The UALR Music Department presents Puccini Paradiso, featuring tenor Dominick Rodriguez on Friday, Feb. 19 at 7:30 p.m. in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall. Rodriguez studied at the University of Minnesota and is gaining attention as an international opera star. Other performers include former Metropolitan Opera baritone Edward Crafts and former Chicago Lyric Opera soprano Susan Belcher, both of whom are on the faculty at UALR.
The UALR Concert Choir, directed by assistant professor of music Bevan Keating, and members of the voice and piano faculties will accompany the performers. The concert will include excerpts from popular Puccini operas including La Bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, Turandot and Manon Lescaut.
The concert will benefit UALR’s Opera Theatre. Tickets are $75, including a champagne reception following the concert. Funds raised will benefit the Opera Theatre production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute, to be performed in April. For tickets or for more information, call the Music Department Box Office at 501-569-8993.
The UALR Baseball team opened their season today at home against UAPB. If you’ve never spent an afternoon or evening at Gary Hogan Field watching baseball and eating hot dogs and nachos. Well, you should.
UALR’s Academy for Teaching and Learning Excellence will welcome Penn State Professor Emeritus Dr. Mary Ellen Weimer, as she presents a workshop on Thursday Feb. 18 and Friday Feb. 19 on “Growing Teachers and Promoting Learning. Weimer will present three sessions open to faculty. Her keynote speech, “Teaching that Promotes Learning,” will be from 1:30 to 4 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 18 in Dickinson Hall. She will also present two workshops on Friday, Feb. 19. “Successfully Implementing Change” is from 9 a.m. to noon in DSC Room G, and “Assumptions that Grow Teachers” is from 1 to 3:30 p.m. also in DSC Room G.
Weimer is a winner of Penn State’s Milton S. Eisenhower Award for Distinguished Teaching and she just finished writing Inspired College Teaching: A Career-Long Resource for Professional Growth, which will be released in March.
Attendance is free, but space is limited. To make a reservation for the workshop sessions, call 682-8459.
The UALR Department of Theatre Arts and Dance will present Kate Crackernuts, February 17-21 in the Haislip Arena Theatre.
Based on the English tale by the same name, Kate Crackernuts is part adult fairytale and part raver-infused dream state in which the audience is led down the rabbit hole, into the woods and under the mountain in search of what all fairy tale heroes and heroines crave: escape from reality, otherwise known as happily ever after.
Written by Sheila Callaghan, the play has been called by the Los Angeles Times, “…a strange, dense, brilliant wordplay…part poetry slam, part rave, part dog-eared storybook theater, and all edgy, infectious, ultra-theatrical entertainment.”
Evening performances are Wednesday, Feb. 17 through Saturday, Feb. 20 at 8pm. The Sunday Feb. 21 performance begins at 2:30 p.m. Student tickets are $5 and tickets for the general public are $7. The box office opens on Wednesday, February 10. For more information, call 569-3456.
Please Note: The play contains mature language and sexual themes. It is not appropriate for young audiences.
In the first installment of this two-part event, the Office of Campus Life as part of Black History Month, will present a film screening and discussion of “The Princess and the Frog” on Tuesday, February 16 at 6 p.m. in the Donaghey Student Center Leadership Lounge.
UALR faculty members Dr. Tim Edwards and Ben Fry will host the viewing and discussion about the Disney animated film, which is the first animated Disney film to feature an African-American princess. It created controversy when it was revealed that Princess Tiana’s male love interest was not black.
Dr. Tim Edwards is an associate professor of mass communications, and Ben Fry is the general manager of KLRE/KUAR and adjunct professor in the School of Mass Communication.
The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 569-3308.
Local photographer ML Baxley took time away from posting images of his kids in the snow to attend a Trojan basketball game. His images are really great.
A small sampling:
While students didn’t return to class until Thursday, UALR Physical Plant employees were out and about on Wednesday, preparing the campus for their safe return.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aQdmvXwsZc]
I am always impressed by the dedication and workmanship of our facilities staff. As I sit here in my warm office, the low rumble of snow-scraping machinery can be heard, and I remember the people who keep this campus running.
Dr. Lillian Nayder, an expert on Charles Dickens and currently the chair of English at Bates College in Maine, will present a lecture entitled “Marriage and Mesmerism- The Union of Charles and Catherine Dickens” on Monday Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. in the Donaghey Student Center Room G. This lecture kicks off the spring schedule of the William G. Cooper, Jr., Honors Program in English. This event is free and open to the public. A reception will follow the presentation.
A rare winter storm covered us in a beautiful white blanket this morning. Giant snow flakes continued to fall well into the afternoon, accumulating somewhere between 4-6 inches. It was the perfect snowfall that beckoned you to come out to play, the perfect density to shape and mold. As we took some shots of the campus, we came across evidence of a snowball fight or two, as well as some random happy snowmen ready for their close-ups. See more photos on our Facebook page, and share your own by sending campus pics to me.
Last Friday, NBC Nightly News aired an inspirational story profiling Spirit Trickey which also featured UALR Theatre student, Crystal Mercer. Crystal plays the role of Spirit’s mother, Minnijean Brown, one of the Little Rock Nine, in a one woman show Spirit wrote called One Ninth.
Both Crystal and Spirit are park rangers at the Little Rock Central High School National Historic Site. Such talent is exhibited by these amazing women as “keepers of the story,” a phrase Minnijean is fond of saying about their commitment to the Little Rock Nine legacy. Read more about One Ninth here.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640
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