Creative Class 2016: Ruth Shepherd

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cc16-shepherdThough Arts & Humanities Month ended yesterday, today is a bonus for the Creative Class 2016.  Ruth D. Shepherd has spent her career utilizing the arts and creativity to spread joy, messages of hope, and to change hearts and minds.

She is “retiring” later this year after having served as Director of Just Communities of Arkansas since 2000.  Though she will leave that post, her work in Little Rock and Arkansas will continue.

In her other careers, she has been a school teacher and worked in various non-profits.  She is probably most closely identified with the Arkansas Repertory Theatre having served as a volunteer, staff member, and Board member off and on for most of its 40 years of existence.  She has also served as Tabriz co-chair for the Arkansas Arts Center.

Ruth has graced several Little Rock stages including UALR (where she was in Hair), Community Theatre of Little Rock, the Weekend Theatre, and the Phoenix Theatre among others.  The Culture Vulture’s favorite performance was her riveting portrayal of a frustrated and frustrating matriarch in Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women.

While wrapping up her current role with JCA, she is busy putting the finishing touches on next Sunday’s Walk for CommUNITY.  It is not too late to sign up.  For more information on that and other JCA projects and programs, visit their website.

RobinsoNovember: Senator Joseph Taylor Robinson

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150px-joseph_t-_robinson_croppedThis month, Robinson Center Music Hall will reopen after a two year renovation/restoration/remodeling/reconstruction.  To commemorate that, each day in November, the Culture Vulture will look at a person or event connected to Robinson Center Music Hall.

Up first, the eponym for the building.

Senator Joseph Taylor Robinson was born in Lonoke in 1872.  In 1894 Robinson was elected to the Arkansas General Assembly for one term.  From 1903 until 1913, he served in the US House of Representatives as a Congressman from Arkansas’ then-Sixth District.

He chose not to seek another term in Congress and ran for Governor in 1912.  On January 3, 1913, sitting US Senator Jeff Davis died in office.  Robinson was sworn in as Governor on January 16, 1913. Twelve days later he was chosen by the Arkansas General Assembly to become the next US Senator. He became the final US Senator to be selected by a legislator instead of popular vote.  At the time, Senate terms started in March, so Robinson served as governor until March 8, 1913.

He rose through the ranks of the Senate and eventually became the first person to hold the title of Senate Majority Leader.  In 1928, he was the Vice Presidential nominee for the Democratic Party.  Four years later, he rode with Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt to the inauguration ceremonies before FDR took the oath.  He would be President Roosevelt’s go-to man on legislative issues.

 

 

Senator Robinson died in Washington D.C. on July 14, 1937.  His wife was in Little Rock making preparations for a trip the couple was to take. Following his demise, Mrs. Robinson went to Washington to accompany her husband’s body back to Arkansas.

The Senator was honored with a memorial service in the Senate chambers on Friday, July 17.  President Roosevelt and the cabinet joined members of the senate on the floor in what was described as a state funeral without pomp.  Mrs. Robinson sat with her brothers and two nephews as well as Bernard Baruch and Arkansas Power & Light’s Harvey Couch, who were Senator Robinson’s closest friends.  Eleanor Roosevelt was one of the many crowded in the senate galleries observing the service.  Following the service his body remained in the chambers until it was transferred to a train to make the journey to Little Rock.

The funeral train bore his body, his family, 50 senators and over twenty congressmen. It reached Little Rock around 8am on Sunday the 19th.  From there, Senator Robinson’s body was taken to his house on Broadway Street until noon.  It subsequently lay in state at the Arkansas State Capitol until being escorted by military to First Methodist Church.

As the funeral procession reached Roselawn Cemetery, thunder echoed. The skies which had alternated between sun and rain that day, returned to rain. A deluge greeted the end of the service and sent visitors hurrying for shelter at the end.

It was not until December 1937, that Senator Robinson’s name became attached to the municipal auditorium which Little Rock voters had approved in January 1937.

Creative Class 2016: Jason Willey

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cc16-willeyJason Willey often has people howling with laughter when he performs with Red Octopus Theater.

As one of the movers and shakers behind this troupe for the past decade or so, Jason often writes and produces and directs for this topical sketch comedy troupe in addition to acting in it.  He can also usually be found cranking out press releases for it and doing whatever needs to be done.

