Elsewhere in entertainment and the arts:
Pagans on Bobsleds!
Sketch comedy troupe Red Octopus Theater puts on its 23rd annual Pagans on Bobsleds! show, this year subtitled Let It Show! Let It Show! Let It Show!, 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday at The Public Theatre, 616 Center St., Little Rock. Doors open at 7:30. The show is recommended for mature audiences. Tickets are $10, $8 for senior citizens, students and members of the military. Call (501) 291-3896, email RedOctopusTheater@gmail.com or visit redoctopustheater.com.
Newport Carol
The Lincoln, N.H.-based Jeans Playhouse and Manchester, N.H.-based Palace Theatre touring co-production of A Christmas Carol -- adapted by Scott H. Severance, who is playing Scrooge, from the Charles Dickens classic -- will feature a cast of professional actors plus about 50 students from Jackson County, Newport and Weiner schools, 7 p.m. today, Center for the Arts, Arkansas State University-Newport, 7648 Victory Blvd., Newport. Tickets are $20. Call (870) 512-7802.
Fort Smith Magi
A couple's perfect gifts have unexpected costs as the Fort Smith Little Theatre, 401 N. Sixth St., Fort Smith, stages The Gift of the Magi, adapted by Jon Jory from the O. Henry story, 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday. Tickets are $5. (The off-season production is not covered by season tickets.) Call (479) 783-2966 or visit fslt.org.
Nine auditions
The Studio Theatre, 320 W. Seventh St., Little Rock, will hold auditions by appointment only on Monday for the musical Nine, music and lyrics by Maury Yeston, book by Arthur Kopit.
Prepare 32 bars of music either from or in the style of the show (an accompanist will be provided) and take, along with the sheet music, a head shot and resume (preferred but not required). Callbacks Dec. 16-17 will include a dance element and/or readings from the script. Rafael Castanera will direct; Bob Bidewell will be the musical director.
Rehearsals begin March 2; production dates are April 3-4, 9-12 and 16-19. To schedule an appointment, send an email to casting.studiotheatre@gmail.com with "NINE Appointment Request" as the subject line and include all contact information. For more information, call (501) 940-4646 or visit studiotheatre.org.
Get in "Line"
Tickets -- $71.50 and $45 -- are on sale for a 7:30 p.m. Jan. 24 "Anything Goes" tour concert by Florida Georgia Line, with "special guests" Thomas Rhett and Frankie Ballard, at North Little Rock's Verizon Arena. There is a six-ticket limit per household. The arena is using its Credit Card Entry system. Call (800) 745-3000 or visit ticketmaster.com.
Festival 4-Paks
Riverfest, the Memorial Day Weekend (May 22-24) music, arts and food festival, is selling special Festival 4-Paks -- three-day admission passes for four individuals, along with $20 in RiverMoney scrip -- for $40, online at riverfestarkansas.com.
NEA grants
The National Endowment for the Arts has made Arts Works grants, totaling $100,000, to four Arkansas organizations (arts.gov/grants/recent-grants/grant-announcements):
• $40,000 to the Helena-West Helena-based Sonny Boy Blues Society to support the organization's 30th anniversary King Biscuit Blues Festival in October, including a Blues-in-Schools program at four area public schools and the Boys & Girls Club of Phillips County.
• $40,000 to Fayetteville's Walton Arts Center to support its 10x10 Arts Series.
• $10,000 to Little Rock's Arkansas Repertory Theatre to support its production of Matthew Lopez's The Whipping Man, onstage at the Rep Jan. 23-Feb. 8, and a partnership with the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center and the Jewish Federation of Arkansas to explore the play's themes and the role of black and Jewish communities in Arkansas history.
• $10,000 to Fayetteville's TheatreSquared to support the Arkansas New Play Festival, in conjunction with the Rep.
The endowment has also made five $10,000 Challenge America matching grants to Arkansas institutions to "support projects that extend the reach of the arts to underserved populations whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, ethnicity, economics or disability."
• Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Little Rock, to support performances, workshops and related outreach activities involving violinist Randall Goosby, who will solo with the orchestra in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 Jan. 31-Feb. 1 as part of a central Arkansas residency.
• Fort Smith Symphony, to support its annual interactive "Earquake!" concert April 20.
• John Brown University, Siloam Springs, to support "Giving Voice: A Festival of Writing & the Arts," involving high school students from Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas.
• Low Key Arts, Hot Springs, to support the annual Valley of the Vapors Independent Music Festival and associated outreach activities.
• Ozark Foothills Filmfest, Locust Grove, to support its annual film festival.
Style on 12/09/2014