A trio of offerings mark 2020 Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre season

Posted on by

Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre (AST) has announced its 2020 season of professional theatre.

“The 2020 season will feature Shakespeare’s delightful comedy ‘As You Like It,’ the beautiful and intriguing musical ‘Into the Woods’ and the hilarious mashup ‘The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged),’” said Mary Ruth Marotte, AST’s executive director.

Performances will take place on the UCA campus, both in Reynolds Performance Hall and outdoors on the lawn of McAlister Hall.

As she prepares for her ninth year as producing artistic director of AST, Rebekah Scallet said she wanted an exciting repertory season that would capture audiences’ imaginations and challenge them to think about their lives. She chose the three shows in the 2020 season based around the theme “Sweet are the uses of adversity,” a line from “As You Like It.”

Actors, directors, designers and crew members will arrive in Conway in early May 2020 to begin the process of creating the three shows in AST’s 14th season.

“We’ll open the season with ‘The Complete Works’ outdoors on the beautiful lawn of McAlister Hall. Our outdoor venue draws huge crowds, and our audiences look forward to the show and the entire experience of Shakespeare under the stars. We hope that theatre-goers in Arkansas and around the region will recognize AST for its dedication to the cultural and artistic growth that is currently underway in our state,” said Marotte.

The remaining two productions will be performed in UCA’s Reynolds Performance Hall.

Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre is the state’s only professional Shakespeare company and is proud to make its home on the UCA campus. Each summer, AST offers full productions of Shakespeare’s works, as well as other plays and musicals that help fulfill AST’s mission to entertain, engage and enrich the community. For more information, visit arkshakes.com or call (501) 852-0702.

One Month until WICKED returns to Robinson Center

Posted on by

Oz returns to the Rock as the Tony winning musical Wicked returns to Robinson Center Performance Hall from January 1 to January 19 for a three week run.

Based on the best-selling 1995 novel by Gregory Maguire, Wicked, has won a Grammy and three Tony Awards.  Wicked features songs by Stephen Schwartz (Godspell, Pippin, and Working) and a book by Winnie Holzman (“My So Called Life,” “Once And Again” and “thirtysomething”).  It tales the untold story of the witches of Oz.  The musical is directed by multiple Tony Award-winner Joe Mantello (Take Me Out; Assassins; The Receptionist).

Two other girls meet in the Land of Oz.  One – born with emerald-green skin – is smart, fiery and misunderstood.  The other is beautiful, ambitious and very popular.  “Wicked” tells the story of their remarkable odyssey, and how these two unlikely friends grow to become the Wicked Witch of the West and Glinda the Good.

On Tuesday, January 7th at 7:30 pm, treat the kids to a night of fun and theatre at KIDS’ NIGHT ON BROADWAY. Fun and pre-show festivities begin at 6pm. Save 50% on tickets when you buy now in person at the Robinson Center Box Office, by phone at 501.244.8800 or online at Ticketmaster.com. Special offer limited to the first 500 tickets sold.

Presented by Celebrity Attractions, the production takes center stage at Robinson Center Music Hall for a limited three-week engagement.

Nov 30, 1936 – City of Little Rock sets election for what is now Robinson Center Performance Hall

Posted on by

On November 30, 1936, Little Rock Mayor R. E. Overman asked the City Council to call a special election for January 1937 for approval of the issuance of bonds for a municipal auditorium.  Prior to asking the aldermen to call the election, the mayor had been in Washington DC to visit with Public Works Administration (PWA) officials. The mayor was assured that the auditorium project would be approved for federal funds.

While the mayor was meeting with federal officials, architects Eugene Stern, George Wittenberg and Lawson Delony were meeting with local PWA officials in Little Rock.  They were reviewing the plans for the funding request.  Though there were still a few refinements to be completed in the documents, the local officials seemed satisfied.  With these assurances in hand, Mayor Overman moved forward with putting the request before the City Council.

Though there were many things discussed at length during the November 30 City Council meeting, there was virtually no conversation regarding the structure before the 15-0 vote by the City Council to refer the auditorium bonds to the voters.  There were three different bond programs to be put before the voters in January 1937: a municipal auditorium, expansion of the public library and creation of a park for African Americans.

The bonds for the auditorium would be $468,000 in general obligation bonds which would be paid off between 1940 and 1971.  This was toward a total cost of $760,000 for the entire project.  At the time of the initial auditorium application in 1935, the mayor had noted that if the PWA failed to approve funding for the entire project, it could be submitted to the voters for the issuance of municipal bonds.  This was ultimately the course of action that would come to pass.  The PWA grant would only cover a portion of the project.  The government did agree it would purchase the financing bonds if no other entity did.

The election would be held on January 26, 1937.

Birthday of Hall High alum David Auburn, Tony and Pulitzer winning playwright

Posted on by

November 30 is the birthday of Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning playwright David Auburn. A 1987 graduate of Hall High School, he participated in the Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre while he spent his teen years in Little Rock.

Born in Chicago, he grew up in Ohio. He moved to Arkansas when his parents took jobs here, first in Jonesboro then Little Rock. After graduating from Hall, he returned to Chicago to attend the University of Chicago, where he graduated with a degree in English literature.  While there he was involved with a performance group and also wrote theatre reviews.

