MUSIC
‘Modern Muses’
For the fourth concert in the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s 2025-26 River Rhapsodies chamber music series, members of the orchestra offer a concert titled “Modern Muses,” 7 p.m. Tuesday and 2 p.m. Wednesday in the Susie and Charles Morgan Hall at the orchestra’s Stella Boyle Smith Music Center, 1101 E. Third St. in Little Rock’s East Village.
Trisha Freeney, violin, and Haeshin Shin, piano, perform the Violin Sonata by Claude Debussy. Meredith Hicks and Charlotte Crosmer, violins; Katherine Williamson, viola; David Gerstein, cello; Alisa Bekebrede, harp; and Hee-Kyung Juhn, piano, will play “Ennanga” by William Grant Still.
Gerstein and Juhn reconnect after intermission to play the Cello Sonata by Alberto Ginastera. And the Quapaw Quartet — Hicks and Crosmer, violins; Timothy MacDuff, viola; and Travis Scharer, cello — will play the String Quartet No. 4 by Philip Glass.
Sponsor is the Bank of America. Tickets are $30 (subject to change based on potential scarcity), $15 for students and military with a valid ID. Call (501) 666-1761, Ext. 1, or visit arkansassymphony.org.
Inside the Music
Arkansas Symphony Music Director Geoffrey Robson will provide behind-the-scenes insights, play musical snippets and answer questions regarding the orchestra’s Feb. 28-March 1 Masterworks concerts and the sole work on the program, Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana,” in an Inside the Music lecture, noon Friday at the orchestra’s Stella Boyle Smith Music Center, 1101 E. Third St. in Little Rock’s East Village. Admission is free. Call (501) 666-1761, Ext. 1, or visit arkansassymphony.org.
THEATER
‘Always … Patsy Cline’
The Argenta Contemporary Theatre stages “Always … Patsy Cline,” with preview performances at 7 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and running 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb 28, March 5 and March 7; 2 p.m. Feb. 22 and March 1, 7 p.m. Feb. 24-27, March 3-4 and March 6 in its Act II space, 315 Main St., North Little Rock.
The musical is based on the true story of the unlikely friendship between legendary country singer Patsy Cline (Jessica Crenshaw) and her biggest fan, Houston housewife Louise Seger (Laurie Pascale), chronicling their correspondence and bond from a Texas honky-tonk meeting until Cline’s tragic death.
Tickets are $30-$50, $100 for table for two, for preview performances; $40-$60 and $120 for the regular run. Visit argentacontemporarytheatre.org.
(National Park Service)
FILM
‘Buffalo Soldiers’ doc
The MacArthur Museum of Arkansas Military History, 503 E. Ninth St., Little Rock, screens “Black Patriots: Buffalo Soldiers,” 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. The documentary examines the first-ever all-Black peacetime regiments, initially six but subsequently reduced to four, that earned the nickname Buffalo Soldiers. Admission, popcorn and soft drinks are free. Call (501) 376-4602.
ON THE PODIUM
Novelist at CALS
ReShonda Tate, author of more than 50 books, will discuss her latest novel, “With Love from Harlem,” at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Ron Robinson Theater, 100 River Market Ave., Little Rock, part of the Central Arkansas Library System Spring Speaker Series. Admission is free, but registration is requested, via cals.org.
Set in 1943, “With Love from Harlem” is the story of a 23-year-old jazz prodigy, glamorous film star and fearless civil rights advocate determined to break barriers and live life on her own terms — including a relationship with Harlem preacher-turned-politician Adam Clayton Powell Jr. that “launches them into the center of a cultural and political revolution,” according to a news release.
Novelist at Hendrix
Novelist Lauren Groff, author of bestsellers “The Monsters of Templeton,” “Arcadia,” “Fates and Furies,” “Matrix” and “The Vaster Wilds,” will read from and discuss her work, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Staples Auditorium at Hendrix College, 1600 Washington Ave., Conway, under the aegis of the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation’s Distinguished Visitor Series.
Admission is free. A book signing and reception will follow in the Trieschmann Gallery in the nearby Trieschmann Fine Arts Building. Visit hendrixmurphy.org.
Groff, a three-time National Book Award finalist, has also compiled short-story collections including “Delicate Edible Birds” and “Florida.” Her forthcoming collection “Brawler,” which People Magazine included among its most anticipated books of 2026, is due out Feb. 24.
‘Rough House’ talk
Journalist Alison Lyn Miller will discuss her new book, “Rough House: A Father, A Son, and the Pursuit of Pro Wrestling Glory” with Caroline McCoy of the Oxford American and Randy Johnson, a technical director for TV station KARK, Channel 4, who wrestles in local rings as “Avrion Gray,” 6 p.m. Wednesday in the Clinton School of Public Service’s Sturgis Hall, 1200 President Clinton Ave., Little Rock.
The book explores the multibillion-dollar global industry of professional wrestling through the eyes of Hunter James, an aspiring star born into a wrestling legacy, following him “as he navigates the grueling world of indie wrestling from backyard training grounds to ‘enhancement-talent’ spots in the WWE, all while striving to finish what his father started,” according to a news release.
It includes a pivotal scene in Arkansas.
“The book is the product of five years of immersive reporting in and around small-town professional wrestling rings,” Miller says. “One pivotal scene actually unfolds in Arkansas.
“As a high school junior, Hunter travels with a pair of longtime Georgia wrestlers to Glenwood, Ark., to perform in his first-ever show in front of a live audience at the Pike County Fairgrounds. When the promoter asked for his entrance music, he replied with the first thing that came to mind, ‘Look What the Cat Dragged In,’ his father’s song.”
The talk is in partnership with the Oxford American and the Downtown Little Rock Partnership. Miller will sign copies of “Rough House” immediately following the program; copies are available through the Clinton Museum Store. Admission is free, but registration is required, via tinyurl.com/mrpb9e63.
(Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
Authors at UCA
Poet and author Donika Kelly and author Melissa Febos are on the campus of the University of Central Arkansas in Conway this week as artists in residence. They’ll hold a joint reading and book signing at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Room 167 of the Windgate Center for Fine and Performing Arts, 2150 Bruce St. at Donaghey Avenue. Admission is free.
Kelly is the author of “The Natural Order of Things”; “The Renunciations,” winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Poetry; and “Bestiary,” winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award and the Kate Tufts Discovery Award.
Febos is the author of five books, including “Girlhood,” winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism; “Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative”; and the forthcoming memoir “The Dry Season.” She is the recipient of awards and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, MacDowell, Lambda Literary, the Black Mountain Institute, the British Library and the Bogliasco Foundation.
For more information, email [email protected] or [email protected] or visit uca.edu/go/artistsinresidence.
