Features

It’s the season for crafts.

Local communities are having arts and crafts events and other festivities. It’s a great way to visit a neighborhood and have a firsthand encounter with the creativity that abounds there, as well as sample treats and enjoy some entertainment.

Village at Calabash Craft Fair Nov. 2

The Village at Calabash will host its 18th annual craft fair from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2, at the Village’s clubhouse, 1099 N. Clubview Lane off Thomasboro Road, between U.S. 17 and Calabash.

Coastal Water Watch is partnering with the city of Southport Parks and Recreation Department and the Southport Tourism Department to host an educational tour of birds that live in or visit Southport on their way back to their wintering grounds further south.

Mike Campbell, Coastal Outreach Educator with the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, will be leading the tour and identifying birds that the casual observer might miss.

The event is open to all who would like to learn about our feathered friends and how to provide for and protect them. 

Local author Anne Clinard Barnhill will be reading — in costume — at Hickmans Crossroads Library at 2 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24.

Barnhill, who lives in Supply, is the author of “At the Mercy of the Queen: A Novel of Anne Boleyn,” published in 2012 by St. Martin’s Press.

Saturday, Oct. 19, is Farm Heritage Day at Indigo Farms, with a farmyard full of planned activities.

Events kick off at 9 a.m. with hayrides that will roll when enough people fill the wagon. Daylong activities continue until 4 p.m.

Other highlights include food, pick-your-own pumpkins, and a hay maze.

Visitors will enjoy viewing Indigo Farms’ scarecrows, a corn-stalk tepee and animals including pigs, sheep, horses, goats, a hinny and various fowl.

Brunswick Little Theatre will hold auditions Oct. 20-21 for “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change,” a four-person musical presented in the form of a series of vignettes connected by the central theme of love and relationships.

The play’s tagline is “Everything you have ever secretly thought about dating, romance, marriage, lovers, husbands, wives and in-laws, but were afraid to admit.”

Following Brunswick Little Theatre’s recent lavish and very successful production of “Beauty and the Beast,” the group is taking on another incredibly difficult project, “The 39 Steps.”

A farce based on the Hitchcock thriller released in 1935 that starred Academy Award-winning Robert Donat, the play has more 100 characters, all played by three actors and one actress.

The Old Bridge Preservation Society is having a Halloween event for the community Friday, Oct. 25, from 5 to 7 p.m. at the Old Bridge, 109 Shoreline Drive, Sunset Beach.

The free event will be filled with Halloween-themed activities. Youth and the young at heart are encouraged to come in costume. All who attend will be invited to participate in supervised games like doughnut on a string, ring toss, corn hole toss, and bowling. Hot dogs, apple cider and cupcakes will be served. Children will receive a s’mores kit to rake home for a treat later.

Paws-Ability’s Third Annual Bicycle Poker Run is scheduled for noon “until” this coming Saturday, Oct. 12, in Ocean Isle Beach to benefit animal rescue groups and animal programs in Brunswick County.

The run will consist of on-island stops to draw playing cards. There will also be hot dogs, barbecue, pizza, prizes, music, entertainment, silent auction and drawings for great prizes.

The rain date is Sunday, Oct. 13.

Thalian Association, North Carolina’s oldest community theater, is celebrating its 225th anniversary with a gala reception Saturday, Sept. 28, from 6 to 7:45 p.m. in the ballroom of Thalian Hall at 310 Chestnut St. in downtown Wilmington.

Guests will enjoy excellent food, drink, company, entertainment, and festivities. Tickets are $25 and can be reserved by calling the Thalian Association at (910) 251-1788.