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2019 ACANSA Arts Festival of the South Events
Select an event below for more information and to purchase tickets.
Why Go Gold?
Don’t miss out on a single event! Gold Pass holders receive VIP access to ALL ticketed events at the 2019 ACANSA Arts Festival of the South. See ALL of the best events at the best value available.
AFTER PURCHASE – To make reservations using your gold or flex pass, please email info@acansa.org and indicate which shows you’d like to see. Reservations are required due to seating constraints!
See your favorites at a great value!
Flex Pass gives you the freedom to choose any four events for one great price! Tickets can be used in any combination for any eligible events. Some restrictions apply.
AFTER PURCHASE – To make reservations using your gold or flex pass, please email info@acansa.org and indicate which shows you’d like to see. Reservations are required due to seating constraints!
Opening Reception
Ballet Arkansas brings even more levity to the Friday, September 13 kick-off of the ACANSA Arts Festival. An innovative cross-pollination between visual and performance art, “Art with a Twist” explores the motion behind the creation of modern art when Ballet Arkansas dancers use only their bodies to create four unique outdoor pieces of visual art.
Inside CALS’ Roberts Library, participating Open Studios artists will be on exhibit during the Festival’s Opening Night reception.
Hot Club of Cowtown
Hot Jazz & Western Swing! Austin-based Hot Club of Cowtown explores the space where early jazz met Texas swing, where Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang met Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. Guitarist Whit Smith and fiddler Elana James have become a world-class country-jazz duo, challenging each other and reading each other’s minds at every turn. Add in the insouciant lyrics of the era and the vigorous slap-bass rhythms of Jake Erwin, and you’ve got virtuoso small-group western swing that’s beyond infectious.
Stewart Fullerton’s
Homecoming Queen:
A Night of intimate storytelling & standup
Native Arkansan Stewart Fullerton is a comedian and actress who moonlights as a waitress in New York City. Among her performances across the City, she appeared in the Laughing Devil Comedy Festival, as well as Broadway Comedy Club and Greenwich Comedy Club during the 2018 She-Devil Festival. She recently appeared at the Burbank Comedy Festival where she was selected for the Best of the Fest Showcase.
Gina Chavez
A multi-ethnic Latin pop songstress, Gina Chavez is a 10-time Austin Music Award winner. Her bilingual record, Up.Rooted, topped both the Amazon and Latin iTunes charts following a feature on NPR’s All Things Considered and has been hailed by The Boston Globe, USA Today, and Texas Monthly. Her Tiny Desk concert made NPR’s top 15 of 2015. Fresh off a 10-country tour as a cultural ambassador with the U.S. State Department, Chavez’s passionate collection of bilingual songs takes audiences on a journey through the Americas, blending the sounds and rhythms of the region with tension and grace.
Bill Bowers
All Over the Map
All Over the Map is 50 states, 30 years on the road, 25 countries, 2 hookers, 1 bunny, and a mime. Hailed by critics as the most accomplished and renowned mime of his generation, Bill Bowers currently performs and teaches the art of physical storytelling throughout the world. Bowers takes you places so unbelievable they could only be true. Bowers has performed
on Broadway, at The Kennedy Center, the White House, and in some of the finest grade school cafetoriums across the country. In All Over The Map, he shares indelible memories and characters who will stay with you long after lights-up.
Tennessee Williams’
A Streetcar Named Desire
In partnership with Argenta Community Theater, ACANSA is proud to present Tennessee Williams’ timeless masterpiece, A Streetcar Named Desire. Seeking solace from her crumbling world, Blanche arrives at her sister, Stella’s, apartment bringing her face to face with the menacing masculinity of Stanley Kowalski. Directed by Ben Grimes, the production is a raw exploration of family, sexuality, gender roles, and survival.
Community Conversation with Dr. Virginia O. Craighill,
Professor of English from Sewanee, The University of the South
American Guitarist & Composer
Bill Frisell
Known for his impressive surf, fusion, roots, Americana and folk jazz, Grammy Award-winning Bill Frisell’s career as a guitarist and composer has spanned more than 35 years and many celebrated solo and group recordings. Frisell has been recognized as one of America’s most vital and productive performing artists by Downbeat Magazine and the Jazz Journalists Association and has received the Coup de Coeur Award from the Academie Charles Cross as well as Germany’s Echo Jazz Award and The German Record Prize.
General Admission no longer available.
Seats Now Available Only to Gold Pass Patrons & Sponsors
Tenors Unlimited
With a nod to THE Three Tenors, Tenors Unlimited – Scott Ciscon (tenor), Paul Martin (bass-baritone) and Jem Sharples (tenor) – bring their own take on the popular classical genre and expand the perception of what a 21st century ‘Tenor’ could be. Known as The Rat Pack of Opera, Tenors Unlimited cleverly combines popular opera, musical theatre, crooner standards, original songs, a wicked sense of humor and rich harmonies to perform at ACANSA and around the globe as the UK’s original classical-crossover ‘man-band.’
BODYTRAFFIC
BODYTRAFFIC, a world-class contemporary dance company born in Los Angeles, CA, is known internationally for its contagious vivacity and high caliber work. Founded in 2007 by Lillian Rose Barbeito and Tina Finkelman Berkett, BODYTRAFFIC continues to push boundaries through its deep commitment to producing acclaimed works by distinctive choreographic voices. BODYTRAFFIC is home to an exceptionally versatile family of world-renowned dancers who have trained with the likes of Mikhail Baryshnikov, The Juilliard School, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and more.
