Wine festival to raise money for TPAC

Topeka “Travel the World of Wine” is the theme for the annual Grape Escape fund-raiser for the Topeka Performing Arts Center, 214 S.E. Eighth.

The event, which include wine tasting, culinary seminars, dessert sampling, live and silent auctions and cigar sampling, is from 6 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. Friday.

Tickets are $55 before Friday and $65 after that date. Tickets are available at the TPAC Box office, (785) 297-9000.

Lawrence playwrights’ works staged at festival

Short plays by John Clifford and Don Mueller will be performed this month at Instant Play Festival of the International Senior Theatre Festival and Conference in Ohio.

Clifford and Mueller are members of the Vintage Players, a senior theater group at Lawrence Community Theatre. The Vintage Players perform in Lawrence, Baldwin, Ottawa and Tonganoxie.

Hobbs Park monument open for Civil War event

The Hobbs Park Memorial and Murphy/Bromilsick house, 10th and Delaware streets, will be open during Civil War on the Western Frontier. Hours are from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 18 and Aug. 24-25.

Visitors can view the interior and exterior of the 1866 home. Artifacts, photos and a computer slide show depicting the relocation of the 184-ton house and its dedication ceremony are available.

The Murphy/Bromilsick house was home to John Speer, who published the first newspaper in Lawrence. During Quantrill’s Raid on Aug. 21, 1863, a band of raiders swept through Hobbs Park and set fire to Speer’s home. His wife, Elizabeth, reportedly put out the fire. Two of their sons were murdered by the raiders. The only raider to die in Lawrence that day was killed in Hobbs Park.

For more information, call 832-8715.

Library plans special Civil War talks

The Lawrence Public Library, 707 Vt., is offering two programs during Civil War on the Western Frontier.

At 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dr. Herschel Stroud, a Topeka dentist, will present a talk and slide show titled “Bleeding Kansas, Miserable Missouri, Civil War on the Western Border: the Doctors and How They Fought It.”

Writer Don Coldsmith will present “It Happened Here: Kansas and the Civil War” at 7 p.m. Thursday. Coldsmith, a retired Emporia family practice doctor, will focus on invading terrorists from the North and the South, early Kansas casualties and Kansas’ activities in both pre- and post-Civil War times.

Coldsmith, who has written 35 western novels and is the winner of the Spur Award, will sign copies of his books before and after the presentation.

Both programs will be in the library’s auditorium.

Topeka theater slates auditions

Topeka Terrence McKerrs’ Theatre Pub is having auditions from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Aug. 18 and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Aug. 19 at the Ramada Inn in downtown Topeka.

Auditions are for “Smokey Joe’s Cafe,” to open in October; “Vanities,” to open in November; and “Sinatra: A Cabaret,” scheduled to open in December.

For the musicals bring a prepared song and for “Vanities” prepare a two-minute comedic monologue. All actors are paid.

For an appointment, call (785) 271-0450.