Comedian Carlos Mencia, whose television series, Mind of Mencia, debuted in 2005 on Comedy Central, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Loony Bin Comedy Club, in the Breckenridge Village Shopping Center, Interstate 430 and North Rodney Parham Road. Tickets are $23. Call (501) 228-5555 or visit loonybincomedy.com.
Architecture lecture
Niki Ciccotelli Stewart, chief engagement officer at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, will give a lecture titled "Building a Legacy: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Bachman-Wilson House," 6 p.m. Tuesday in the lecture hall of the Arkansas Arts Center in MacArthur Park, East Ninth and Commerce streets, Little Rock. Sponsor is the Architecture and Design Network.
A reception will precede the lecture at 5:30 p.m. Admission is free. Email ardenetwork@me.com.
Bill the bard
Bill, a comedy adventure film about William Shakespeare's "lost years," commemorates the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death at 7 p.m. Monday at the Breckenridge Village 12 in Little Rock. The film posits that "before he was Shakespeare he was ... Bill," a hapless lute player who, when his band mates kick him out of their group, leaves his wife and kids to seek fame and fortune in the big city of London. The screening includes a special introduction and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film with cast and crew members. Ticket information is available at fathomevents.com/event/bill.
Swinging gospel
Jazz trumpeter Byron Stripling, pianist Micah Thomas and drummer Robert Breithaupt join the Fort Smith Symphony and conductor John Jeter for a concert titled "The Gospel According to Swing," 7:30 p.m. Saturday at ArcBest Corp. Performing Arts Center, 55 S. Seventh St., Fort Smith.
The program includes the fourth movement, based on the Lutheran hymn "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," of the Symphony No. 5, "Reformation," by Felix Mendelssohn, plus hymns, songs and spirituals, including "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child," "How Great Thou Art," "Go Tell It on the Mountain," "Amazing Grace" and "When the Saints Go Marchin' In." Tickets are $43 and $38, $20 and $15 for students. Call (479) 452-7575, Extension 1.
UCA music
The University of Central Arkansas Trombone Choir, the BearBones Trombone Choir and the Natural Slides Trombone Octet will perform at 5:30 p.m. today in the Recital Hall, Snow Fine Arts Center, University of Central Arkansas, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway. Dallas-based freelancer Noel Wallace will be the bass trombone soloist in The Chief by John Stevens.
The program will also include Leviathan by Jack Wilds and arrangements of music from Man of La Mancha by Mitch Leigh, "Ye Banks and Braes o Bonnie Doon" by Percy Grainger and "Kashmir" by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant. Admission is free. Call (501) 450-3333.
2016-17 season I
The Arkansas Arts Center Children's Theatre's six-show 2016-17 season includes a premiere work -- The Laughable Legend of Fancybeard the Bully Pirate by Children's Theatre Associate Director Keith Smith, Feb. 3-19 -- and five shows based on fairy tales and children's literature, 7 p.m. Fridays and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays at the Arts Center, East Ninth and Commerce streets, Little Rock.
The rest of the schedule:
• Sept. 23-Oct. 9: Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
• Oct. 28-Nov. 13: Winnie-the-Pooh
• Dec. 2-18: The Elves and the Shoemaker
• March 10-April 2, 2017: Nancy the Musical, an original script by Keith Smith based on the popular children's book by Jane O'Connor. Spring break matinees, 2 p.m. March 22-25
• April 28-May 14, 2017: Rapunzel
Season sponsor is Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield. Season ticket packages range from $31 to $265 with special early-bird discounts through May 8. Individual tickets are $12.50, $10 for Arkansas Arts Center members. Call (501) 372-4000 or visit ArkansasArtsCenter.org.
2016-17 season II
Fayetteville-based professional regional theater company TheatreSquared's six-play 2016-17 season opens Aug. 24-Sept. 18 with the 2014 Tony Award-winner for Best Play, All the Way by Robert Schenkkan, based on President Lyndon Johnson and his ambitions to pass a sweeping Civil Rights Act and win his own election.
The rest of the lineup (all performances at Walton Arts Center's Nadine Baum Studios, 505 W. Spring St., Fayetteville):
• Oct. 12-Nov. 6: I and You by Lauren Gunderson
• Nov. 30-Jan. 1, 2017: World premiere stage adaptation by TheatreSquared Artistic Director Bob Ford (with a possible collaborator) of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations
• Feb. 1-26: Detroit by Lisa D'Amour, winner of the Obie Award for Best New Play and a Pulitzer Prize finalist
• March 22-April 16, 2017: Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage
• May 10-June 4, 2017: The Dingdong, a new translation of the Georges Feydeau classic, Le Dindon, as freely adapted by Mark Shanahan at the 2015 Arkansas New Play Festival
• June 15-24: 2017 Arkansas New Play Festival
Season-ticket packages are $60-$199 and entitle subscribers to member pricing at 20 professional theaters across the country (nationalstages.org). Call (479) 571-2785 or visit theatre2.org.
Rock of Ages tryouts
The Studio Theatre, 320 W. Seventh St., Little Rock, will hold evening auditions, by appointment, April 17-18, with callbacks (if needed) April 19 for the "rock/jukebox musical" Rock of Ages, built around classic rock from the 1980s by Styx, Journey, Bon Jovi, Pat Benatar, Twisted Sister, Steve Perry, Poison and others. (Music arranged and orchestrated by Ethan Popp, original arrangements by David Gibbs, book by Chris D'Arienzo.)
Director Justin A. Pike is seeking "a cast diverse in age [16 and up], sex, and race." Not all roles involve dance; there are also opportunities for actors who play guitar. Auditioners should prepare 32 bars of a song in the show's style "that best shows off their vocal prowess" and provide sheet music or accompany themselves on guitar or piano. There may also be cold readings from the script. Production dates are July 7-10, 14-17 and 21-24. Make audition appointments by email: studiotheatreauditions@gmail.com.
Style on 04/10/2016