Weekend Entertainment Roundup for August 7, 2025

FUN

Southern Tail Brewing, 900 E. Ninth St. in Little Rock’s East Village, hosts “Purr-fectly Crafted,” celebrating International Cat Day, spotlighting local artists and promoting cat adoption, 5-10 p.m. Friday. Community Cats of Central Arkansas, a nonprofit dedicated to rescuing and rehoming neglected, abandoned or injured cats, will be on hand with cats available for adoption. The brewpub will serve cat-themed signature drinks, with a portion of the sales benefiting Community Cats of Central Arkansas. southerntailbrewing.com.

MUSIC

Now in its third year, guitar-playing competition Guitar Wars, this year dubbed “Guitar Wars: Revenge of the Riffs,” starts at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Ron Robinson Theater, 100 River Market Ave., Little Rock. Competition is in two brackets — Youth, 17 and under, and Adult, 18 and older — each with Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced categories. guitarwarsinc.com.

And of course Grateful Dead frontman Jerry Garcia isn’t appearing on area stages this weekend, but two Little Rock shows this weekend remember him on the 30th anniversary of his death, Aug. 9, 1995: FreeVerse performs an evening of Grateful Jams, 8-11:45 p.m. Saturday at the Rev Room, 300 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock — (501) 823-0090; revroom.com. And Bluegrass Collective, The Going Jessies, Rodney Block, Amy Garland, Chris DeClerk and Mojo Depot honor Garcia’s legacy at 5 p.m. Sunday at White Water Tavern, 2500 W. Seventh St.. (501) 375-8400; whitewatertavern.com.

THEATER

New this week: 

Dedicated Harlem storefront pastor Margaret Alexander champions piety with her congregation and with her teenage son David until her long-estranged jazz musician husband suddenly reappears, forcing her to confront the gap between the life she preaches and the life she has lived in “The Amen Corner,” a play with music by James Baldwin, 7 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 3 p.m. through Aug. 17 at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, 601 Main St., Little Rock. A different area choral group fills in the role of the “Guest Choir from Philadelphia at each performance. (501) 378-0405; TheRep.org.

The Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy, a collaboration between Poe historians and mixologists pairing four works by Poe (retellings of “The Raven,” “The Black Cat,” “Masque of the Red Death” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”) with “creative cocktails” and dimly lit lanterns, flickering candles and Gothic decor, 6, 8 and 10 p.m. Thursday-Friday, noon, 2 and 4 p.m. Saturday at the Albert Pike Memorial Center, 712 Scott St., Little Rock. Mocktails are also available for those who don’t partake in alcohol. You must be 21 or older with valid ID. tinyurl.com/2898u3tz.

Benton’s Young Players stage “Disney’s Newsies,”, 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday through Aug. 17 at the Royal Theatre, 111 S. Market St., Benton. The show is based on the real-life New York newsboys strike of 1899. onthestage.tickets/the-royal-theatre.

Continuing:

Actors Theatre of Little Rock presents “West Side Story,” 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday through Aug. 16 at Quapaw Quarter United Methodist Church, 1601 Louisiana St., Little Rock. actorstheatrelr.org.

The Weekend Theater, 1101 W. Seventh St. at Chester Street, Little Rock, closes out its run of “The Lord of the Flies,” 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2:30 p.m. Sunday. weekendtheater.org/tickets.

And it’s your last chance to be off to see the Wizard at Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, 6323 Colonel Glenn Road, Little Rock, which closes out its run of “The Wizard of Oz,” 7:30 p.m. today-Saturday. The buffet opens 90 minutes before curtain. (501) 562-3131; murrysdp.com.

ART AND EXHIBITS

New this week

“Unseen Forces,” oil paintings by Bryant High School art teacher Amber Cardinale, go on display with a 5-7:30 p.m. reception Thursday at Thea Foundation’s gallery, 401 Main St. in North Little Rock’s Argenta Arts District, up through Aug. 28. Gallery hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 5-8 p.m. during Argenta’s Third Friday Art Walk (Aug. 15). theafoundation.org.

Continuing:

“Under A Restless Sky,” a new site-specific installation by Boston-based artist Nathalie Miebach, on display through April 4 in the Jackson T. Stephens Gallery of the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, 501 E. Ninth St., Little Rock. The three-dimensional art installation, created with paint, paper, wood, ropes and other materials that explores how various species — birds and humans — move and adapt due to environmental and climate changes, (501) 372-4000; arkmfa.org.

Also at AMFA, the “64th Young Arkansas Artists” exhibition, showcasing works by Arkansas K-12 students, on display through Sunday Aug. 10. And studio photographs by the late Kwame Brathwaite, who started out in the 1960s using photography to promote “Black is Beautiful,” up through Oct. 12. (501) 372-4000; arkmfa.org.

“Edwin Brewer, A Retrospective of His Art,” landscape and still-life paintings in oils and watercolors by the Little Rock native (1927-2002), on display through Oct. 18 at Cantrell Gallery, 8202 Cantrell Road, Little Rock, 10 a.m.-5 p.m Tuesday-Saturday. (501) 224-1335; cantrellgallery.com.

“Portraits From a Presidency,” the exhibition of more than 50 paintings, sculptures, engravings and photographic portraits of members of the Clinton family, up through Dec. 7 at the Clinton Presidential Center, 1200 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock. clintonpresidentialcenter.org/exhibits.

“Small Works on Paper: From the Permanent Collection,” 40 pieces from the Arkansas Arts Council’s 2006-2023 annual “Small Works on Paper” touring exhibitions, on display through Sept. 21 at the Historic Arkansas Museum, 200 E. Third St., Little Rock, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday. (501) 324-9351.

And “Enid Collins Handbags: Thinking Outside the Bejeweled Box,” a collection of handbags by Texas designer Enid Collins, is on display through Sept. 28 at ESSE Museum and Store, 1510 Main St., Little Rock. (501) 916-9022; essepursemuseum.com.