Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Fifties Follies, Sidewalk Caf' Planned

Final plans are being made for the, Fifties Follies and Sidewalk Caf, being sponsored by the Artesian Arts League of Prescott.

This gala event will take place Saturday, August 22, at 7 p.m. in the auditorium above Prescott City Hall.

City hall was built in 1939 and the Artesian Arts League's goal at the present time is restoring the auditorium. To have the auditorium made functional would be of benefit to the community, the organization believes. It could be used for workshops, diner theater, art shows and performances, the group claims.

Advance tickets for this fund- raiser are $8 and can be purchased from any Artesian Arts League member or by calling Judy Duke at 887-5506, Melva Morman at 887-3739 or Barbara Brown at 887-5365.

Seating is limited and tickets will be on sale until Thursday, August 20. Tickets include a meal, which consists of hamburger, chips, brownie and drink.

Some local talent lined up to perform are Rachel Dougan, Jessie Ward, Dana Lovett Miss Teen Southwest Arkansas, Central Baptist Church Men's Quartet, Lori Arnette, Ada Nixon, Amy Roland and Chad Cornelius, just to name a few.

Penny Richards will be selling and signing copies of her books at the event. A portion of proceeds will be donated to the league, whose goal is to make all areas of the arts available to anyone interested.

Richards, who now lives in Prescott, is the author of 23 contemporary books for Silhouette and Harlequin written under her own name and the pseudonym Bay Matthews. She has written a novella for Silhouette and an historical for Harlequin under the Bay Matthews name as well as a mainstream book for Harper Paperbacks under her own name. She has also co-authored two books with Sandra Canfield under the pseudonym of Sandi Shane.

She is a charter member of Romance Writers of America, The Author's Guild and Novelists, Inc.

Richards has four million books in print. Her work consistently makes various distributors' best-seller lists as well as the Walden Books and B. Dalton series and Mass Market lists. Most recently, her romance, Wildcatter's Kid made the USA Today list. Her mainstream novel about horse racing, Dreamers and Deceivers was award the 1991 Reader's Choice Award for best single title book as well as an Award of Excellence from Romantic Times magazine.

Richards is a frequent speaker at national and regional writer's conferences, workshops and civic organizations. A long time resident of Louisiana, she and her husband of 36 years purchased the Dalrymple house in Prescott which was recently voted in to the National Register of Historic Homes.

She is currently under contract for one book and will have three books released in 1998. In her spare time, she is working on a mainstream novel set in the world of Louisiana logging and timber.

She would like to help the local art council work to make Prescott a place known for its support of the arts, specifically by helping to arrange writers' conferences for all types of writing.

"There are few writers' groups in Arkansas," she says, " and fewer conferences."

A sign up sheet will be available for anyone with an interest in attending writing workshops and the possible forming of critique groups.