Tales of the Crypt tonight at Mount Holly Cemetery

talescryptThe ghosts of Little Rock past will arise tonight at Mt. Holly Cemetery for the 21st Annual Tales of the Crypt.

Held the second Tuesday of October, Tales of the Crypt is an annual Mount Holly event.  Founded by Fred Boosey and Judy Goss, it is now under the direction of Tamara Zinck.  Drama students from Parkview Arts & Science Magnet High School are each given a person buried in the cemetery to research. They then prepare short monologues or dialogues, complete with period costumes, to be performed in front of the researched person’s grave.

Award-winning local costumer Debi Manire will once again provide the wonderful historical characters’ costumes.  Audiences are led through the cemetery from grave to grave by guides with candles. Although it takes place around the same time as the American holiday Halloween, the event is meant to be historic rather than spooky.  Many local teachers award extra credit to students who attend.

Student tour guides will escort groups of approximately 15 from grave site to grave site to learn more about those who shaped central Arkansas in to what it is today.

The Mount Holly residents will greet you are:

  • Dr. Isaac Folsom (Peyton Hooks)
  • Mrs. Sallie Folsom (Rahlea Zinck)
  • David O. Dodd (Cameron Minor)
  • Mary Dodge (Delaney Robertson)
  • Dovenia (Dovie) Kirby (Emily Gardner)
  • Samuel B. Kirby (Brock Tittle)
  • Captain Benjamin Shattuck (Micah Patterson)
  • Anne Warren (Isha Horton)
  • Quatie Ross (Michelle Mora Dominguez)
  • Katherine Eller Henderson (Mikala Hicks)
  • Juliet Neill Peay  (Emorie Mansur)
  • Mary E. Gaines Belding (Abigail Mansur)
  • Albert Stocking (Tre’Vaughn Whitley)
  • Mollie Stocking (Taylar Hasberry)
  • George Borland (Harrison Wyrick)
  • Eleanor Counts (Stephanie Schoonmaker)
  • Edward Payson Washburn (Will Frueauff)
  • Lillian Scott (Sidney Kelly)
  • James Robbins (George Patterson)
  • Maria Rebecca Craigen (Angelique Camper)

(The names of the Parkview students portraying the residents are in parentheses.)

The Twenty-first Annual “Tales of the Crypt” is sponsored by Mount Holly Cemetery Association and Parkview Arts-Science Magnet High School.

The event will be held  at Mount Holly Cemetery, 1200 South Broadway, Little Rock, from 5:30 pm until 8:30 pm.  Admission is free to the public, however donations to Mount Holly Cemetery are appreciated and aid in the maintenance of the cemetery.

AMERICAN IDIOT rocks into Weekend Theater

American Idiot at The Weekend Theater in Little Rock, ARFirst there was the album and the tour, then Billie Joe Armstrong and Tony winner Michael Mayer collaborated to create the stage musical.  Now Green Day’s American Idiot is coming to the Weekend Theater stage for four weeks.

The two-time Tony Award-winning hit musical American Idiot is based on Green Day’s Grammy Award-winning, multi-platinum album. This energy-fueled rock opera, which includes every song from the album, as well as several songs from follow-up release, 21st Century Breakdown, brings us face-to-face with the perils of war, drug addiction, and escapism, and the power of true friendship.

The story centers on Will, Johnny, and Tunny, who struggle to find meaning in a post-9/11 world. When the three disgruntled young men flee the constraints of their hometown for the thrills of city life, their paths are quickly estranged when Tunny enters the armed forces, Michael is called back home to attend familial responsibilities, and Johnny’s attention becomes divided by a seductive love interest and a hazardous new friendship. We follow the three as they try to find themselves and learn that, with acceptance, comes the possibility of hope.

The cast features Robert Warner, Peyton Hooks, Courtney Williams, Luke Johnson, Brittany Sparkles, Charmaine Foster, Mackenzie Holtzclaw, Xavier Jones, Adam Smith, Jordan Lott, Nichole Henry, Angel Monroe, Angela Morgan, Anna Darr, and Simmery Branch.

The production is directed by Frank Butler with music direction by Lori Isner.  The show runs through August 9.  Performances are at 7:30pm on Friday and Saturday and at 2:30 on Sunday afternoons.  On Friday, August 7, the curtain time is 8pm.

One Acts this weekend at Community Theatre of Little Rock

ctlrWhen the Community Theatre of Little Rock was founded in the 1950s, it was common for groups such as it to perform evenings of One Act plays.

Returning to these roots, this weekend the CTLR presents an evening of four one act plays.

The lineup is

“The Actor’s Nightmare” by Christopher Durang.  In it George is mistaken for an actor’s understudy and forced to perform a show he doesn’t know. The cast is David Monteith as George Spelvin, Francesca Bee as Meg, Brooke Ballew as Sarah Siddons, Jessica Allis as Ellen Terry and Peyton Hooks as Henry Irving.

In “Private Wars” by James McLure, three recovering soldiers try to figure out where their lives go from here.  The cast is Jerry Woods, John Timaues and Courtney Williams.

Noel Coward’s “Ways and Means” examines what happens when an heiress and her gambling husband, plagued with debt and shame, are inadvertently saved by a disgraced chauffeur. The cast includes Susan Troillet, Harold Dean, Tracy Speed, Michael Harmon, Jessica Allis, Jerry Woods and Courtney Williams.

In “30 Minutes to Charlie” by Nick Zagone, Kline and Reid hit are forced to visit the Emergency Room while trying to get to the meeting of a lifetime. The cast features Jon Martin, Peyton Hooks, Tracy Speed and Skye Sebring.

Performances are at 7:30 tonight (August 22) and tomorrow (August 23) and at 2:30 on Sunday, August 24.  The CTLR now performs at the new Studio Theatre.