In 1992, he went to New York to take part in Julliard’s playwriting program.  In 1997, his first Off Broadway play was produced, Skyscraper.  In May 2000, Manhattan Theatre Club produced his play Proof at one of its Off Broadway theatres. Following the success of that run, it transferred to Broadway in the autumn of 2000.

In 2001, Proof won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Tony Award for Best Play, the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best American Play, and Best Play awards from the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Drama League.

That spring he also served as a script consultant for tick…tick…BOOM! a musical written by the late Jonathan Larson. He was asked by Larson’s family to write the book based on the several different drafts Larson had written prior to his 1996 death.

Subsequently, Auburn has moved between writing plays and movies as well as directing. He has also served as a teacher and playwright in residence. His plays include The New York Idea, The Columnist, and Lost Lake.

He wrote the story for the new Charlie’s Angels movie, in theaters now.

Razorback Football in Little Rock the day after Thanksgiving

Posted on by

Today, the Arkansas Razorbacks take on the Missouri Tigers at War Memorial Stadium.  It marks the eighth time the Hogs have played in Little Rock on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

(The only time in the War Memorial Stadium era they played on Thanksgiving was 1969. In the late 19th and early 20th Century, they sometimes played in Little Rock on Thanksgiving at West End Park, now the site of Central High School and Quigley Stadium)

The first seven times they played on the Friday after Thanksgiving were against LSU.  While today’s game is also against a team of Tigers, this is the first time they’ve been the Mizzou Tigers.

From the 1940s through the 1980s, the Hogs would sometimes play on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  It was after joining the SEC that in 1996, they first faced off against LSU on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  That year, they lost to LSU by the score of 17 to 7. The Tigers had been ranked 19 going into the game.  The attendance that year was 22,329.  The game was Danny Ford’s penultimate season as the Hogs head coach.

Two years later, in Houston Nutt’s first season as head coach, the Hogs were ranked Number 13 on November 27, when they defeated LSU 41 to 14 in front of 55,831.  In 2000, the Hogs upset 24th ranked LSU in front of 43,982 by the score of 14 to 3.  The Hogs continued the Little Rock winning streak on the day after Thanksgiving in 2002 when they bested 18th ranked LSU by the score of 21 to 20 in front of 55,553.

The Razorbacks lost to 14th ranked LSU on November 26, 2004 by the score of 43 to 14 in front of 55,829.  In 2006, the Hogs and Tigers were both nationally ranked.  LSU (ranked 9th) upset the 5th ranked Razorbacks by a score of 31 to 26 on November 24 before 55,833 fans.  In Bobby Petrino’s first season as head coach, the Hogs returned to winning ways in 2008 when they defeated LSU on November 28 by a score of 31 to 30 before a crowd of 55,325. This was the first meeting of the two teams on the day after Thanksgiving in which neither team was nationally ranked.

Following that year, the LSU game against the Razorbacks was moved to Fayetteville.

Thanksgiving Day 1957 – final Tigers vs. Wildcats holiday gridiron meeting

Posted on by

Central Tigers dominating the northside Wildcats in 1957

The November 28, 1957, football game on Thanksgiving Day between Little Rock Central and North Little Rock had been poised to be memorable for a few years.

With the 1957 opening of Little Rock Hall High, the Tigers would switch their rivalry on Thanksgiving Day from a cross-river one to a cross-town one starting in 1958.  So the 1957 edition of Tigers vs. Wildcats was set to be historic as the end of a 24 year tradition.

(In its first year, Hall played smaller schools because its team was largely younger.  It would move up to top classification schools in the 1958 season.)

The events at Little Rock Central in September 1957 added a new layer of history to everything that school year.  The 101st Airborne was sent in by President Eisenhower in the evening of September 24 to ensure the Little Rock Nine were able to attend classes.  But President Eisenhower did not intend the Army to be there indefinitely.  On Wednesday, November 27, the soldiers left Little Rock. The National Guard was now charged with keeping the peace at Central.

The first day without the US Army was also Thanksgiving Day, and the final Bengals vs. Cats game.  The sports coverage of this game however belied all the drama off the field. News reports focused on Turkey Day as the final game between the longtime rivals and on the fact that it had a morning start time instead of the traditional afternoon start time.

In the end, the Tigers had the same result as they did in the first Turkey Day meeting: a win.  The Bengals scored 40 while the Cats only managed 7.

After 24 meetings on Thanksgiving Day, Little Rock had 19 wins, 4 losses, and one tie.  Seven times they shut out the Wildcats, and one time the northern team blanked them.  The fewest total points scored were 2 in the 1934 game, while the 1950 game produced a cumulative total of 71 points (LR 64, NLR 7).  The Tigers scored a total of 517 points over 24 games and gave up only 203.

Its Turkey Time with Lord Featherwick

Posted on by

Image may contain: one or more people, people standing, tree and outdoor

Happy Thanksgiving. Today’s entry comes from the Culture Turkey, not the Culture Vulture.

One of the newer sculptures in Riverfront Park is “Lord Featherwick” by Herb Mignery. It is sited near the Belvedere in the park.

“Lord Featherwick” is part of Mignery’s anthropomorphic series.  It whimsically depicts a turkey with a top hat, jacket, spats, umbrella and monacle.

He is probably very relieved to have made it through another Thanksgiving.

No photo description available.