Emerson (Sally), Drew Clark (Young Ebenezer) and Johnny Stellard (Fred).  And what would A Christmas Carol be without a Tiny Tim – Price Clark essays the role here.

The production opened last Friday.  Performances resume tonight and continue through Christmas Day.  If you don’t know that date, you are even more heartless than Scrooge.

River City Men’s Chorus: Songs of the Season

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It is perhaps not too early to start standing in line for the final performance of the River City Men’s Chorus 2011 Holiday Concert.  The first two performances (Sunday and Monday) were overflowing.  The final performance is this Thursday (December 8th) at 7pm.

Under the leadership of conductor and artistic director David Glaze, the River City Men’s Chorus concert ranges from the sublime to the silly. There are times it is hard to tell who is having more fun or is more moved – the audience or the singers.

Among the numbers are “The First Noel,” “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” “Gaudete!,” “Do You Hear What I Hear?,” “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” “White Christmas” and a soulfully rousing rendition of “Hallelujah” from Handel’s Messiah.

The concert takes place at Trinity Methodist Church at 1101 N. Mississippi St.  The concert starts at 7pm. Doors to auditorium typically open an hour early for the free, open seating.  If weather is inclement, doors to the church (but not auditorium) will be opened even earlier so that audience members can stay warm and dry.

The Sedaris Diaries

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David Sedaris, author of The Santaland Diaries about his experiences working as an Elf at Macy’s one year, will be having a book signing tonight at WordsWorth Books in the Heights.  Sedaris is on a book tour promoting his new book Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk.  Wordsworth has the newest book, Holidays on Ice (which contains Santaland) and many of Sedaris’ other books.

The event tonight is billed as a book signing which may have a brief reading. It is not a Sedaris performance (though he has done two of those in Little Rock over the past few years in support of the Arkansas Literary Festival).

The event is ticketed. To get a ticket, one must purchase a Sedaris book at WordsWorth.  For more information call (501) 663-9198.