ENTERTAINMENT NOTES: Hidden Figures inspiration gives lecture

NASA pioneer Christine Darden lectures Thursday at Harding University in Searcy. This 1975 photo show Darden in in the control room of NASA Langley’s Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel.
NASA pioneer Christine Darden lectures Thursday at Harding University in Searcy. This 1975 photo show Darden in in the control room of NASA Langley’s Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel.

Elsewhere in entertainment, events and the arts:

TODAY

Hidden no longer

Former NASA mathematician Christine Darden, one of the "human computers" who were the subjects of the book and movie Hidden Figures, will lecture at 7:30 p.m. today in Benson Auditorium, Harding University, 915 E. Market Ave., Searcy. It's part of the university's American Studies Institute Distinguished Lecture Series and will form the basis of the institute's second annual Educator Appreciation Night. Admission is free. The lecture will also be streamed live at streaming.harding.edu. Call (501) 279-4497 or visit harding.edu/asi.

Royal Parade

The Royal Players are staging Parade (music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown, book by Alfred Uhry), a musical based on the true story of a Jewish man lynched in Atlanta in 1913 after being falsely convicted of the rape and murder of a 13-year-old employee, 7 p.m. today-Saturday and Feb. 14-16 and 2 p.m. Sunday and Feb. 17 at the Royal Theatre, 111 S. Market St., Benton. Sponsors are Arvest Bank and Big Red. Tickets are $15, $12 for senior citizens, college students and military, 6 for children (12th grade and under). Call (501) 315-5483 or visit theroyalplayers.com.

Photos on the road

A photo exhibit, "Scenes Along the Delta Rhythm & Bayous Highway (Hwy 65 from Pine Bluff to Greenville, MS)," goes on display at 10 a.m. today at the Arts & Science Center for Southeast Arkansas, 701 S. Main St., Pine Bluff. An opening reception, 5-7 p.m. today, will include a 5:30 artists' talk. The exhibition will be up through April 20; gallery hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Sponsors are the Pine Bluff Advertising & Promotion Commission, Barbara House and Delta Rhythm & Bayous Alliance. Admission to the reception and the exhibit are free. Call (870) 536-3375.

FRIDAY

2nd Friday Art Night

It's 2nd Friday Art Night, for which downtown Little Rock's merchants, museums and galleries host special events, receptions and openings. Arkansas artists Perrion Hurd (linoleum block prints) and Ebony Blevins (photographs) present "Light, Lines & Shadows," 5-9 p.m. at Yella Dog Press, 917 W. Markham St. Admission is free; artworks will be for sale. Call (501) 517-5170. At the Historic Arkansas Museum, 200 E. Third St., 5-8 p.m., there will be an opening reception for three exhibits: "Flourish" by Jessica Mongeon and Cara Sullivan, "Olivia Trimble: Ozark Comforts" and "Featured Focus from the Permanent Collection," marking Black History Month. Tonya Leeks and Company performs; there will be beverages and appetizers. Admission is free. Call (501) 324-9351 or visit 2ndfridayartnight.org.

Organ recital

Jonathan Ryan, director of music and organist at St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church in Dallas, performs at 8 p.m. Friday at Pulaski Heights United Methodist Church, 4823 Woodlawn Drive, Little Rock, under the auspices of the Central Arkansas Chapter, American Guild of Organists. The program includes Pageant by Leo Sowerby; Variations on "Balleto del granduca" by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck; Concerto in d minor, RV 565, by Antonio Vivaldi; Fanfare to the Tongues of Fire by Larry King; Pastorale by Philip Moore; and the Passion Symphony, op.23, by Marcel Dupre. Admission is free. Call (501) 664-3600.

'Voices of the Delta'

Juain Young and Artists United will put on Voices of the Delta, living-history performances depicting life in the Arkansas Delta from the 1800s through the 1970s in song, dance and folklore, at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. today and Friday at Beth-El Heritage Hall, 406 Perry St., Helena-West Helena. Admission is free. Also part of Delta Days, in recognition of Black History Month, Galen Abdur-Razzaq, flutist at Flute Juice Productions, presents a lecture/jazz performance at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Feb. 22 the Heritage Hall, under the auspices of the Delta Cultural Center. Admission is free. Call (870) 338-4350.

SATURDAY

Boomtown Opry

The Talleys — Roger, wife Debra and daughter Lauren — headline a night of gospel music for the Boomtown Opry, 7 p.m. Saturday at the El Dorado Municipal Auditorium, 100 W. Eighth St., El Dorado. Featured performers also include Joel Woollen, Terry Lyne Moore, Cliff Preston, Southern Koast and Sister Lucille. Tickets are $20, $12 for children 12 and younger. Call (870) 665-9315, email boomtownopry@outlook.com or visit itickets.com.

Jonesboro Jungle Book

The Foundation of Arts stages The Jungle Book (music by BB Cooper, book and lyrics by Toby Hulse, also with original lyrics by Rudyard Kipling), 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Monday and Feb. 15 and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Forum Theater, 115 E. Monroe Ave., Jonesboro. Tickets are $15 and $13, $13 and $11 for senior citizens, military and Arkansas State University students, staff and faculty; $8 for children 12 and younger. Monday's show is "pay what you can." Call (870) 935-2726 or visit foajonesboro.org.

AUDITIONS

2 Weekend plays

The Weekend Theater, West Seventh and Chester streets, Little Rock. will hold auditions for Lincoln's Dream by Phillip H. McMath and The Survivor by Jack Eisner and Susan Nanus, 10 a.m. Feb. 16 at 6 p.m. Feb. 17. Auditions will consist of cold readings from the scripts; auditioners should bring a head shot and need only attend one session. Production dates for Lincoln's Dream are April 11-14; for more information, email director Margaret Pierson-Bates at mapiersonba@ualr.edu. Production dates for The Survivor are May 3-18. For more information, email director Zachery Ingersoll at ingersollzachery@gmail.com.

ETC.

Well, Met

Sopranos Kelly Singer, a Little Rock native living in New York, and Sydney Baedke from Toronto, were the top winners in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions on Jan. 26 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. They'll receive $2,000 each and will compete in the Feb. 16 regional auditions, also at UALR. The judges — Carleen Graham, director of HGOco, the Houston Grand Opera's community outreach program; Carroll Freeman, former artistic director of Opera in the Ozarks, currently on the faculty at Georgia State University; and Roger Pines, dramaturg at Lyric Opera of Chicago — also gave encouragement awards of $500 each to Bentonville soprano Kayla Eldridge and Langelihle Mngxati, a baritone from South Africa. And soprano Margaret McMurray of Little Rock took the audience favorite award, a fundraiser in which the audience paid $1 per vote to vote for their favorite singer.

Weekend on 02/07/2019

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