Elsewhere in entertainment and the arts:
Music
• Soprano Maria Fasciano will join the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and conductor Philip Mann for a "Holiday Extravaganza," 7:30 p.m. Saturday, East Arkansas Community College Fine Arts Center, 1700 Newcastle Road, Forrest City. The program will include a mix of seasonal classical, religious and secular selections. The concert is part of the EACC Fine Arts Center's Spotlight Series. Tickets are $39. Call (870) 633-4480, Extension 352, or visit eacc.edu.
• Little Rock Wind Symphony presents "A Festival of Carols," 7:30 p.m. today at Second Presbyterian Church, 600 Pleasant Valley Drive, Little Rock. Soprano Laura Eads will sing "O Holy Night"; the Roberts Elementary School Children's Choir will sing John Rutter's "Star Carol" and "Let It Snow." The full ensemble will perform Russian Christmas Music by Alfred Reed, "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" and the Fantasia in G major by J.S. Bach and there will be the usual Christmas singalong. Michael Chance conducts. A pre-concert silent auction starts at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $10, $8 for adults 65 and older, free for students. Call (501) 666-0777 or visit lrwindsymphony.org.
• Central Arkansas children's and youth choirs, the Chancel Ringers of Conway's First United Methodist Church, dancers from the Arkansas Festival Ballet (performing highlights from The Nutcracker) and a "jolly old elf dressed in red" will join the Conway Symphony Orchestra and conductor Israel Getzov for "Tinsel and Tutus," 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Reynolds Performance Hall, University of Central Arkansas, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway. The program will also include music from the movies Frozen and Home Alone and Mannheim Steamroller's version of "Silent Night." Underwriting comes from Conway Corp. with support from Raymond James and Smith Ford. Tickets are $20-$38, $6 for children/students. Call (501) 450-3265 or visit ConwaySymphony.org.
The Orchestra Guild is hosting the pre-concert "Nutcracker Sweets," 6-7 p.m. in the Brewer-Hegeman Conference Center, next to the performance hall, featuring children's crafts, Nutcracker stories, a meet-and-greet with the ballerinas and the conductor and hot cocoa and cookies. Tickets are $5 for children (accompanying adults are free). Visit ConwaySymphony.org.
• International opera soprano and Arkansas native Kristin Lewis will perform with the Adult Choir of Second Presbyterian Church of Little Rock and the church's newly formed performing arts organization, Praeclara, in an Advent concert, 4 p.m. Sunday at the church, 600 Pleasant Valley Drive. Praeclara's artistic director, Bevan Keating, directs. Admission is free; donations to Lewis' foundation and its newly announced Vocal Scholarship Fund will be accepted. Call (501) 227-0000, email [email protected] or visit kristin-lewis.com/klf or praeclara.org.
• The Arkansas Chamber Singers will hold its 10th annual Christmas Swing-A-Long fundraiser Saturday at the Little Rock Club, 400 W. Capitol Ave., Little Rock. Cash bar opens at 5 p.m., with dinner at 6. The event also includes music by the Swing Band Reunion, a silent auction and a view of the Christmas fireworks over the Capitol. Tickets are $125. Call (501) 377-1121 or visit ar-chambersingers.org/events.html.
• The Ouachita Baptist University Concert Choir, Ouachita Singers, Women's Chorus, Ouachita Sounds and members of the OBU Wind Ensemble will present the 23rd annual "Festival of Christmas," 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday in Jones Performing Arts Center on the university's Arkadelphia campus. Tickets are $12, free for OBU students with ID. Call (870) 245-5555 or visit obu.edu/boxoffice.
Theater
• Community Theatre of Little Rock will stage Nuncrackers: The Nunsense Christmas Musical by Dan Goggin, one of the many sequels to Goggin's Nunsense, 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday through Dec. 14 at the Studio Theatre, 320 W. Seventh St., Little Rock. Tickets are $18; $16 for students age 10 to college, adults 65 and older and active military; $8 for children 4-9, free for children 3 and younger, $1 off with the donation of gently used running shoes. Call (501) 410-2283 or visit ctlr-act.org.
• A tense family reunion brings up a tragic chapter in a family's past in Other Desert Cities by Jon Robin Baitz, a 2012 Pulitzer Prize finalist, which the Weekend Theater, West Seventh and Chester streets, Little Rock, will stage at 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday through Dec. 20. Tickets are $16, $12 for students and senior citizens. Visit weekendtheater.org/boxoffice; call (501) 374-3761 for more information.
• The Royal Players will stage The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson, 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday through Dec. 14 at the Royal Theatre, 111 S. Market St., Benton. Tickets are $10, $8 for senior citizens, $5 for students. Call (501) 315-5483.
Fine arts
• Justus Fine Art Gallery, 827 A Central Ave., Hot Springs, will feature work by Japanese artist Masatoshi Kudo during December, starting with a reception, 5-9 p.m. Friday in conjunction with the monthly Hot Springs Gallery Walk. Kudo will give, through an interpreter, a brief gallery talk at 6:30 p.m. and will be available to answer questions during the opening. The exhibition will also include works by Taimur Cleary, Matthew Hasty, Rene Hein, Dolores Justus, Tony Saladino and Dan Thornhill.
Kudo is from the Japanese city of Sendai, on the main island of Honshu, south of Hot Springs' Sister City of Hanamaki. The gallery will donate a percentage of the sales of Kudo's work to the Hot Springs Sister City program. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday or by appointment. Call (501) 321-2335 or justusfineart.com.
Weekend on 12/04/2014