ORANGE CITY, Iowa -- Ruston Seaman, executive director of World Vision in Appalachia and director of the World Vision Rural Poverty Initiative, will be the keynote speaker for Northwestern College's sixth annual Season of Justice. Seaman will speak at 10:05 a.m. Nov. 2, and at 11:05 a.m. Nov. 3 at Christ Chapel at this free event.

Dedicating much of his adult life to working in the rural, under-resourced communities of West Virginia, Seaman is committed to addressing the root causes of poverty and helping people see the untapped potential in their lives. World Vision in Appalachia is located in Barbour County, W. Va., one of the five most under-resourced counties in a state that consistently ranks in the bottom tier of the country's economic scale.

A one-man play, "The Not So Quiet Librarian," preformed by Tom Milligan, will be at 8 p.m. Nov. 7 in the banquet room at the Holiday Inn, 701 Gordon Drive. The presentation is free and open to the public.

Milligan, a professional actor from Des Moines, Iowa, is known across the state for dramatic portrayals of Grant Wood and Henry Wallace; and appearances in live plays, television presentations, and workshops on all phases of acting.

The Young People's Theatre at Lamb Productions will present three performances of "The Emperor's New Clothes," performed by The Lamb Caravan.

The Caravan, under contract with West Lake Entertainment of Los Angeles, returned in late September from a 2,137 mile tour covering cities in South Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana, presenting this production as a fundraising event for various nonprofits.

Caravan actors Alissa Walker, Emily Dorsett, Reed Saunders and John-Emmett Mahon will be performing at Lamb Theatre, 417 Market St. at 7 p.m. today, 4 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.

The Saturday performance is specially planned to accommodate trick or treaters and the audience is asked to wear their costumes.

Tickets are $6 reserved through the box office for children 2 through high school and $8 at the door. Adult tickets are $10 reserved through the box office and $12 at the door. Call the box office for reservations, 255-9536.

HINTON, Iowa -- Comedian Denis Donohue will be appearing at 9 p.m., Nov. 3 at the Silver Dollar, 112 E. Main St.

Donohue made his national TV debut on ABC's Barbara Walters Special this year. He's the defending champion of the Connecticut Comedy Festival and his comedy has been featured by National Lampoon, the Howard Stern Show, Bob & Tom, and both Sirius and XM.

Tickets are $15 and may be purchased in advance or at the door. For more information call the Silver Dollar at (712) 947-4704.

VERMILLION, S.D. -- The University of South Dakota's Department of Music Opera Workshop will showcase the children's opera "The Princess and the Pea" with several performances in November.

Under the direction of USD professor of music Tracelyn Gesteland, the 50-minute opera will tour various locations in Vermillion, including a 4 p.m. show Nov. 4 in Colton Recital Hall on the USD campus. Other scheduled performances are 2 p.m. Nov. 9 at St. Agnes School; 2 p.m. Nov. 11 at Austin School; and 1 and 2 p.m. Nov. 17 at Jolley School.

Amanda Rich of South Sioux City; William Darwin of Sioux City; Cody Perk of Yankton, S.D.; and Kendra Van Nyhuis of Hull, Iowa are members of the cast. For more information, visit usd.edu/fine-arts/music.

The Sioux City Community Theatre will host its annual Spooktacular from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the theater, 1401 Riverside Blvd.

It's free admission to the event with activity tickets available for purchase at the door to play games, create crafts, and visit the Spooky Salon for hair, nails and face painting. There will be also be "Scary Skits." Lunch is available.

A costume contest for ages 0 to 18 starts at 1:30 p.m. with many prizes, including a boys bicycle and a girls bicycle. For more information, call the theater at 233-2719.

For the annual Mercy Medical Center Auxiliary's Christmas Show, the theme will be "Christmas is Love with all the Trimmings." The show will be open to the public from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 6; and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Nov. 7 through Nov. 9 in the Leiter Room at Mercy Medical Center.

The show will feature a huge selection of Christmas decorations from trimming the tree, to decorations for the house, to gifts for all ages, or for your own collection.

All money generated from the event goes to the Mercy Auxiliary for nursing sponsorships, equipment purchases, and support of special products and events at the hospital.

CHEROKEE, Iowa -- The Cherokee Symphony announces its fall pops concert at 4 p.m. Nov. 1 at the Cherokee Community Center.

Featured soloist will be Gabrielle Maren, a native of Early, Iowa, who has performed throughout the Nashville circuit, recorded and performed with various artists and completed 3 CD's. She will be singing selections from "Les Miserables," a medley of songs by Irving Berlin and a number from her latest CD "Between a Tear and a Smile". The orchestra will also perform movie music by John Williams and a couple of classical pieces.

Admission is by season ticket or $10 for adults. Children are admitted free.

GAYVILLE, S.D. -- Gayville Hall presents "Planes, Trains & Automobiles: Songs of Travel and the Road," starring John and Susan McNeill, Nick Schwebach, and Owen DeJong, at 8 p.m. Oct. 31 at 502 Washington St., 14 miles west of Vermillion.

Tickets are $12.50 at the door or $15 for a reserved seat. Call (605)-267-2859.