In addition to appearing with Red Octopus, Jason has been a fixture on the local theatre scene. He has appeared in many productions with The Weekend Theater as well as on other local stages.

Jason has also appeared in numerous Arkansas-based films over the past few years.  He has lent his talents on many film crews as well.  He is an avid supporter of local film festivals as well.

In short, if it comes to an aspect of the acting profession in Arkansas, Jason has probably been involved.

Get FREE tickets to Ark Symphony concert

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aso-nov-30On Tuesday, November 1, starting at 10am, the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra will be giving away FREE tickets to their November 30 “Thank You to Little Rock” concert.

The tickets will be available on the front steps of Robinson from 10am until 6pm. If they run out of tickets earlier than 6pm, they will end it earlier.  So don’t wait until evening Rush Hour!

This November 30 concert will be presented to thank Little Rock voters for their support of the Restore Robinson project. It is also in appreciation of continued patronage by audiences as the Symphony has been performing in other venues.

Don’t miss on this opportunity to attend a historic event in the restored Robinson Center Music Hall!

 

Little Rock Look Back: Halloweens Past

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A recent romp through an Arkansas Gazette gave insight into Halloween in Little Rock in the middle of the 20th Century.

Apparently by late afternoon on Halloween 1950, downtown Little Rock was filled with kids and teens in costumes. Much of the focus seemed to be on tricks as many of these revelers were utilizing water guns to soak people, throwing enough talcum powder to create an aroma downtown, shooting off firecrackers, and soaping store windows. Several industrious store owners had coated there windows with glycerine so that soap would not mark them.

The mayhem was enough to cause even more problems to traffic at rush hour. Police officers were helpless as they were directing traffic.  One city bus filled with passengers was attacked by a phalanx of waterguns, until the windows were all closed.

A Gazette writer noted that two teen boys were dressed rather convincingly as girls. One was described as “rather pretty” until letting out an expletive which the paper reported as “g— d—–” and thus outing the individual as a male.

Not everyone was focused on tricks.  Merchants in the Heights neighborhood created a block party with a carnival. It was deemed to be so successful that it would become an annual event.

Creative Class 2016: Jason Wiest

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cc16-wiestAfter a career in journalism and public relations, Jason Wiest is now focusing more on the entertainment side of Little Rock.  As the owner of Club Sway, he programs a variety of music and theatrical events.

While Club Sway operates as a bar, most nights there are special performances.  Jason provides SWAY as a staging area for locally produced parties created by GlitterRock as well as featuring nationally known entertainers.

For the second year in a row, Club Sway is producing The Rocky Horror Show during Halloween.  The final two performances are tonight and tomorrow at 8:30pm.

Jason has also been an active board member with Ballet Arkansas, giving special assistance as they planned their move downtown. He has also been a supporter of film festivals in downtown Little Rock.

Creative Class 2016: Werner Trieschmann

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cc16-treischmannWerner Trieschmann is a playwright-teacher-writer-you could keep adding hyphens and words.

His numerous plays — including Dog Star, Wrought Iron, and Killers — have been staged by Moving Arts in Los Angeles, Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York City, The New Theatre in Boston, Mobtown Players in Baltimore, and Red Octopus Productions in Little Rock. Werner was a resident at the Mount Sequoyah New Play Retreat in Fayetteville. His play Lawn Dart won first prize in the Contemporary Arts Center of New Orleans New Play Competition. He was the first playwright to receive the Porter Prize, an Arkansas literary award recognizing outstanding achievement by an Arkansas writer.

Werner’s play Disfarmer about Arkansas photographer Mike Disfarmer, was featured in Theatre Squared’s Arkansas New Play Festival. It was subsequently mounted at the first ACANSA Arts Festival.

His full-length comedy You Have to Serve Somebody is published by the Dramatic Publishing Company; several of his short plays are published by Playscripts, Inc.; his dark one-act comedy Killers is published through Original Works Publishing; and a monologue from Killers is included in the The Best Women’s Stage Monologues 1999, published by Smith & Kraus. Werner has an MFA in Playwriting from Boston University. He is a Theatre Arts professor at Pulaski Technical College and an adjunct faculty member at Hendrix College, his alma mater.  He has also served as a dramaturg at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre and was a writer for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.