Elsewhere in entertainment, events and the arts:
MUSIC: Winds rescheduled
The Little Rock Winds and conductor Israel Getzov perform at 7:30 p.m. today at Second Presbyterian Church, 600 Pleasant Valley Drive, Little Rock, a concert postponed by icy weather from Feb. 24. Baritone Ronald Jenson-McDaniel performs “The Nine,” composed by Little Rock native Randall Standridge in honor of the Little Rock Nine and the 60th anniversary of the 1957 Little Rock Central High Crisis. The National Park Service commissioned the piece through the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site for the Little Rock Central High Wind Ensemble, which premiered it.
McDaniel will also sing three of Aaron Copland’s “Old American Songs”: “The Dodger,”https://www.nwaonline.com/news/2022/mar/15/the-nine-tops-lr-winds-rescheduled-program/”I Bought Me a Cat” and “At the River.” The program, titled “Reflections,” also includes the “National Emblem March” by Edwin Eugene Bagley; “Chorale and Shaker Dance” by John Zdechlik; “Elegy” by John Barnes Chance; “American Overture for Band” by Joseph Wilcox Jenkins; and Frank Ticheli’s arrangement of “Amazing Grace.”
Tickets are $15, free for students. Visit lrwinds.org. Masks and social distancing are required.
HISTORY: ‘Chasing the Dress’
The Old State House in Little Rock is hosting a virtual Brown Bag Lecture at noon, via Zoom (tinyurl.com/3wcyztaf) titled “Chasing the Dress: Katherine Carson Breckinridge and Her Place in History.” Heather Zbinden, outreach coordinator for the Bobby L. Roberts Library of Arkansas History & Art, will discuss her “chase” and, 17 years after completing her master’s degree thesis in 2005, the new details in new sources she continues to discover about Breckinridge and the dress she wore for the coronation of Tsar Nicholas II in 1896.
Katherine Carson was the daughter of a wealthy antebellum Louisiana and Mississippi plantation owner who in 1876 married a distant cousin, Clifton Rodes Breckinridge, a Pine Bluff cotton trader who served in Congress from 1882-1894, when he was appointed U.S. ambassador to Russia.
AUDITIONS: ‘Memphis’ musical
Argenta Community Theater, 405 Main St., North Little Rock, will hold auditions for “Memphis” (music by David Bryan, lyrics by Bryan and Joe DiPietro, book by DiPietro), by appointment, noon-4 p.m. March 26, with callbacks, 1-3:30 p.m. March 27. The show is loosely based on the story of Memphis disc jockey Dewey Phillips, one of the first white DJs to play Black music in the 1950s.
Auditions are open to performers of all genders, races and ethnicities; all roles require singing, dancing and acting of varying levels and degrees. A full character breakdown is available at argentacommunitytheater.org/auditions. Prepare 16 bars of a song that showcases your vocal range, in the style of rock ‘n’ roll or Southern gospel. “Sides” for cold readings from the script will be available. There will also be a dance call.
Production dates are July 20-30. Brandon Box-Higdem is directing, with music direction by Bob Bidewell and choreography by Christen Pitts. Email [email protected] to request an audition appointment; walk-ins can try out after those who have a scheduled appointment.
