SHARING HIS STORY: An advance preview screening of the documentary Glen Campbell … I’ll Be Me will be held at 7 p.m. July 10 at the Central Arkansas Library System’s Ron Robinson Theater in the River Market. The film follows Campbell and his loved ones on their journey through his progressing Alzheimer’s disease. Tickets to the screening, presented by AARP Arkansas, are $25 and available exclusively online at www.arkansasmpi.org. Doors open at 6:15 p.m. with seating on a first-come, first-served basis. Director and producer James Keach (Walk the Line) and producer Trevor Albert (Because of Winn-Dixie, Groundhog Day) will be in attendance for a short discussion with the audience following the film. Members of the Campbell family also will attend and perform a short a cappella selection of their favorite Glen Campbell songs.
THEIR OVATION: A pair of longtime high school drama and theater teachers from the Pine Bluff area have been recognized for their years of work and dedication by being inducted into the Arkansas State Thespian Hall of Fame this year.
Karen Sidwell and Bill Young helped organize the first Arkansas State Thespian Festival for high school theater students in 1979. Since then, the organization sponsoring it, the Arkansas Educational Theatre Association, has awarded more than $15 million in scholarships to high school students during the past 20 years.
Sidwell taught drama at Watson Chapel for 17 years before moving to Clearwater, Fla., in 1988, where she worked first as a college English professor and then was in communications. She’s retired and still resides there.
Bill Young spent 36 years teaching in Cotter, Dollarway and the Pine Bluff school districts. Ten years ago, Bill and his wife Kay moved from Pine Bluff to Pearland, Texas, to be closer to their daughter and grandchildren.
ENTERING STAGE RIGHT: Little Rock native Austin Blunk is joining the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, one of the largest professional Shakespeare theaters in the nation, to take part in this year’s Next Stage Ensemble, a touring company for early career actors. The group will travel to more than 30 New Jersey locations to perform. Blunk, a recent graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design, previously performed at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival and The Great Lakes Theatre.
THEIR ARKANSAS CONNECTION: Nationally known gospel singers Jeff and Sheri Easter, who performed last Thursday at DaySpring Missionary Baptist Church in Ward, have a sentimental tie to the Natural State. The couple, who recently celebrated their 29th wedding anniversary, first met in Springdale in August 1984 when he was with the Singing Americans and she was with the Lewis Family. The two were there for the Sundown to Sunup Gospel Sing outdoor event, now held in Lebanon, Mo.
Contact Linda S. Haymes at (501) 399-3636 or lhaymes@arkansasonline.com