ENTERTAINMENT NOTES

Takei, 'Octuba,' ASO chamber on week's entertainment list

George Takei talks Thursday at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.
George Takei talks Thursday at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway.

Actor and social activist George Takei will discuss his early years in an Arkansas internment camp during World War II and share stories about his five-decade entertainment career, role in pop culture and passion for equality in a lecture at 7:30 p.m. Thursday in the Donald W. Reynolds Performance Hall, University of Central Arkansas, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway.

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Rosa Rodriguez plays three notable Latin American women, including Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, in Tres Vidas.

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Breaking Grass — (from left) Tyler White, Jody Elmore, Cody Farrar, Britt Sheffield, Zach Wooten — performs for the October Bluegrass Monday show in Paragould.

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Pulaski Tech students Tanisha Price and Clay Terry are part of the three-member cast of Edward Albee’s At Home at the Zoo, the college’s entry into the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival this week in Fort Smith.

Takei, best known for his role as Hikaru Sulu in TV's Star Trek, recently ended a Broadway run in a musical he developed, Allegiance. He spent part of his childhood at Camp Rohwer in southeast Arkansas, where more than 100,000 Americans of Japanese origin were interned during World War II.

Tickets are $15, $5 for UCA faculty and staff, free for UCA students with current ID. Call (501) 450-3265 or (866) 810-0012 or visit the website, uca.edu/reynolds.

'Octuba' events

Also at UCA, the music department will host three "Octuba" concerts this month:

• Octubafest, performances by members of the UCA Tuba-Euphonium Studio, 7:30 p.m. Monday, Recital Hall, Snow Fine Arts Center.

• Annual "Tubaween" concert, 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Snow Fine Arts Center Recital Hall.

Second annual Toad Suck Buck's Octubafest, 3-5 p.m. Saturday, polkas on tubas and euphoniums at Toad Suck Buck's River Vista and Grill, 11 Roaring River Loop, Houston.

Admission to all three events is free. Call (501) 450-5763 or email grobertson@uca.edu.

Chamber Schubert

The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra's second River Rhapsodies chamber music concert, 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Clinton Presidential Center, 1200 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock, will be a "Schubert Festival." The program: a selection of Schubert songs, Schubert's Fantasy in C major for violin and piano and Osvaldo Golijov's The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind. Tickets are $23, $10 for students and active duty military. Call (501) 666-1761, Extension 100, or visit ArkansasSymphony.org.

Tres Vidas

The Core Ensemble will perform Tres Vidas, a chamber music theater work for singing actress and trio (cello, piano and percussion) based on the lives of three Latin American women: Mexican painter Frida Kahlo, Salvadoran peasant activist Rufina Amaya and Argentine poet Alfonsina Storni, 7 p.m. Wednesday in the theater, Windgate Art and Design, University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, 5210 Grand Ave., Fort Smith. It features a text by Marjorie Agosin; popular and folk songs of Mexico, El Salvador and Argentina; vocal and instrumental tangos by Carlos Gardel and Astor Piazzolla; and new music written especially for the ensemble by Osvaldo Golijov, Orlando Garcia, Pablo Ortiz and Manuel DeMurga. Admission is free. Call (479) 788-7970 or email rosario.nolasco-schultheiss@uafs.edu.

Theater festival

The university this week is also hosting the state's district-level Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, featuring performances by groups from five area colleges and universities, in the university's Breedlove Auditorium. The lineup:

• Thursday: Corrigenda, cirque-centered show, Theatre@UAFS, 7:30 p.m.

• Friday: Nina Variations by Steven Dietz, Rich Mountain Community College, noon; Eh? by Henry Livings, Eastern Oklahoma State College, 8 p.m.

• Saturday: True West by Sam Shepard, University of the Ozarks, noon; At Home at the Zoo by Edward Albee, Pulaski Technical College, 8 p.m.

Admission to all performances is free. Call (479) 788-7303 or email bob.stevenson@uafs.edu.

Bluegrass Monday

Mississippi-based bluegrass band Breaking Grass -- Cody Farrar on lead vocals and guitar; Tyler White, fiddle; Jody Elmore, banjo; Britt Sheffield, bass; and Zach Wooten, mandolin -- will perform for KASU-FM, 91.9's "Bluegrass Monday" series, 7 p.m. Monday at the Collins Theatre, 120 W. Emerson St., Paragould. The station will pass the hat to pay the group; suggested donation is $5 per person. Call (870) 972-2367, email mscarbro@astate.edu or visit the Bluegrass Monday Facebook page.

Jersey Boys at Orpheum

The Tony-, Grammy- and Olivier-winning musical Jersey Boys, based on the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, will be onstage 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 1:30 and 6:30 p.m. Oct. 30 at the Orpheum Theatre, 203 S. Main St., Memphis. Tickets are $25-$125. Call (901) 525-3000 or (901) 743-2787 or visit orpheum-memphis.com.

AST auditions

Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre will hold auditions for Equity, non-Equity, and intern actors for its summer 2017 season -- William Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost and Julius Caesar, Meredith Willson's musical The Music Man and an hour-long, family audience adaptation of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew -- noon-6 p.m. Nov. 19, Donald W. Reynolds Performance Hall, University of Central Arkansas, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway.

Actors should prepare either two contrasting classical monologues (at least one of which should be from Shakespeare) or, to be considered for the musical, one Shakespeare monologue and 16 bars of a song (and provide sheet music for the accompanist). The total audition should be no more than five minutes. Rehearsals begin May 16; the shows run in repertory, June 9-July 9. Housing will be available for actors from outside central Arkansas. All acting positions are paid; actors are eligible to join and earn points in the Equity Membership Candidate program.

To make an audition appointment, email your head shot and resume to casting@arkshakes.com. Call (501) 852-0702 or visit the website, arkshakes.com/join.

Cagle benefit

The Cate Brothers Band is organizing "Music for a Friend," a benefit to help cover the medical bills for their drummer, Terry Cagle, who was severely injured in a September accident, 2-10 p.m. Oct. 30 at George's Majestic Lounge, 519 W. Dickson St., Fayetteville.

The lineup of performers also includes Earl & Them, Oreo Blue, Tulsa-based Brad James Band and Jr. Markham & the Caretakers (with Charles Tuberville and Jamie Oldaker), Leah & the Mojo Doctors, Left of Center, the Traveling Wheelbearings, Dawn Cate, J.T. Huff and Lloyd Price. There will also be food and a silent auction. There's a $5 admission charge; donations will also be accepted. Call (479) 442-4226.

Style on 10/23/2016

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