ENTERTAINMENT: Dogtown Throwdown in Argenta; UCA stages ‘Little Women’

FUN

Dogtown Throwdown

Main Street between Fourth and Fifth streets in the Argenta Arts District in North Little Rock will shut down Friday and Saturday for Dogtown Throwdown, two days of outdoor dining, live music and “family-friendly activities” with a Cajun theme. Argenta restaurants will be serving crawfish, specialty dishes and themed food and drink specials, extending seating into the street with tents and tables, creating a block-party atmosphere. Trey Johnson performs Friday night; Four Quarter Bar holds its annual Crawfish Boil at 2 p.m. Saturday, followed by a performance from Dikki Du and the Zydeco Krewe. Food trucks and Flyway Brewing will be vending comestibles on site. Additional 2026 Dogtown Throwdowns take place May 8-9, Sept. 11-12 and Oct. 9-10. Visit argentaartsdistrict.org.

MUSIC

Gilbert & Sullivan I

The Arkansas Choral Society takes the law into its own hands with a concert performance of Gilbert & Sullivan’s one-act comic opera/“dramatic cantata,” “Trial by Jury,” a satirical look at the British legal system, 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Calvary Baptist Church, 5700 Cantrell Road, Little Rock. David Brent Miller sings the role of the Learned Judge, trying a case of breach of promise of marriage, with Asher Owen as Edwin, the Defendant; Samantha Stover as Angelina, the Plaintiff; Brandon Grant as the Plaintiff’s Counsel; Levi Beck as the Usher; and Josiah Wheeler as the Jury Foreman. Tickets are $20, free for students. Visit lovetosing.org.

Gilbert & Sullivan II

The University of Central Arkansas Opera Theatre stages Gilbert & Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance,” 7:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday in Reynolds Performance Hall at UCA, 201 Donaghey Ave., Conway. Tickets are $11.50, $8.05 for senior citizens, $5.75 students. Call (501) 450-3265 or (501) 470-7572 or visit UCA.edu/publicappearances.

Classics at the Tavern

Four Arkansas Symphony musicians — Charlotte Crosmer, Geoffrey Robson and Katherine Williamson, violins, with Robson and Williamson switching off on viola; and David Gerstein, cello — perform the world premiere of the String Quartet No. 1 by Bonnie Montgomery and the String Quartet No. 7, op.59, No. 1, “Razumovsky,” by Ludwig van Beethoven for Classics at the Tavern, 6 p.m. Sunday at the White Water Tavern, 2500 W. Seventh St., Little Rock. Admission is $15. Call (501) 375-8400 or visit whitewatertavern.com.

 

Percussion quartet

Grammy-winning percussion quartet So Percussion — Jason Treuting, Adam Sliwinski, Josh Quillen and Eric Cha-Beach — performs at 7 p.m. Saturday at UCA’s Reynolds Performance Hall. Tickets are $23 to $46, $11.50 for children and students. Call 501) 450-3265 or (866) 810-0012 or visit uca.edu/publicappearances.

‘Ragtime Riches’

Pianist and organist Scott Dettra presents a concert titled “Ragtime Riches,” featuring music by Texarkana native Scott Joplin and some of his contemporaries, 7:30 p.m. Friday at St Mark’s Episcopal Church, 1000 N. Mississippi St., Little Rock. The program includes Joplin’s “Maple Leaf Rag,” “The Entertainer,” “A Rag Time Two Step,” “Original Rags,” “Solace,” “The Cascades,” “Heliotrope Bouquet” (co-written with Louis Cauvin) and “Gladiolus Rag”; James Scott’s “Frog Legs Rag”; Joseph Lamb’s “Nightingale Rag”; Eubie Blake’s “Charleston Rag”; “Sweet Sixteenths” by William Albright; “Rialto Ripples” by George Gershwin; and “Graceful Ghost Rag” by William Bolcom. Admission is free.

THEATER

‘Annie Get Your Gun’

The Royal Players stage “Annie Get Your Gun” (music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, original book by Herbert Fields and Dorothy Fields, revised by Peter Stone), 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday through April 19 at the Royal Theatre, 111 S. Market St., Benton.

Katie Choate plays Annie Oakley, with Sean Grigsby as Frank Butler, Jessica Miller as Dolly Tate, Seth Hawkins as Buffalo Bill Cody, Matthew Burns as Charlie Davenport and Sa’teh Hampton as Chief Sitting Bull.

Sponsor is W.W. & Anne Jones Charitable Trust. Tickets in advance, bought online at onthestage.tickets/the-royal-theatre, are $20; $15 for senior citizens 60-plus, college students and members of the military; $10 for youngsters through 12th grade, plus fees. At the box office, tickets are $22, $17 and $12.

‘Little Women’ at UCA

The University of Central Arkansas theater department stages “Little Women: The Broadway Musical” (music by Jason Howland, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein and book by Allan Knee, based on the novel by Louisa May Alcott), 7 p.m. Friday-Saturday and April 17-18 and 2 p.m. Sunday and April 19 in the James M. Bridges Black Box Theatre at the Windgate Center for the Fine and Performing Arts, 2150 Bruce St. at Donaghey Ave., Conway. Tickets are $10. Call (501) 450-3265 or (866) 810-0012 or visit web.ovationtix.com/trs/dept/2176.

ART & EXHIBITS

Art historian

Katie Hastert, historian and site administrator at the Thomas Hart Benton Home and Studio in Kansas City, Mo., will discuss the life, artwork and home of artist Thomas Hart Benton at 2 p.m. Sunday at the MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, 503 E. Ninth St., Little Rock. The museum is exhibiting of World War II artwork by Benton though July 31. Admission is free. Call (501) 376-4602.

Mural Making Day

Hot Springs artist Anthony Tidwell will head up a cadre of “creatives” from across the state for mural-painting project that “celebrates Jazz & Ninth Street History,” according to a news release, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday near the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, 501 W. Ninth St. at Broadway, Little Rock.

The “GetSmART! ‘Beyond the Divide’ Community Mural Making Day” is part of events for the Beyond the Divide project along West Ninth Street near the center. Tidwell will show participants how to scale a mural and teach painting techniques. It’s free to participate; all paint and supplies will be provided.

The mural design was submitted by participants from a design workshop and subsequently selected by organizers from studioMAIN’s Beyond the Divide project, which also includes partners Central Arkansas Water, City of Little Rock, Our Little Rock and Hugg & Hall Mobile Storage.

For more information, email [email protected]. A complete list of Beyond the Divide events is at ourlittlerock.org/events-and-happenings.

 

AT THE PODIUM

Big Read poet

Poet Ross Gay, author of “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude,” which is at the center of the month-long Central Arkansas Library System Big Read 2026, will discuss his work at 6:30 p.m. Friday at the Ron Robinson Theater, 100 River Market Ave., Little Rock. It’s under the auspices of the CALS System Speaker Series and NEA Big Read, in partnership with the Oxford American. Frederick McKindra, Oxford American associate editor, will moderate. A book signing will follow. Admission is free; register at events.cals.org/event/15642746.

The first 100 people to arrive at the program will receive free copies of the book; free copies will also be available at Big Read events and CALS branches throughout April, while supplies last. The eBook will also be available through the Libby app through Wednesday and year-round on Hoopla for library cardholders.