ENTERTAINMENT: Malcolm X meets Redd Foxx in world premiere

THEATER

T2 premiere

Fayetteville’s TheatreSquared kicks off its 20th season with the world premiere of “Malcolm X & Redd Foxx Washing Dishes at Jimmy’s Chicken Shack in Harlem,” a comedy from Jonathan Norton, opening Wednesday at T2’s Spring Theatre, 477 W. Spring St.

Show times are 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday through Oct. 26.

Two young men in Harlem — Little (Edwin Green) and Foxy (Trey Smith-Mills) — form an unlikely friendship over leftover fried chicken and dirty dishwater; during the long, hot summer of 1943, marked by heartbreak, betrayal and racial uprising, they move away from one another — “but much closer to the history-making American icons they are destined to become,” according to a news release.

TheatreSquared commissioned the play in 2023 and introduced it during its 2024 Arkansas New Play Festival. The show is a co-production with City Theatre Company, Virginia Stage Company and Dallas Theater Center.

Smith-Mills and Green are University of Arkansas alumni and also travel across the country to perform in several of the co-productions.

Tickets are $25-71, $15 for students and patrons under 30. Through the theater’s Lights Up! For Access program, with support from the Walmart Foundation, SNAP benefit recipients can buy tickets for $1. Call (479) 777-7477; visit theatre2.org/jimmys-chicken.

DANCE

‘Remember Balloons’

A touring company brings “The Remember Balloons,” based on the award-winning children’s book by Jessie Oliveros, which uses contemporary choreography, an original score and digital projections to tell the story of a child and his grandfather facing Alzheimer’s, to Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson St., 6 p.m. Wednesday. Co-producer/director/choreographer Dominic Moore-Dunson mixes late 20th-century American modern dance and social dance with an original score that combines elements of jazz, blues, Motown and classical music. It’s part of the center’s Pringles Family Fun Series. Tickets are $10. Call (479) 443-5600 or visit waltonartscenter.org.

‘Patterns in the Dust’

Western Arkansas Ballet company dancers execute “Patterns in the Dust,” 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday at the King Opera House, 427 Main St., Van Buren. The program is in two acts, one of original choreography and another set on the music of Simon & Garfunkel, including “The Boxer,” “Hazy Shade of Winter” and “The Sounds of Silence.” Tickets are $15. Call (479) 785-0152 or visit waballet.org.

ART

A-State artist talks

The Bradbury Art Museum, in Arkansas State University’s Fowler Center, 201 Olympic Drive, Jonesboro, hosts artist talks in conjunction with its fall semester exhibitions:

◼️ “Stil/Leven, Still/Even” artist Shelby Shadwell will give a talk at 4:15 p.m. Monday in the Fowler Center Grand Hall. A live drawing demonstration will precede the talk, 11 a.m.-1 p.m. and 2-4 p.m. in the atrium of the Humanities and Social Sciences Building; Shadwell will create detailed charcoal and pastel drawings from start to finish. The exhibition is up through Nov. 5.

◼️ Printmaker Chenxi Gao, on the faculty at Hollins University in Roanoke, Va., will speak about her techniques, 4:15-5 p.m. Oct. 31. Her interdisciplinary practice combines various printmaking processes, bookbinding and fiber arts. An artist book and quilt by Gao are also part of the “Stil/Leven, Still/Even” exhibition.

◼️ Artist Somayeh Faal will give a talk, 4-5 p.m. in the Grand Hall prior to the opening reception, 5-7 p.m. Nov. 13, of “Inspired 11,” for which Faal will be the juror. Her multidisciplinary explorations in printmaking, ceramics, and digital video projection are on display in “Echoes of Silent Migration” through Dec. 17, with a brief break Nov. 6-13 during the installation of “Inspired 11,” an exhibition of student artwork inspired by museum displays.

Admission to all the talks is free. Call (870) 972-3434 or visit BradburyArtMuseum.org.

AUTHOR, AUTHOR

Short-story insights

Jared Lemus, author of the short story collection “Guatemalan Rhapsody” and the Kenan Visiting Writer at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, will share insights into his craft at 2 p.m. Friday in Gallery 1 in the Fine Arts Building at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 2801 S. University Ave., Little Rock. It’s the university English program’s fall 2025 Visiting Writers Series Lecture. Admission is free. Visit ualr.edu/event/a-reading-with-ua-little-rock-alum-jared-lemus.

A 3 p.m. student reading and party after the lecture marks the release of the latest issue of Equinox, UALR’s undergraduate literary magazine.

 

Poetry, cookbooks

Poet, young adult novelist and cookbook author Caroline Randall Williams will read from and discuss her literary work as well as her work as an activist, public intellectual, performance artist and scholar at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Reves Recital Hall at Hendrix College, 1600 Washington Ave, Conway.

Randall Williams is a Hendrix-Murphy Foundation Visiting Writer; a planned February appearance was postponed because of inclement weather.

A reception and book signing in the nearby Trieschmann Gallery will follow the reading. Admission is free. Visit hendrixmurphy.org.

Randall Williams is the great-granddaughter of Harlem Renaissance poet Arna Bontemps and daughter of author Alice Randall. An excerpt of Bontemps’ poem “A Black Man Talks of Reaping” is inscribed on the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation-funded Poetry Sidewalk at the college.

Randall Williams also hosts a television series, “Hungry for Answers,” with Academy Award-winning actress Viola Davis as executive producer, for Discovery+. She is a writer-in-residence at Vanderbilt University’s Medicine, Health, and Society Department.

TICKETS

‘Book of Mormon’

Celebrity Attractions is bringing back the touring production of “The Book of Mormon” (book, music and lyrics by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone), which had a one-week Little Rock run in 2019, for three shows — 7:30 p.m. Dec. 5, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 6 — at Little Rock’s Robinson Center Performance Hall, 426 W. Markham St. at Broadway. Tickets are $40-$140 via CelebrityAttractions.com or Ticketmaster.com, or by calling (501) 244.8800.

Monster Jam

Eight top drivers and their 6-ton monster trucks battle it out for the Arena Championship Series East title and a spot in the July 4-weekend Monster Jam World Finals in Salt Lake City, Utah, at Monster Jam, 7 p.m. Feb. 28 and 3 p.m. March 1 at North Little Rock’s Simmons Bank Arena.

The lineup (subject to change): Grave Digger, driven by Krysten Anderson; El Toro Loco, driven by MJ Solorio; Sparkle Smash, driven by Loghan Ashline; Dragon, driven by Coty Saucier; Megalodon, driven by Jon Zimmer Sr.; Terminal Velocity, driven by Jon Zimmer Jr.; Krazy Train, driven by Triton Robbins; and Plane Krazy, driven by Montana Robbins.

Pit parties (at which fans can encounter the trucks up close, do high-fives with and get autographs from drivers, and enjoy “family-friendly activities”) start 2½ hours before each show. Tickets are $28.65-$110.67 (including fees). Visit Ticketmaster.com.