Tag Archives: Ron Robinson Theater

Tonight at the Ron Robinson Theater – Arkansas Sounds presents the Lyon College Pipe Band

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pipe_bandThe Arkansas Sounds monthly concert series continues with a performance by the Lyon College Pipe Band at the Central Arkansas Library System’s (CALS) Ron Robinson Theater, 100 River Market Ave., on Friday, October 24, at 7 p.m. The doors to the theater will open at 6 p.m. Admission to this concert is free and open to the public; seating is first-come, first-served.

Under the direction of Pipe Major Jimmy Bell, the Lyon College Pipe Band regularly performs at official college functions such as convocations and other ceremonies, in community parades, in concerts around the state of Arkansas, and at festivals throughout the United States and abroad. The pipe band competed at the 2006 World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, and won in its division. The group also won at competitions in 2013 at Sarasota, Florida, and St. Louis, Missouri, and it is currently placed at 12th in the world in its division.

Arkansas Sounds is a project of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies focusing on Arkansas music and musicians both past and present. For more information, call 501-918-3033.

Cleveland County native Johnny Cash is focus of UALR exhibit, concert

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cash-image1-1-204x264The Center for Arkansas History and Culture (CAHC) at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock has announced plans to premier a new exhibit on Johnny Cash’s relationship with Arkansas. The exhibit, “Johnny Cash: Arkansas Icon,” will open in the Underground Gallery at the Arkansas Studies Institute on October 10, 2014, and run through January 24, 2015. The physical exhibit will be accompanied by a virtual exhibit with educational materials for teachers.

Opening Night

The exhibit opens Friday, Oct. 10, in the Ron Robinson Theatre.

A free concert will be at 7:30 p.m. featuring the W.S. Holland Band, with special guests Jeff Coleman and the Feedersbeginning at 6:45 p.m. Seating is limited.

Johnny Cash: Arkansas Icon

The exhibit explores the musician’s Arkansas connections over the decades, covering his 1930s childhood in Dyess, Arkansas (though he was born in Kingsland in Cleveland County), through his comeback at the turn of the 21st-century. The exhibit places special emphasis on connections between his Arkansas roots and his music from his first performance in Little Rock in 1955 to a 2002 music video. Though Cash’s career took him far from Arkansas, the exhibit argues, he never quite severed his Arkansas roots. This exhibit tells that story through narrative and archival photographs from CAHC’s own collections, as well as others.

According to Colin Woodward, the CAHC archivist who proposed the exhibit and wrote its narrative, “While writing an article about Johnny Cash’s work with Governor Winthrop Rockefeller on prison reform, I began to see the thread of Arkansas in Cash’s music and life. He was such a dynamic artist, who persevered through many personal and professional challenges. He was a great Arkansan, and I wanted to show that through historical research and archival images.”

The exhibit will cover the walls of the unique Underground Gallery and immerse visitors in an artistic representation of Cash’s life in pictures and text. Designed by Bachelor of Fine Arts student Nick Sosnoski under the direction of Tom Clifton, Department of Art Chair, the exhibit makes use of key design elements like variety, unity, and texture on a large scale. The exhibit uses rare images from family albums and other sources and incorporates Cash’s lyrics into the design. According to Sosnoski, “The design is meant to reflect Johnny Cash as a man who never forgot his roots.”

The accompanying virtual exhibit will offer deeper exploration of the topics covered in the physical exhibit. The website will include a media gallery and behind-the-scenes information on the exhibit development. Educational materials, including full lesson plans and PowerPoint presentations, will be available for Arkansas teachers to use with students before and after visiting the exhibit. Stan James, an undergraduate Social Studies Education major, worked on the project and says, “It was really exciting to be able to prepare materials that will teach students important world concepts, and at the same time, expose them to one of Arkansas’ true treasures, Johnny Cash.  These materials, along with the exhibit and related events, will guide the students through an exciting journey towards learning about key issues in our state and nation, as well as how celebrities use their influence and talent to further issues that are important to them.”

On opening night, the W. S. Holland Band will perform a free concert in the Ron Robinson Auditorium. Holland spent 40 years performing with Cash’s band, Tennessee 3, and is the only band member to stay with the group until Cash’s retirement in 1997. In his long career, Holland has toured with Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, and Carl Perkins. The Holland Band performance will start at 7:30, following an opening performance by Jeff Coleman and the Feeders at 6:45. Seating is limited. Also on opening night, Shape Note Singers from Mountain Home, Arkansas, will perform for Second Friday Art Night visitors to the Arkansas Studies Institute.

This project is supported in part by a grant from the Arkansas Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Additional funding provided by the Arkansas Community Foundation. The Arkansas Community Foundation is a nonprofit organization that fosters smart giving to improve communities. The Community Foundation offers tools to help Arkansans protect, grow and direct their charitable dollars as they learn more about community needs. By making grants and sharing knowledge, the Community Foundation supports charitable programs that work for Arkansas and partners to create new initiatives that address the gaps. Contributions to the Community Foundation, its funds and any of its 27 affiliates are fully tax deductible.

The UALR Center for Arkansas History and Culture collects, preserves, and enables access to Arkansas records of enduring value; prepares students and the region for the 21st century through academic leadership and education on archival practices and technologies; and engages the community through outreach, programming, and exhibitions.

For more information on the exhibit or CAHC, contact us atcahc@ualr.edu or 501.320.5780.

RED LINES film shown tonight through partnership of Clinton School and LR Film Festival

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redlinesfilmTonight, as part of the new partnership between the Clinton School of Public Service and the Little Rock Film Festival, the film Red Lines will be shown at 6pm in the CALS Ron Robinson Theater.

