Tag Archives: Ron Robinson Theater

THE COLOR PURPLE shown and explored tonight as part of Banned Books Week

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cals bbweek purpleThe Arkansas Literary Festival will celebrate Banned Books Week with an interview reenactment, a film, and a writing contest. A program based on Alice Walker’s Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award-winning novel, The Color Purple, will be presented on Wednesday, September 30, at 6:30 p.m. at the Ron Robinson Theater, 100 River Market Ave. After the presentation, the 1985 film will be shown. The event is free and open to the public.

Actresses Verda Davenport Booher and Vivian Norman will reenact part of an interview with Alice Walker. The interview touches on Walker’s inspiration for the book and on the success it has had, as well as the film and the musical.

Written as a series of letters, the 1982 novel been challenged repeatedly because of language, sexuality, and violence. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg and nominated for eleven Academy Awards. A successful musical based upon the book opened on Broadway in 2005, and was nominated for ten Tony awards. Oprah Winfrey, nominated for an Oscar as best supporting actress in the film, was one of the producers of the musical. A pared-down revival of the musical is slated to open on Broadway in December, 2015.

Banned Books Week (September 27−October 3, 2015) is an annual event sponsored by the American Library Association celebrating the freedom to read. It highlights the value of free and open access to information and the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular. By focusing on efforts across the country to remove or restrict access to books, Banned Books Week draws national attention to the harms of censorship and books that have been targeted with removal or restrictions in libraries and schools. While books have been and continue to be banned, part of the Banned Books Week celebration is the fact that, in a majority of cases, the books have remained available. This happens only thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, students, and community members who stand up and speak out for the freedom to read.

The Festival’s celebration of Banned Books Week is sponsored by the Fred K. Darragh Foundation. This is the Festival’s fifth annual Banned Books Week presentation. Other titles that have been featured include The Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies, The Great Gatsby, A Clockwork Orange, A Doll’s House, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower.

The Arkansas Literary Festival is a program of the Central Arkansas Library System (CALS). For more information about the 2016 Arkansas Literary Festival, visit ArkansasLiteraryFestival.org, or contact Brad Mooy at 918-3098. For information on volunteering at the Festival, contact Angela Delaney at 918-3095.

ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW tonight at the Ron Robinson Theater

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RRT Rocky HorrorDo the Time Warp tonight at the Ron Robinson Theater when The Rocky Horror Picture Show is screened.

Doors open at 7pm, movie starts at 8pm.

A mixture of fantastical rock opera and horror movie spoof. A couple of ordinary kids – Brad and (Dammit) Janet (I love you) – have car trouble one dark and rainy night and knock on the door of a looming gothic mansion. They are stunned to learn that they have stumbled into an ongoing convention of kinky characters, hosted by Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a mad scientist who is a sweet transvestite from Transylvania.

The movie stars Tony nominee Tim Curry, Tony winner Barry Bostwick and Oscar winner Susan Sarandon along with appearances by Meat Loaf, and Richard O’Brien (who wrote the stage show and co-wrote the movie).

Originally a flop, it became one of the first cult-classic movies which ended up running for years in various cities.  Now is the chance to again see it on the big screen.

Admission is $7. Concessions are available for purchase.

Documentary THE HUNTING GROUND tonight at the Ron Robinson Theater

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the-hunting-ground-poster-e1428605428217Tonight there is an exclusive screening of a documentary about campus sexual assault presented by the Arkansas Coalition Against Sexual Assault at the Ron Robinson Theater at 7pm.

Free event. Donations will be accepted to support the Arkansas Sexual Assault Crisis Response Hotline.

Doors open at 6:30pm.

Panel discussion will follow event.

From the Academy Award-nominated filmmaking team behind The Invisible War, comes a startling exposé of sexual assault on U.S. campuses, institutional cover-ups and the brutal social toll on victims and their families.  Weaving together verité footage and first-person testimonies, the film follows the lives of several undergraduate assault survivors as they attempt to pursue – despite incredible push back, harassment, and traumatic aftermath – both their education and justice.

WHEN
Tuesday, September 22, 2015 from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM
WHERE
CALS Ron Robinson Theater – 100 River Market Avenue, Little Rock

Runaway Planet at Ron Robinson Theater tonight at 7 with Arkansas Sounds

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arksounds runaway_planetTonight at 7pm, the Arkansas Sounds Music Series features Runaway Planet.

Traditional string band Runaway Planet performs hard-driving bluegrass, three-part harmonies, complex arrangements, and original songs. Runaway Planet is an Arkansas four-piece bluegrass group that has performed nearly 15 years. The band’s original music features traditional bluegrass instrumentation with modern lyrics, three-part harmonies, and highly skilled playing showing their rock, folk, and jazz influences.

