The 20th annual Delta Symposium will bring scholars, students, musicians and artists from across the country Wednesday-Saturday to Arkansas State University at Jonesboro.
The climax of the four-day symposium, sponsored by the university’s department of English and philosophy, with a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, will be Saturday’s Roots Music Festival at Jonesboro’s City Water and Light Park, Culberhouse and Cherry streets.
This year’s theme is “Diversities in the Delta.” Most sessions will be in the Mockingbird Room, third floor, Carl R. Reng Student Union, 101 N. Caraway Road. Admission to all events is free.
The lineup:
Wednesday: The symposium gets underway at noon with the forum “Conversations From the Delta,” followed by a presentation on Arkansas music history titled “Arkansas Roots Music and Its Diverse Branches” and, at 4:30 p.m., “Diverse Legends and the Contributions to Arkansas State University.” Area musicians will perform a Blues and Roots Music Showcase at 7:30 p.m. at The Arts@311, 311 S. Church St., Jonesboro.
Thursday: Starting at 8 a.m., sessions on music, architecture and food in Arkansas; on diversity within Southern writing; and on representations of diversity in Arkansas.At 4 p.m., Adam Gussow of the University of Mississippi, author of several books and articles on the blues and a blues harmonica player, will speak on the history and culture of blues music.
Friday: Starting at 9:15 a.m., regional writers will participate in panel sessions on Delta memoirs and “Diversities in Blues Music.” At noon, author/musician Stephen Wade will offer a lecture-performance linked to his latest book, The Beautiful Music All Around Us. At 3:45 p.m., Judy Peiser, director of the Center for Southern Folklore, will screen her film All Day and All Night: Memories of Beale Street Musicians.
Saturday: The symposium moves to Jonesboro’s West End neighborhood, where at 10 a.m., local architects and design professionals will lead an architectural walking tour, starting at the Craighead County Courthouse.
The Roots Music Festival starts at noon with another Blues and Roots Music Showcase. At 4 p.m., Justin Heskett Band will perform rockabilly, country and rock ’n’ roll, opening for bluesman John Hammond, who comes onstage at 5; the concert is also part of the university’s Lecture-Concert Series. In case of rain, the festival moves to the Reng Student Union Auditorium at ASU.
Call (870) 972-3043 or visit altweb.astate.edu/blues or the Delta Symposium’s Facebook page.
Oz re-imagined
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s stage “re-imagining” of the 1939 film version of The Wizard of Oz, enhanced by computer-generated imagery and including all the songs from the movie plus numbers with lyrics by Tim Rice for characters who only had dialogue in the film, will be onstage at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, 7 p.m.Wednesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. April 6 at Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson St.
Among the principal cast members is a native Arkansan: Nigel, a 6-year-old Cairn terrier playing Dorothy’s dog, Toto. Nigel was rescued in 2008 from the Northeast Arkansas Humane Society in Jonesboro by guardian/trainer, William Berloni. Canadian television viewers chose Danielle Wade to play Dorothy through a “reality” show called Over the Rainbow.
The show is part of the center’s 2013-14 Procter & Gamble Broadway series, with support from Ghirardelli Chocolate Co. and Billie Jo Starr. Tickets are $39-$83. Call (479) 443-5600 or visit waltonartscenter.org.
Opera premiere
Opera Memphis will close its 2013-14 season with the world premiere of Ghosts of Crosstown, a cycle of four complete short operas by Zach Redler of New York, Jack Perla and Nathaniel Stookey of San Francisco and Kamran Ince of Memphis, and one work in progress by Anthony Davis of New York, at 7 p.m. Friday on the loading dock of the Sears Crosstown building, 1427 N. Watkins St., Memphis.
Between each opera, actors from Voices of the South will perform monologues that Memphis playwright Jerre Dye wrote for the premiere. Inspiration for the operas came from the historic building, which fell into disuse in the early 1990s, and the people on whose lives it had an impact, according to a news release.
Tickets are $25. A limited number of tickets will be available for a special performance of select pieces inside the building at 9:30, following the premiere; lit only by flashlight, audience members will move through the building, finding the “ghosts.”
The premiere kicks off the Midtown Opera Festival, Friday-April 13, which will include:
Performances of Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium, 7:30 p.m. April 9 and 11, 2 p.m. April 13 at Playhouse on the Square, 66 Cooper St., Memphis
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The Impresario and Richard Wargo’s The Music Shop, double bill, 7:30 p.m.Saturday and April 10 and 2 p.m. April 12, also at Playhouse on the Square
A special performance of Opera Memphis’ children’s opera, Little Red’s Most Unusual Day, 2 p.m. April 6 on the Tower Courtyard stage, 2082 Trimble Place, in Memphis’ Overton Square.
A second performance of the full Ghosts of Crosstown cycle at 7:30 p.m. April 12 at Playhouse on the Square.
The 10-day festival will also include pre-show meals and discussions, panels, cabaret performances and parties. Individual tickets are $22-$55. An all-access festival pass is $175. Call (901) 257-3100 or visit the website, operamemphis.org.
Buy the Book
Tickets - $43.50-$153.50 - go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday for the national touring company of The Book of Mormon (book, music and lyrics by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone), 7:30 p.m. June 24-26, 8 p.m. June 27, 2 and 8 p.m June 28 and 1 and 6 p.m. June 29 at the Orpheum Theatre, 203 S. Main St., Memphis. Call (901) 525-3000 or (901) 743-2781 or visit ticketmaster.com or orpheum-memphis.com.
Style, Pages 51 on 03/30/2014