Red Lines follows the story of two people, Mouaz Moustafa, who was born in a refugee camp near Damascus, raised in Arkansas, schooled in politics on Capitol Hill and by the Libyan uprising, and Razan Shalab-al-Sham. Inspired by the Arab Spring, Razan and Mouaz watched from their two vantage points as, for a hopeful moment, anything seemed possible in Syria. Razan runs a Syria-wide activist network, deeply convinced that democracy is possible with women playing a special role in its realization.

With his contacts in Washington, the Arab world, and the Free Syrian Army, Mouaz becomes a critical link between the rebellion and the West. Their story, “Red Lines,” is about the transformative power of conflict and conscience.

For more information, visit www.redlinesfilm.com

*Reserve your seats by emailing publicprograms@clintonschool.uasys.edu or calling (501) 683-5239

Tonight – The 78 Project Movie Screening

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Tonight, the Oxford American and CALS Ron Robinson Theater are excited to present The 78 Project Movie at the Ron Robinson Theater! Inspired by the field recordings of legendary folklorist Alan Lomax, director Alex Steyermark and recordist Lavinia Jones Wright created The 78 Project, an ongoing documentary journey to record today’s musicians with yesterday’s technology. Doors open at 7:00 P.M. day of show, and the film starts at 7:30 pm.

All pre-sale tickets are $10 each and available via www.metrotix.com or by calling (800) 293-5949 until noon on September 30. Tickets will also be available at the venue on September 30 at 7:00 P.M. All seating is general admission and available on a first-come basis.

ABOUT THE PROJECT – With just one microphone, an authentic 1930s PRESTO direct-to-disc recorder, and a blank shellac disc, the members of the 78 project invite musicians to cut a record anywhere they choose. The result is an artifact—a 78rpm record—and a new connection to our cultural legacy. 78 Project participant Rosanne Cash called the experience “time-travel.” In March, author William Gibson, writing for the Oxford American, called The 78 Project “one of the most intriguing contemporary approaches to technology I know of, and one that bodes well for its century and our future.” Participants of the 78 Project have included Loudon Wainwright III, Rosanne Cash & John Leventhal, Richard Thompson and others. You can watch them cut their records here: http://the78project.com/watch/

ABOUT THE FILM – This year, Steyermark and Wright have released a feature-length film showcasing their work and the singular performances the on-site 78rpm recording process inspires in the musicians they encounter. The 78 Project Movie includes performances by a variety of musicians and appearances from a kaleidoscopic cast of technologists, historians, and craftsmen from every facet of field recording—Grammy-winning producers, 78 collectors, curators from the Library of Congress and Smithsonian. In Tennessee, Mississippi, California, Louisiana, the folk singers, punk rockers, Gospel and Cajun singers in the film share their lives through intimate performances, and find in that adventure a new connection to our cultural legacy.

During the night, a Little Rock musician will play live for the audience and Steyermark and Jones will cut the performance into a 78, so anyone in attendance will be able to become a part of The 78 Project’s ongoing journey! And in addition to the screening, Oxford American Associate Editor, Maxwell George, will introduce the film and moderate a Q&A with the filmmakers after the screening.

Tonight at Ron Robinson Theatre: Suzy Bogguss presented by Arkansas Sounds

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suzy_bogguss

Tonight at 7pm on the stage of the CALS Ron Robinson Theatre, Arkansas Sounds features Suzy Bogguss.

A frequent guest on A Prairie Home Companion, she is a singer and songwriter who has received awards from the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association. She has recorded platinum gold albums and has been nominated for a Grammy Award. Bogguss has collaborated with such artists as Chet Atkins, Alison Krauss, Kathy Mattea, and Crosby, Stills, and Nash. In her latest album, Lucky, Bogguss shares her interpretations of songs by Merle Haggard.

Tickets are $25, general admission, and are available online, using the button above, and from Butler Center Galleries, 401 President Clinton Avenue. The theater’s entrance may be accessed from the Main Library’s parking lot, 100 Rock Street. Tickets purchased online will not be mailed. They will be available for pick up in the lobby of the Ron Robinson Theater one hour prior to showtime.

Perks, Missives, & Lux Melancholia tonight at CALS Ron Robinson Theater

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perks

As part of Banned Books Week, two divisions of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies are coming together to celebrate books and music.

This collaboration of the Arkansas Literary Festival and Arkansas Sounds will feature a screening of The Perks of Being a Wallflower and a concert by Scoop Slone and the Infinite, Thursday, September 25, beginning at 7:00 p.m. in the CALS Ron Robinson Theater. The winner of the Banned Books Perks Letter Writing Contest will also be announced.

Sponsored by the Fred Darragh Jr. Foundation, this event event is free and open to the public.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a 2012 film written and directed by Stephen Chbosky, based on his own novel.  It stars Logan Lerman, Emma Watson and Ezra Miller.  Dylan McDermott, Kate Walsh, Paul Rudd and Joan Cusack are also in the cast.

Talk Like a Pirate at HOOK this evening

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CALS HookArrggghhh Matey!  Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Don’t be a landlubber.  Discover the treasure at the CALS Ron Robinson Theater today at the screening of HOOK.

A Talk Like a Pirate Day pre-party begins at 6 p.m., followed by the movie at 7 p.m. The party will feature a pirate costume contest complete with prizes.  Tickets are $5 per person.

Directed by Steven Spielberg, HOOK features an adult Peter Pan (Robin Williams).  When Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman) kidnaps his children, an adult Peter Pan must return to Neverland and reclaim his youthful spirit in order to challenge his old enemy.  Also in the cast are Julia Roberts (Tinkerbell), Bob Hoskins (Smee) and Maggie Smith (a grownup Wendy).  The film was nominated for five Oscars.

The screening will feature free theme-related concessions and door prizes.