The concert will take place at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater, 100 River Market Avenue.  General Admission: $10.  Refreshments will be available for purchase.

Founded in 2001, Little Rock bluegrass band Runaway Planet evolved out of a long-time friendship between members and a mutual love for traditional string-band music. Their music is a mix of hard-driving bluegrass, three-part harmonies, complex arrangements and original songs.  The musicians are Greg Alexander, guitar and vocals; Steve Brauer, banjo, guitar, vocals; Matthew Stone, mandolin, dobro; Michael Proveaux, bass, vocals.

Drawing from traditional influences like Bill Monroe, Flatt & Scruggs and the Stanley Brothers, they are also inspired by more progressive bluegrass bands like The Country Gentlemen, The Seldom Scene and New Grass Revival.

Arkansas Sounds is a project of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, a department of the Central Arkansas Library System. Focused on Arkansas music and musicians both past and present, Arkansas Sounds presents concerts, workshops, and other events to showcase Arkansas’s musical culture.

BEND, examining Japanese American experience in World War II, to be presented tonight

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Bend-DrawingCloseUp72-bannerTonight at 7pm at the Ron Robinson Theater, the Arkansas Archeological Survey presents a play about the Japanese American experience during World War II.
Kimi Maeda’s solo performance, Bend, tells the true story of two men interned in a Japanese American internment camp during World War II: Maeda’s father, an Asian Art historian currently suffering from dementia, and the subject of his research, Isamu Noguchi, a half-Japanese-half-American sculptor. Weaving together live feed projections of sand drawings with archival footage from the 1940s, Maeda’s performance poses important questions about how the Japanese American internment camps will be remembered.
The Arkansas Archeological Survey is partnering with the World War II Japanese American Internment Museum, the University of Arkansas at Monticello’s Japanese Club, and the University of Arkansas in Little Rock (UALR) to help teach the public about the state’s rich history. Art, particularly the performance and active creation of art, as Maeda does, is an important way to communicate the emotion of past events. Bend will be performed in Little Rock and McGehee. Dr. Johanna Miller-Lewis, a historian at UALR, and Richard Yada, who was born at Rohwer, will participate in a talk back session following the performance.
Bend in Little Rock – Thursday, August 27, 7 PM
Ron Robinson Theater
100 River Market Avenue
Purchase your tickets now. $10.00
This project is supported by The Jim Henson Foundation, Tapp’s Arts Center, the South Carolina Arts Commission, the National Endowment for the Arts, the John and Susan Bennett Memorial Arts Fund of the Coastal Community Foundation of SC, Alternate ROOTS, the Arkansas Arts Council, the New England Japanese American Citizens League (NEJACL), the Arkansas Humanities Council, the Arkansas Archeological Survey, and the Ko Festival of Performance.

Go GOOD WILL HUNTING at 10pm tonight at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater

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RRT Good WillThe 1997 Oscar winning GOOD WILL HUNTING will be shown at 10pm tonight at the Ron Robinson Theater.  Robin Williams (Best Supporting Actor), Matt Damon & Ben Affleck (Original Screenplay) took home the golden statuettes for their work on this film.

The movie also stars Minnie Driver, Stellan Skarsgård, Casey Affleck, and Cole Hauser. Directed by Gus Van Sant, it tells the story of a janitor at MIT who is a math savant.  As he tries to embrace his genius, he must also grapple with the impact this has on his own self-value and his relationships.

Filmed for an estimated $10 million, it grossed over $138 million in its initial release.

Admission is $5, with refreshments available for purchase.

 

 

DR. STRANGELOVE tonight at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater at 7pm

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RRT Dr StrangeStop worrying and learn to love the bomb with Stanley Kubrick’s black (& white) comedy Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. It will be shown this evening at 7pm at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater.

This 1964 film both satirizes and foreshadows Cold War mentality and decisions.  It stars George C. Scott and Peter Sellers (who essays three roles including the title Edward Teller-inspired character).  Others in the cast include Sterling Hayden, Keenan Wynne, Peter Bull, James Earl Jones and Slim Pickens – who has the ride of his life.

The film was produced and directed by Kubrick from a script he wrote with Terry Southern and Peter George.  Kubrick was nominated for three Oscars (producer, director and adapted screenplay).  The film’s fourth Oscar nomination went to Sellers as Best Actor.

In 1989, the United States Library of Congress included it in the first group of films selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Admission is $5, with refreshments available for purchase.