ENTERTAINMENT NOTES
Elsewhere in entertainment and the arts:
Author x 3
The Arkansas Literary Festival will offer an author preview, “Three on Three,” at 6:30 p.m. today in the Darragh Center, Central Arkansas Main Library, 100 Rock St., Little Rock. The tipoff event for the April 1821 festival will feature three Arkansas authors — Kevin Brockmeier ( The Illumination), Nickole Brown ( Sister) and festival Chairman Jay Jennings ( Escape Velocity: A Charles Portis Miscellany) — discussing the work of three other authors who will attend the festival: novelist Ben Fountain ( Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk); poet, documentary producer, editor and visual artist Frank X Walker; and novelist Karen Russell ( Swamplandia!). Admission is free. Call (501) 918-3098 or visit arkansasliteraryfestival.org.
Love and art
The Art Loft Gallery and Wine Bar, 1525 Merrill Drive, Little Rock, and Raimondo Winery will host a gallery event titled “Love Is in the Air,” 5:30-9 p.m. today and Friday. A $15 ticket ($27 for two, $49 for four) includes wine and olive oil and balsamic vinegar tastings; handmade pasta and sauce from the Italian Kitchen at Lulav; and a commemorative 8-by10 signed-and-numbered, limited-edition, studio-quality, ready-to-frame print of Love
Is in the Air by artist Melody Lile. Call (501) 203-7653.
Judging ballet
Lyn C. Wiltshire, a dance faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin, will select for presentation at the annual Regional Dance America/Southwest Festival in April one or more of five pieces that Arkansas Festival Ballet will perform for her at 7 p.m. Friday at the Arkansas Academy of Dance/Arkansas Festival Ballet Studio, Breckenridge Village Shopping Center, Interstate 430 and North Rodney Parham Road.
The performance is open to the public; suggested donation is $10.
Call (501) 227-5320 or email info@ArkansasDance.org.
Nothing on?
The University of Central Arkansas Theatre will stage
The Emperor’s New Clothes, based on the tale by Hans Christian Andersen and geared primarily toward children 4-10, at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m. Saturday in the Reynolds Performance Hall, UCA, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway. Admission is free. Doors open 30 minutes prior to curtain; running time is approximately 45 minutes. The show will subsequently tour area elementary schools and day care centers. Call (501) 450-5092 or visit uca. edu/theatre.
Elvis’ women
The Lantern Theatre and Conway Community Arts will stage All the King’s
Women by Luigi Jannuzzi at 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday and Feb. 15-16 and 2:30 p.m. Sunday and Feb. 17 at the Lantern Theatre, 1021 Van Ronkle St., Conway. Tickets are $12. Call (501) 733-6220, e-mail ConwayLanternTheatre@gmail.com or visit conwayarts.org.
Elvis tribute
And speaking of Elvis, “tribute artist” Michael Cullipher will perform at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Ouachita Little Theatre, 610 Mena St., Mena. Tickets are $10, $8 for students and senior citizens 60 and older. Call (479) 243-0186 or visit ouachitalittletheatre.org.
Animal songs
Baritone Stephen Swanson and pianist David Gompper, faculty members in the University of Iowa School of Music, will give a recital of pieces from their Albany Records album Animal Songs: Bestiaries in English, French and German at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Arkansas Tech University’s Witherspoon Auditorium, 407 W. Q St., Russellville. Admission is free. Call (479) 968-0368 or visit atu.edu/music.
Sunset on the Nile
The Mirana Middle Eastern Dance Company offers “a casual evening of dinner, dancing and costume modeling” for its annual Sunset
on the Nile benefit dinner, 6 p.m. Sunday at Lulav, 220 W. Sixth St., Little Rock. Tickets are $30; for mandatory reservations, call (501) 455-1229 or (501) 837-9305 or visit miranadanceco.com.