Texarkana Entertainment Blog

Actors between 7 years old and adult are needed to portray goblins and villagers in a production of the play “Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins.” Auditions will be held between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday at the Regional Arts Center, 321 W. Fourth St., Texarkana, Texas.

Come prepared to sing and dance but no rehearsed audition pieces are necessary. The show will be performed in December. The play is a musical based on Eric Kimmel’s Caldecott-winning book.

This family theater show is a collaboration between Texas A&M University Texarkana and the Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council. More info: Brian C. Billings at 903-223-3022 or Jennifer Unger at 903-792-8681

- Aaron Brand

Wade Bowen’s fourth album, “If We Ever Make It Home,” has been out about a year but it’s still a hit maker for the Texas singer-songwriter. Waco-born Bowen sees it as lyrically-driven, mature work. Being married and fathering two sons, he said, has also given him a new perspective.  And so far, that perspective seems popular because his latest album has produced songs that have consistently hit the top of the Texas charts. “It just seems to keep growing and growing,” he told me recently during an interview. He’ll bring his country tune repertoire and six-piece band to town Friday night for an upbeat concert date here at Shooters Sports Bar. Things kick off at 9:30 p.m. and tickets are $10. More info: 870-773-4903.

- Aaron Brand

East Texas-based bluegrass buddies Hickory Hill have been forging their own distinctive touch with this unique form of American roots music for 30 years through several albums and just a few personnel changes. Their fortitude and success therein give them cause to celebrate, which they’ll do at 8 p.m. on Saturday, August 22, at Music City Texas Theater in Linden. They’ve achieved plenty of critical kudos over the years and are still releasing new work; their latest CD is “Old School.” John Early, guitarist and vocalist for the band, attributes their success to the friendship they have for each other and their approach to music as a hobby, one they love to share with others. I interviewed Early a few days ago and will have the story in tomorrow’s Gazette on the Accent page. Tickets for the show are $15. For more information or to purchase tickets: Musiccitytexas.org or 903-756-9934. Oh, doors open at 6:30 p.m. and Early invites folks to come down then for free chicken and dumplings while the food lasts. 

- Aaron Brand

Submitted photo: 

One of this weekend’s Sunday Accent stories covers the 2009-2010 Visual Arts Series at the Regional Arts Center. It’s a fairly interesting roster of shows coming up this next year at the RAC, starting Sept. 1  with some Latin American folk art in “Dichos: Words to Live, Love, and Laugh By.” Dichos are the sayings inscribed by the drivers on buses and trucks from Mexico to South America; they come with colorful art and speak to many different things, whether it’s love, advice, or a pun. It should be a fun exhibit. New Boston artist New Boston, Texas, Gary Bachers has an exhibit of new work on the way, and there’s another that explores Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant. Check Sunday’s Accent page for a look at what’s in store. 

- Aaron Brand

Submitted photo: 

I’ll be getting back to a more regular and full schedule with this blog in the upcoming weeks. For a variety of reasons, including a slowdown in some of the entertainment action during the summer months, it’s been a bit slow here on the blog. There have been some other projects that have kept me from writing here as much as I’d like. As well, I just missed out on a week of writing by landing in the hospital. (With all the celebrity news last week, it was frustrating not to be able to dash off some thoughts here about the strange onslaught of celebrity deaths.) All is on the mend, though, and I should be back up and running here on the Texarkana Entertainment Blog shortly with the summertime arts action. 

- Aaron Brand

Ark La Tex Appliance over on West 7th Street is a place that will surprise you. If you walk in, you’ll see a stage, dance space, and even a little kitchen. When not being a place to buy refurbished appliances the rest of the week, the place turns into a space for live music, starting at 7 p.m. each Friday. It’s a stage where old country and gospel rule and where there’s a modest but most appreciative audience. Mike and Jan Helms own the place, which has been affectionately and informally dubbed the “Maytag Opry” by some of its patrons. It’s a friendly place. And there’s no cussing or drinking or fighting at this establishment. The house band (which shifts from week to week depending on who’s there to play) includes some players who’ve been around the Texarkana live music scene for years; some folks are newcomers, and they’re all good musicians. Audience members venture up to the stage to sing. I caught a show last Friday night and, for this weekend’s Sunday Accent page, will have the story. 

- Aaron Brand

Staff photo by Tanner Spendley: 

The third man to be the voice of Mickey Mouse has died. Here’s the AP story: Allwine, voice of Mickey Mouse for 32 years, dies. 

- Aaron Brand

TRAHC’s 17th Annual Juried Student Art Exhibit at the Regional Arts Center opened Saturday with a reception for the local and talented high school and middle school artists who’ve contributed art for this show. The exhibit runs through June 6. In my view, it’s often the kids who come up with the more interesting and even challenging works for juried shows like this. Even if the artists may not have quite the technical accomplishments to their work, their vision or subject matter can be fresher and freer sometimes. 

- Aaron Brand

Staff photo by Megumi Rooze:

Marcus Sabbie, and his son, Paradice, of Texarkana, Ark., admire "Kinship," a sculpture from the Pleasant Grove Art III class on Saturday afternoon at the Regional Arts Center. It was a part of TRAHC's 17th Annual Juried Student Art Exhibit.

A while back I wrote a profile story about Charles Everett Pace, a Chautauqua scholar who performs as historic characters at various events across the country. Here’s the original story: A historical performance. He’s slated to perform today and tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. at 300 W. Broad Street, the corner of Broad and Texas Boulevard. Tickets are $7. Pace’s character for the night? Frederick Douglass. His show will dramatize the influential relationship between Douglass and President Abraham Lincoln. He’s performed as Douglass many places. Pace says the show starts a new initiative he calls “Performance in Alternative Spaces: Texarkana as Creative Crucible.” He’ll also perform the one-man show next week – Thursday, May 21, and Friday, May 22, same place and same time. 

- Aaron Brand

If you’re in the mood for relentless rough rockin’ this weekend you may consider checking out local boys Giganto tomorrow night at Club Next (3520 N. Stateline Ave.). Shreveport’s The Infamous Jaguar Shark, who’ve been making fairly regular trips up Highway 71 to play Next, will join them, along with Jasper McAdams. Showtime: 9 p.m. Cover: $5. Gotta be 21 to get in. 

- Aaron Brand