Acansa Festival offers arts in abundance

Dance, sketch comedy, tango music, theater and visual arts will flourish during the third Acansa Arts Festival, Wednesday through Sept. 25, at venues in Little Rock and North Little Rock.

This year's festival blends a little more local "talent" with "imported" acts, a big characteristic of the festival's 2014 debut, which had fallen off in 2015. This year's schedule also is a little more balanced between "tonier" art forms like ballet and classical music and pop performances.

"We want to have our local groups be seen and also emerging artists," says festival founder and board member Charlotte Gadberry. "We definitely want to showcase our local folks and will continue to do that."

It's officially part of the festival's mission to promote "positive collaboration between regional arts organizations, local businesses, government and civic groups" while also "increasing audience participation in the arts and generating opportunities for local commerce."

This year's locals include Ballet Arkansas, whose company dancers will kick things off, so to speak, with two short programs (at 6:30 and 7:15 p.m.), accompanied by members of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, 6-8 p.m. Wednesday at the Junior League of Little Rock, 401 Scott St., Little Rock. Tickets, $75, include hors d'oeuvres, beer and wine.

And the Arkansas Symphony will back Jason Vieaux, guitar, and Julien Labro, bandoneon, on a program of tango-inspired works by Astor Piazzolla, George Gershwin, Pat Metheny and Tears for Fears, 8 p.m. Saturday at the Center for Humanities and Arts, Pulaski Technical College, 3000 W. Scenic Drive, North Little Rock. Tickets: $35, $20 for students and military, $50 to also attend a "meet the artists" reception. (Gadberry and her husband, Jim, are among the sponsors. Vieaux and Labro are set to release an album of the program, called Infusion, on Azica Records on Oct. 28.)

Actor Joe Menino, not exactly a local but who has been a frequent cast member at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre since 2000, plays hard-hitting television news trailblazer Edward R. Murrow in Joseph Vitale's one-man show, Murrow, 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday in the Arkansas Repertory Theatre's Black Box at the Annex, 518 Main St., Little Rock. Tickets are $20, $10 for students and military. A "Legacy of Television Journalism" discussion and reception will follow at 8 p.m. Thursday down the street at Samantha's Tap Room and Wood Grill, 322 Main St., with Vitale, Menino and director Jeremy Williams. The reception's $50 ticket includes the show.

And patrons can return to the Rep's Black Box at the Annex to see the sketch comedy trio The Main Thing, which usually performs weekends at The Joint in North Little Rock's Argenta Arts District, in a 9:30 p.m. "Acansa Late Night" show on Thursday. Tickets -- $20, $10 students/military -- include pre-show wine and cheese.

"They've written some new material for us, so even if you're a fan, you'll hear something new," says festival executive director Peyton Woodyard.

Woodyard also says she's particularly interested in My Mother Has 4 Noses, singer/songwriter Jonatha Brooke's one-woman show about her relationship with her mother, Darren Stone, published poet, newspaper columnist, clown, devout Christian Scientist and Alzheimer's disease patient. The show will be onstage at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Argenta Community Theater, 405 Main St., North Little Rock. Tickets are $30, $15 students/military, $50 including a post-Friday-show "meet the artist" reception.

"It's a compelling story, not an easy story, and a pretty powerful play," Woodyard says. "I think people will walk away feeling good about it."

Among the other festival highlights:

• New York-based Parsons Dance will perform at 8 p.m. Thursday at Pulaski Tech's Center for Humanities and Arts. Tickets: $30, $15 students/military, $50 including a meet the artists reception.

• "Cut, Pieced and Stitched: Denim Drawings by Jim Arendt," portraits of family members in denim by the South Carolina artist, with a reception and demonstration, 5:30 p.m. Friday at the Arkansas Arts Center, MacArthur Park, 501 E. Ninth St., Little Rock. Tickets are $20. The exhibit is on display through Oct. 23.

Woodyard acknowledges that there is considerable overlap on the schedule, which means audience members will in some cases either have to miss one event to attend another or plan carefully -- say, go to Parsons Dance on Thursday night and Murrow on Friday.

"We're going to make it tough," she says. "You're going to have to pick and choose."

A complete schedule and ticket information are available at Acansaartsfestival.org.

Style on 09/18/2016