Elsewhere in entertainment and the arts:
Road to Essence
The Road to Essence Festival, featuring R&B headliners Chante Moore and Chrissette Michele, and celebrity host MC Lyte, makes a stop Saturday at Tiger Stadium at Bentonville High School, 1901 S.E. J St., Bentonville. Doors open at 5 p.m.; the concert starts at 6:30. Admission is free.
The tour, sponsored by Wal-Mart, leads up to the Essence Festival, July 3-6 in New Orleans, with a lineup that includes Prince, Janelle Monae, Mary J Blige, Lionel Richie, Erykah Badu and Tamar Braxton. Visit essence.com/festival.
Taste of Opera
Opera in the Ozarks will hold its annual Taste of Opera celebration, a preview event for its 2014 season, at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Crescent Hotel, 75 Prospect Ave., Eureka Springs. The event consists of food, drink and performances by Opera in the Ozarks singers and musicians of selections from the season (June 20-July 18 at Inspiration Point, on U.S. 62 west of Eureka Springs, featuring, in repertory, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Cosi fan tutte, a double bill of Giacamo Puccini's Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi and Stephen Sondheim's musical Into the Woods), Broadway tunes and Neapolitan love songs. Tickets are $55. Call (479) 253-8595 or visit the website, opera.org.
Piano Kraft concert
Violinist Oksana Pavilionis will perform for the first of a "Last Tuesday" series of free concerts by area musicians, 7 p.m. today at Piano Kraft LLC, 1222 S. Main St., Little Rock. She and pianist Brian Hamby will offer a program of light classics and some contemporary tunes. Admission is free; seating, limited to 50, is on a first-come basis. Call (501) 372-1446.
Disney Jr. tickets
Tickets --$21.50-$56.50, subject to change, plus handling fees -- go on sale at 10 a.m. today for Disney Junior Live on Tour! Pirate & Princess Adventure, featuring characters from Disney TV shows Sofia the First and Jake and the Never Land Pirates, 6:30 p.m. Sept. 19 at North Little Rock's Verizon Arena. Call (800) 745-3000 or visit ticketmaster.com.
Auditions
• The Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, 701 S. Main St., Pine Bluff, will hold auditions for youngsters ages 13-18, 6:30-8 p.m. Thursday and 1-3 p.m. Saturday for its summer musical Fame, Jr. (music by Steve Margoshes, lyrics by Jacques Levy, book by Jose Fernandez). Prepare 16 measures of a song and come prepared to read selected scenes and do a movement sequence; no previous stage or even audition experience is required. Brigitte Rogers, who teaches dance at Hendrix College, will be the stage director; the musical director is David Fleming. Production dates are July 17-20. Call (870) 536-3375 or visit the website, ASC701.org.
• Fort Smith Little Theatre will hold auditions for 9 to 5: The Musical (music and lyrics by Dolly Parton, book by Patricia Resnick, based on the film) at 7 p.m. Monday and June 3 at Goddard United Methodist Church, 1922 Dodson Ave., Fort Smith. Directors George Mann and Dwight Curry will be casting three men (ages 25-50), four women (25-50), a male teenager (age 15-18) and a chorus of singers and dancers. Either prepare a song or portion of a song in advance and take sheet music for the accompanist or an accompaniment track, or the directors will provide a song. Production dates are July 31-Aug. 10. Call (479) 783-2966 or visit the website, fslt.org.
• The Lantern Theatre, 1021 Van Ronkle St., Conway, will hold auditions at 7 p.m. June 3-4 for Mrs. Mannerly by Jeffrey Hatcher. Parts are available for three men ages 20 and older, three women in their 20s-30s and one woman, age 40-80, to play the title character. Auditions will consist of cold readings from the script, and auditioners need only show up one of the two sessions. Production dates are July 18-20 and 25-27. Call (501) 607-0474.
Style on 05/27/2014