The statewide South Dakota Public Broadcasting system will air the Great Plains Radio Theatre (GPR) radio adaptation of the 1897 Bram Stoker novel "Dracula" at noon, today on the Dakota Midday program.

Some of the local actors include Paul Guggenheimer as Count Dracula, John Krager as Jonathan Harker, Karen Sowienski as Mina Harker, Art Moss as Dr. Van Helsing, Lindsay Washburn as Lucy Westenra, and Matt Rixner as Arthur Seward.

Dakota Midday airs Monday through Friday and originates from KUSD-FM 89.7 in Vermillion and is hosted by Guggenheimer.

Briar Cliff University's Sean Burton, assistant professor of music and director of choral activities, presented a scholarly paper at the National Conference of the College Music Society Oct. 23 in Portland, Ore.

Burton's paper, titled "French Connections: Exploring the Unaccompanied Choral Music of Pierre Villette," is an outcome of his doctoral research and subsequently published book, The Unaccompanied Choral Music of Pierre Villette: A Conductor's Analysis (Edwin Mellen Press, 2008).

The Morningside College Art Faculty Show is on display through Nov. 15, in the Eppley Art Gallery, 3625 Garretson Ave. A reception for the artists will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Nov. 4, in the art gallery. Both the reception and the exhibit are free and open to the public.

Artists on display are: Terri McGaffin, Karen Harris, Pauline Sensenig, Jim Bisenius, John Bowitz, John Kolbo and Shannon Sargent. The Eppley Art Gallery is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

AKRON, Iowa -- "We've Got Talent!" will be presented at 7:30 p.m., Nov. 6-7, at the Akron Opera House, 151 Reed St.

This event is a revival of an Akron Community Theatre production staged about 15 years ago. The presentation is sponsored by Akron's GFWC/IA Friendship and Service Club.

Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for students. For reservations or information, call (712) 568-8747.

The Institute of Lifelong Learning will host a presentation on "The Woodbury County Courthouse Revealed," from noon to 1 p.m., Nov. 5 in the Large Lecture Hall, on the campus of Western Iowa Tech Community College.

George Lindblade and the team at G.R. Lindblade & Co. spent months researching a book on the courthouse. Lindblade will discuss the process of researching and photographing the building.

Lifelong Membership is not required for the event, but reservations are requested by calling 274-6404.

Tony Redhouse, traditional Native American artist, will perform native songs and dances and tell sacred stories at 7 p.m. Nov. 2 on the stage in the Stark Student Center at Briar Cliff University.

A Grammy nominated recording artist and inspirational speaker, Redhouse is a consultant to Native American communities and behavioral health organizations. He is a visual artist, spiritual teacher, hoop and eagle dancer, who uses Native American art, dance and music to inspire and heal.

Redhouse also has written and developed a culturally based curriculum for all ages that incorporates Native spirituality as a solution to drug, alcohol and gang-related issues.

This is a free public event.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- When the South Dakota Old Time Fiddlers started playing together in 1973, they intended to have a little fun while sharing the music that helped their pioneer forebears survive and thrive on the prairie.

"South Dakota Old Time Fiddlers: Musical Heritage of the Great Plains," a documentary by Vermillion native Dr. Stephanie Lynch Taylor, will premiere this Friday, Oct. 30, at noon at the National Music Museum at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.

The event, part of the museum's ongoing brown-bag lunch series in USD's Arne B. Larson Concert Hall, is free and open to the public.

"Wilbur Foss and his wife, Elizabeth, were inspired to start the group after Wilbur's dad, Jarle, got his fiddle back out after he retired from a life of farming," says Dr. Stephanie Lynch Taylor, now an assistant professor in the Department of Recording Industry at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro.

Those simple roots led to the South Dakota Old-Time Fiddle Contest in Yankton, a homegrown competition that soon garnered international attention.

Taylor received a grant from MTSU's Faculty Research and Creative Activity Committee and made use of equipment from the Department of Electronic Media Communication, along with the advice of EMC professor Dr. Mary Nichols and students Tom Dyer, Amanda Queen and Tim Miller. The crew traveled to South Dakota in the summer of 2008, where Taylor focused on the story and interviews while the students, all now graduates, handled the technical aspects. After a year of editing, the project was ready.

For more information about the free brown-bag lunch event, visit http://orgs.usd.edu/nmm/Calendar/calendar.html and click on the October link or call (605) 677-5306.

WAYNE, Neb. -- Wayne State College will host "Two Rooms" by Lee Blessing Nov. 5-8 in the Black Box Theatre, located on the west end of the Peterson Fine Arts Building.

There is no admission, although donations are appreciated. Performances will be at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 5-7 and 2 p.m. Nov. 8.

The two rooms of the title are a windowless cubicle in Beirut where an American hostage is being held and a room in his home in the United States, which his wife has stripped of furniture so that she can share his ordeal. Imaginary conversations between the two take place along with talks she has with a reporter and a State Department official.

For more information, contact (402) 375-7422.

NORFOLK, Neb. -- The Northeast Community College music department will host a Pops Concert Sunday. The free concert is at 2 p.m. in the Cox Activities Center Theater.

The Northeast swing choir, the Singers Express and the jazz band will perform. The Northeast Area Jazz Ensemble also will perform.