The 56th Young Arkansas Artists Exhibition, showcasing work by Arkansas K-12 students, opens Tuesday and remains on display through July 23 in the Alice Pratt Brown Atrium and the Sam Strauss Sr. Gallery at the Arkansas Arts Center, MacArthur Park, East Ninth and Commerce streets, Little Rock. The Arts Center will hold a Family Festival at 10 a.m. Saturday, followed at noon by the awards ceremony in the Lower Lobby Lecture Hall.
A jury of art professionals selected 104 works in a variety of media representing 58 schools in 27 towns (out of the 495 entered by 132 teachers or instructors from 124 schools). Current members of the Arkansas Art Educators Association will pick one Teacher's Choice Award for each grade level.
Grand Juror Dolores Justus, artist and owner of Hot Springs' Justus Fine Art Gallery, selected one Best of Class and two honorable mentions per grade. Juror Debbie Poe, artist and retired art educator, chose recipients of the Mid-Southern Watercolorists Award for Achievement in Watercolor and the Ray Smenner Award for Achievement in Painting. Monetary awards go to the school of each winning artist to support art programs. Works from the exhibition travel to schools and other venues as part of the Arkansas Arts Center's State Services Program.
Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is free. Call (501) 372-4000 or visit ArkansasArtsCenter.org.
Fayetteville farce
A (mostly) faithful couple learn how opening the wrong door in the dark can lead to mayhem in The Dingdong (or, How the French Kiss), Mark Shanahan's adaptation of Georges Feydeau's farce Le Dindon, which TheatreSquared is staging, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday through June 4 at Walton Arts Center's Nadine Baum Studios, 505 W. Spring St., Fayetteville. Tickets are $15-$45, with a limited number of $10 tickets for patrons under 30. Call (479) 443-5600 or visit theatre2.org.
Sounds in the Stacks
Michael Heavner, instructor and musical director at the theater arts and dance department at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, will play a 7-foot, 6-inch Kawai GX-7 concert grand piano provided by Piano Kraft at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Max Milam Library, 609 Aplin St., Perryville. It's part of the Arkansas Sounds Music Series' Sounds in the Stacks series, a project of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies. Admission is free. Call (501) 918-3033 or visit arkansassounds.org.
Bard on the boards
Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre will open its 11th season, June 9-July 9, with William Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost, outdoors on the lawn in front of McAlister Hall, University of Central Arkansas, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway. Performances are 7:30 p.m. June 9-10, June 17-18, 25 and 29, July 2, 4 and 7.
It will run in repertory with three other shows that explore this year's theme, "the power of persuasion," all at UCA's Reynolds Performance Hall:
• Meredith Willson's musical The Music Man, 7:30 p.m. June 16 and 27; 2 p.m. June 17-18 and 25; 2 and 7:30 p.m. July 1, 5 and 8
• A reimagined version of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, with women taking on leading roles in the conspiracy to overthrow a beloved but possibly corrupt leader, 7:30 p.m. June 23-24, 28 and 30 and July 6, 2 p.m. July 2 and 9.
• The one-hour Family Shakespeare adaptation of the Bard's The Taming of the Shrew, 2 p.m. June 29, July 4 and July 7, 10 a.m. June 30 and July 8, with tour stops at The Joint on Main Street in North Little Rock's Argenta Arts District, June 20-21; the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute on Petit Jean Mountain, June 24; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, June 28; the Hot Springs Farmers Market Pavilion, June 30; the Sparks in Park festival in Magnolia, July 3; and at the Fowler Center at Arkansas State University at Jonesboro, July 9.
Love's Labour's Lost admission is "pay what you can" ($15 per person suggested donation). Julius Caesar and The Music Man tickets are $32, $25 for senior citizens, active military and students; two-play packages are $45. The Taming of the Shrew tickets are $10. Call (866) 810-0012 or visit arkshakes.com.
Piano workshop
Composer and piano teacher Eugenie Rocherolle will give a workshop, focusing on "The Teen Machine -- How to Keep It Running" and "A Rocherolle Gourmet -- Something for Every Taste" -- 9:30 a.m.-noon Friday at St. Andrew's Anglican Church, 8300 Kanis Road, Little Rock. Fee is $20 for adults, $10 for students and you can register at the door. Call (501) 812-4225.
Fayetteville farce
A (mostly) faithful couple learn how opening the wrong door in the dark can lead to mayhem in The Dingdong (or, How the French Kiss), Mark Shanahan’s adaptation of Georges Feydeau’s farce Le Dindon, which TheatreSquared is staging, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday through June 4 at Walton Arts Center’s Nadine Baum Studios, 505 W. Spring St., Fayetteville. Tickets are $15-$45, with a limited number of $10 tickets for patrons under 30. Call (479) 443-5600 or visit theatre2.org.
Style on 05/14/2017