MUSIC
The Listeso String Quartet performs seasonal selections illuminated by hundreds (if not thousands) of candles for a Candlelight Christmas Concert, 6:30 p.m. Saturday at the Albert Pike Memorial Center, 712 Scott St., Little Rock. The tentative program: arrangements of carols (“Hark the Herald Angels Sing,” “The First Noël,” “Deck the Halls,” Adolphe Adam’s “O Holy Night,” “Greensleeves,” “Joy to the World,” “Angels We Have Heard on High” and “Away in a Manger”); “Ma’oz Tzur” (traditional Hanukkah song); “The Snow Is Dancing” by Claude Debussy; “January” and “December” from “The Seasons” and selections from “The Nutcracker” by Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky; and “Les Patineurs” (“The Skaters Waltz”) by Émile Waldteufel. Tickets are $29-$53. Visit feverup.com/m/199775.
The Arkansas Arts Council’s 2025 Governor’s Arts Awards include the Arts in Education Award to Fayetteville’s TheatreSquared. (NWA Democrat-Gazette file photo/Spencer Tirey)
THEATER
Actors Theatre season
Actors Theatre of Little Rock opens its third season, which is titled “Reclaiming Joy: A Journey of Courage, Connection, and Celebration,” with “A Year With Frog and Toad” (music by Robert Reale, book and lyrics by Willie Reale, based on the books by Arnold Lobel), Feb. 12-March 1 at the Quapaw Quarter United Methodist Church, 1601 Louisiana St., Little Rock.
The rest of the lineup (all performances at the church):
◼️ April 16-26: “for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf” by Ntozake Shange
◼️ June 4-21: “The Prom,” music by Matthew Skylar, lyrics by Chad Beguelin, book by Bob Marin & Chad Beguelin
◼️ July 30-Aug. 16: “West Side Story,” music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, book by Arthur Laurents
◼️ Sept. 10-20: “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry
◼️ Oct. 15-31: “The Rocky Horror Show,” music, lyrics and book by Richard O’Brien
◼️ Dec. 3-20: “Hairspray,” music by by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Shaiman and Scott Wittman, book by Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan, based on John Waters’ 1988 film. The production will be immersive, taking place throughout the play space and including portions of the audience.
Visit actorstheatrelr.org.
Eureka Springs Mayor Robert “Butch” Berry (left) is the recipient of the Arts Community Development Award, among the Arkansas Arts Council’s 2025 Governor’s Arts Awards. (Democrat-Gazette file photo/Bill Bowden)
ETC.
Governor’s Arts Awards
Eureka Springs Mayor Robert “Butch” Berry is the recipient of the Arts Community Development Award, among the Arkansas Arts Council’s 2025 Governor’s Arts Awards.
The rest of the 2025 recipients:
◼️ Arts in Education Award — Fayetteville’s TheatreSquared
◼️ Corporate Sponsorship of the Arts — Procter & Gamble
◼️ Folklife Award — Northwest Arkansas Handweavers Guild
Fayetteville poet Suzanne Underwood Rhodes is receiving the Individual Artist Award in the 2025 Governor’s Arts Awards from the Arkansas Arts Council. (NWA Democrat-Gazette file photo/Andy Shupe)
◼️ Individual Artist — poet, educator and author Suzanne Underwood Rhodes of Fayetteville, whom Gov. Asa Hutchinson named Arkansas Poet Laureate in January 2022.
◼️ Judges Recognition Award — the Dulcimer Shoppe in Mountain View
◼️ Patron Award — Brigita Gardner of Roland, former president of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra Guild and a member of the orchestra’s board of directors, who most recently led the fundraising committee for the orchestra’s Stella Boyle Smith Music Center.
◼️ Lifetime Achievement Award — Becky Witsell of Little Rock, an artist who specializes in the preservation and restoration of decorative arts elements in historic structures, buildings and homes.
The Arts Council will honor recipients at a March 7 ceremony at Little Rock’s Robinson Center. Tickets go on sale Jan. 1 at tinyurl.com/m2rmf9yr.
The awards program, started in 1991, recognizes individuals, organizations and businesses for their outstanding contributions to the arts in Arkansas. An independent panel of arts professionals weighs nominations from the public.
