FUN
Celebrities, creators, cosplayers, pro wrestlers and gamers convene for the Arkansas Comic Con, Friday-Sunday at Little Rock’s Statehouse Convention Center, Markham and Main streets. The celebrity lineup includes Priscilla Presley, Vincent D’Onofrio, Wallace Shawn, Randy Quaid, Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley in the “Harry Potter” films), Lou Diamond Phillips and voice actors Jodi Benson (“The Little Mermaid”) and Tom Kenny (“SpongeBob SquarePants”). ArkansasComicCon.com.
The Museum of Discovery brings together makers, artists, engineers and crafters for its 14th annual Tinkerfest, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, inside and outside the museum at 500 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock. More than 50 activities center upon tinkering, including creating machines with raw materials, exploring artistic techniques and crafting and building options. Some of the activities will take place nearby under the newly renovated Interstate 30 bridge. museumofdiscovery.org.
Main Street between Broadway and Fifth Street in North Little Rock’s Argenta Arts District closes from 4 p.m. Friday-10 p.m. Saturday for the first fall Dogtown Throwdown block party, billed as “the Ultimate Tailgate.” Neighborhood restaurants will serve up “game day favorites”; Friday’s entertainment lineup includes a 7 p.m. performance by Chris DeClerk at Argenta Library; Saturday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. is the Acansa Arts Festival and University of Arkansas-Pulaski Technical College Family Arts Day. The Big Dam Horns perform at 7 p.m. on the main stage next to Argenta Library. Visit argentaartsdistrict.org.
Four teams from the southeast region, including one from Fayetteville, will be on a roll as the Rock Town Roller Derby, central Arkansas’ only Women’s Flat Track Derby Association league, hosts its second annual ArkanBrawl Roller Derby Tournament Saturday at the Hot Springs Convention Center, 134 Convention Blvd., Hot Springs, with “roll call” starting at 10 a.m. RockTownRollerDerby.com/ArkanBrawl.
MUSIC
Chamber orchestra Camerata Little Rock opens its second season with “The Bach Tradition: Orchestral Works by J.S. Bach and Sons,” 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, 310 W. 17th St., Little Rock. The program includes works by Johann Sebastian, Carl Philip Emmanuel and Johann Christian Friedrich Bach. A “German coffeehouse”-themed reception will follow. facebook.com/events/1525239258836965.
The 10th Acansa Arts Festival of the South continues through Sept. 20 at venues on both sides of the Arkansas River. This weekend’s lineup includes Jazz at the Joint, with saxophonist Jerry Weldon, guitarist Ted Ludwig, Hammond B3 organist Pat Bianchi and percussionist Steve Pruitt, 7:0 p.m. todayThursday. At Birdies Cabaret Theater & Lounge, 301 Main St., North Little Rock, and “Broadway’s Next Hit Musical,” an improvisational “Phony Awards” show, 7:30 p.m. Friday at the Argenta Contemporary Theater, 405 Main St., North Little Rock. Acansa.org.
THEATER
Richard Thomas takes up the mantle of the 19th-century author and humorist Mark Twain, as created and performed by the late Hal Holbrook (and he’s the first actor to do so since Holbrook’s passing) as he tours “‘Mark Twain Tonight,” onstage 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 1 p.m. Sunday at Little Rock’s Robinson Center Performance Hall, 426 W. Markham St. at Broadway. (501) 244-8800; CelebrityAttractions.com.
The Arkansas Repertory Theatre, 601 Main St., Little Rock, closes out its production of Tennessee Williams’s classic “The Glass Menagerie,” 7 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. (501) 378-0405; TheRep.org.
At Murry’s Dinner Playhouse, 6323 Colonel Glenn Road, Little Rock, when the female half of a newlywed couple honeymooning in the Catskills disappears, it sets off a woman-hunt as well as a manhunt in “Catch Me If You Can,” onstage through Oct. 4, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday (but 12:30 p.m. matinees only Sept. 17 and 24), 12:45 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Buffet opens 90 minutes before curtain. (501) 562-3131; murrysdp.com.
Actors Theatre of Little Rock stages “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday through Sept. 20 at Quapaw Quarter United Methodist Church, 1601 S. Louisiana St., Little Rock. actorstheatrelr.org/tickets.
Benton’s Royal Players are staging “Jekyll & Hyde the Musical,” 7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday and Sept. 18-20 and 2 p.m. Sunday and Sept. 21 at the Royal Theatre, 111 S. Market St., Benton. The theater group warns of “murder, violence, gore, mild language and sexual situations making it not intended for younger audiences.” www.theroyaltheatre.org/.
ART AND EXHIBITS
“Coordinates,” landscapes, still lifes and figurative paintings by April Burris and Holly Tilley, each including the GPS coordinates to authenticate its location, opens with a 5-8 p.m. meet-the-artists receptionThursday at the Art Group Gallery, in the Pleasant Ridge Town Center, 11525 Cantrell Road, Little Rock. It’ll remain up through Oct. 15. Gallery hours are 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 1- 5 p.m. Sunday.(501) 690-2193; artgrouparkansas.com.
CONTINUING
On display at the Windgate Center of Art + Design at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, 2801 S. University Ave., Little Rock:
m “Drawing Is Magic: The Books and Illustrations of John Hendrix,” work by The New York Times’ bestselling author and illustrator, in the Brad Cushman Gallery through Oct. 3.
m “Hans Weissflog: Klein und Fein,” hand-processed wood sculptures in “highly precise, technical, and expertly engineered forms,” according to a news release, by German artist Weissflog (“Klein und Fein” is German for “small and fine”), in the North and South Galleries through Sept. 28.
m “Chris Revelle: What Remains,” color photography and mixed-media works on commercial prints (postcards and newspaper pages) by Revelle, the director of community engagement at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, up through Oct. 17 in the Focus Gallery.
m “Amanda McFarland: Weather Through Portraiture,” drawings by the recipient of the Linda Blaine Flake Endowed Art Scholarship, up through Oct. 3 in the Ann Maners and Alex Pappas Gallery.
A reception, 5-7 p.m. Sept. 24, covers all four exhibitions. Gallery hours are 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
The Arkansas League of Artists’ Opportunity Show remains up through Sept. 30 at the William F. Laman Public Library, 2801 Orange St., North Little Rock, 9 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Friday-Saturday. (501) 758-1720; NLRlibrary.org.
“Creatures of Play,” mixed-media works by Central Arkansas artist Carol McCreight at the Innovation Hub Gallery, 204 E. Fourth St., North Little Rock, up through Sept. 26, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Friday; 9 a.m.-8 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday; 10 a.m.-2 p.m. the third Saturday of each month. (501) 907-6570; hub.nlrlibrary.org.
“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.
“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.