1 CHEESE DIP
Queso rah, so rah: Professionals and amateurs will be vying for trophies, cash prizes and gifts at the seventh World Cheese Dip Championship, noon-3 p.m. Saturday on the grounds of the Clinton Presidential Center, 1200 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock. Tickets are $10 in advance (visit tinyurl.com/ y9ox7bgc), $15 day of ($8 for active military and veterans, law enforcement, firefighters and EMTs with ID, free for children 10 and younger). That includes chips and cheese-dip samples from the contestants and two voting chips for the People’s Choice awards ($2 per additional chip). Beverages, Sno Cones and hot dogs will be for sale. Proceeds benefit Harmony Health Clinic, a nonprofit that offers free medical and dental care to low-income Pulaski County residents or workers in Pulaski County. See story on Page 4E.
2 CRYSTAL
Performers will do eye-popping things, for the first time on ice, at North Little Rock’s Verizon Arena in Cirque du Soleil Crystal, 7:30 p.m. today-Friday, , 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 5 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $33-$155. Call (800) 745-3000 or visit ticketmaster.com. 3 CANDY Downtown Little Rock and North Little Rock’s museums and cultural centers get spooky for the annual
Big Boo!-seum Bash, 5:30-8:30 p.m. today. Families are invited to go from location to location for trick-ortreating, games and activities. This year’s venues: the Arkansas Arts Center, Historic Arkansas Museum, Little Rock Visitor Center at Historic Curran Hall, MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, Museum of Discovery, North Little Rock Heritage Center, Old State House Museum and Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center. Admission is free. Call (501) 3764781 or visit littlerock.com.
4 CHILLS
Things go awry for young middleschool thespians planning to put on the best darn musical ever, from first auditions to opening night, in Goosebumps the Musical:
Phantom of the Auditorium (music, lyrics and orchestrations and arrangements by Danny Abosch, book and lyrics by John Maclay, adapted from R.L. Stine’s Phantom of the Auditorium), through Nov. 12 at the Arkansas Arts Center Children’s Theatre in MacArthur Park, 501 E. Ninth St. Little Rock. There’s a special pay-what-you-can preview at 7 p.m. today; curtain times for the run: 7 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Tickets are $12.50, $10 for Arts Center members. Call (501) 372-4000 or visit ArkansasArtsCenter.org.
5 CHARM
A scrappy and optimistic orphan (Ruby Reeves) finds a dog and a home, and in the process helps humanize a crusty billionaire (Robert Holden) in Annie (music by Charles Strouse, lyrics by Martin Charnin, book by Thomas Meehan, based on the Harold Gray comic strip Little Orphan Annie), 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday in the Lucy Lockett Cabe Festival Theatre, Wildwood Park for the Arts, 20919 Denny Road, Little Rock. It’s a collaboration between Wildwood and Praeclara. Tickets are $30, $15 for students. Call (501) 821-7275 or visit wildwoodpark.org.
6 CONVENTION
Robotics and engineering, cities and
trains and other “massive displays” will be part of the BrickUniverse
Lego Fan Convention, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. and 2-5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday, Statehouse Convention Center, Markham and Main streets, Little Rock. Also part of the convention: a friends-build area, Bricks 4 Kidz activity area, Big Pile of Bricks, minifigure caricatures and a character meet-and-greet. Tickets are $15 each day, free for children 2 and younger. Visit Eventbrite.com or brickuniverse.com/littlerock.
7 CHANCELLOR’S CONCERT
Guitarist Phil Keaggy performs at 7:30 p.m. Friday in the Stella Boyle Smith Concert Hall, Fine Arts Building, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 2801 S. University Ave., Little Rock. It’s part of the Chancellor’s Concert Series. Tickets are $20, $5 for students, free for UALR and UA-Pulaski Tech employees and students. Call (501) 569-3294 or email jslane@ualr.edu.
8 CARRY
The ESSE Purse Museum, 111 W. Markham St., Little Rock, takes a very artistic look at handbags with “Petite Anthologie de Sacs: An Evening With Nathalie Lecroc.” The French painter, who is working on an extended project painting handbags and their contents, will attend the reception, 6-8 p.m. Friday. Tickets are $25. On Saturday, Lecroc will do purse illustrations, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. at the museum; admission is $10, $8 for students, senior citizens and military. The Capital Hotel, 111 W. Markham St., Little Rock, will host a special brunch, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Sunday; tickets are $48. Call (501) 916-9022 or visit essepursemuseum.com.
9 COWARD
A ghost causes problems for a novelist and his wife in Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit. The comedy will be onstage at 2 and 7 p.m. today-Friday and 7 p.m. Saturday in the Center for Humanities and Arts, University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College main campus, 3000 W. Scenic Drive, North Little Rock. Tickets are $7, $5 for students. Call (501) 812-2715 or visit uaptc.edu/blithe.
10 CREATURES
Animals, funny stories and exciting videos will bring a bit of animalbased adventure to the University of Central Arkansas in zoologist Jack Hanna’s Into the Wild Live!,
7:30 p.m. Friday at Reynolds Performance Hall, UCA, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway. Tickets are $30-$40, $10 for children and UCA students. Call (501) 450-3265 or visit uca.edu/reynolds.