Bette Davis Ain’t for Sissies
Written by and starring Jessica Sherr, Bette Davis Ain’t for Sissies is an up close and personal “conversation” with the two-time Oscar-winning and ten-time Oscar-nominated actress, Bette Davis. This 90-minute one-woman show escorts audiences to the 1939 Academy Awards. Miss Davis, nominated for Best Actress in the film “Dark Victory,” is pitted against Vivien Leigh in “Gone with the Wind.” When The Los Angeles Times leaks the Oscar winners, what will the bold, defiant and disillusioned Bette Davis do next?
Tatiana R. Mann & Friends
The extraordinary Tatiana Roitman Mann and Friends return to the ACANSA Festival with Friends to share an exquisite evening of music. Tatiana R. Mann and Friends promise unusual repertoire in an intimate setting. Tatiana’s virtuosity, described by the BBC as “formidable…both accurate and with rarely seen joy,” has led to invitations for performances across Europe and the U.S., including the premiere of E. McKinley’s Speak No Evil at the American Composers’ Forum and For Don by M. Babbitt in celebration of the composer’s 90th birthday at Tanglewood’s Contemporary Music Festival. Tatiana is a recipient of Tanglewood’s Peggy Rockefeller Memorial Fellowship.
Author & Food Historian
Jessica B. Harris
Jessica B. Harris is an award-winning food historian, internationally-renowned speaker, and one of the world’s leading experts on African Diaspora cooking. She’s the author of the memoir, My Soul Looks Back (Simon & Schuster, 2017), a finalist for the PEN/Open Book Award, about her days in Harlem in the 1970s with James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Nina Simone and other leading black intellectuals and artists of the time. The author of twelve critically acclaimed cookbooks documenting the foods and foodways of the African Diaspora, Harris’ book, High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America, was the International Association for Culinary Professionals 2012 prize winner for culinary history. [photo: Kristy May]
Dallas String Quartet
“Where Bach Meets Bon Jovi”
The Dallas String Quartet (DSQ) provides a unique fusion of classical and contemporary music on both traditional and electric strings. In addition to four studio albums and international performances, DSQ has played “at home” for Presidents Obama and Bush, the College Football Playoff, NBA, and NFL organizations. DSQ has sold out concert venues like the House of Blues and symphony halls alike, and has also played alongside such musicians and groups as Josh Groban, Chicago, and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
Arkansas Symphony Orchestra
JoAnn Falletta & Time for Three
ACANSA Arts Festival of the South and Arkansas Symphony Orchestra collaborate to present American trio Time for Three, an ensemble that “defies any traditional genre classification, happily and infectiously,” under the baton of one of the most important conductors of our time: JoAnn Falletta. The program, which opens ASO’s 2019-2020 season, features Rimsky-Korsakov’s exhilarating and evocative Scheherazade, Higdon’s Concerto 4-3, and Ravel’s La Valse.
*You will be taken to ASO’s website to purchase tickets directly.
Saturday, Sept. 28 at the Robinson Center
7:30pm
Tickets: Prices Vary
Contact for more info
Why Go Gold?
Don’t miss out on a single event! Gold Pass holders receive VIP access to ALL ticketed events at the 2019 ACANSA Arts Festival of the South. See ALL of the best events at the best value available.
See your favorites at a great value!
Flex Pass gives you the freedom to choose any four events for one great price! Tickets can be used in any combination for any eligible events. Some restrictions apply. After completing your purchase, we will reach out via email to lock in your choices!
Hot Club of Cowtown
Hot Jazz & Western Swing! Austin-based Hot Club of Cowtown explores the space where early jazz met Texas swing, where Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang met Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. Guitarist Whit Smith and fiddler Elana James have become a world-class country-jazz duo, challenging each other and reading each other’s minds at every turn. Add in the insouciant lyrics of the era and the vigorous slap-bass rhythms of Jake Erwin, and you’ve got virtuoso small-group western swing that’s beyond infectious.
Stewart Fullerton’s
Homecoming Queen:
A Night of intimate storytelling & standup
Native Arkansan Stewart Fullerton is a comedian and actress who moonlights as a waitress in New York City. Among her performances across the City, she appeared in the Laughing Devil Comedy Festival, as well as Broadway Comedy Club and Greenwich Comedy Club during the 2018 She-Devil Festival. She recently appeared at the Burbank Comedy Festival where she was selected for the Best of the Fest Showcase.
Gina Chavez
A multi-ethnic Latin pop songstress, Gina Chavez is a 10-time Austin Music Award winner. Her bilingual record, Up.Rooted, topped both the Amazon and Latin iTunes charts following a feature on NPR’s All Things Considered and has been hailed by The Boston Globe, USA Today, and Texas Monthly. Her Tiny Desk concert made NPR’s top 15 of 2015. Fresh off a 10-country tour as a cultural ambassador with the U.S. State Department, Chavez’s passionate collection of bilingual songs takes audiences on a journey through the Americas, blending the sounds and rhythms of the region with tension and grace.
Bill Bowers
All Over the Map
All Over the Map is 50 states, 30 years on the road, 25 countries, 2 hookers, 1 bunny, and a mime. Hailed by critics as the most accomplished and renowned mime of his generation, Bill Bowers currently performs and teaches the art of physical storytelling throughout the world. Bowers takes you places so unbelievable they could only be true. Bowers has performed
on Broadway, at The Kennedy Center, the White House, and in some of the finest grade school cafetoriums across the country. In All Over The Map, he shares indelible memories and characters who will stay with you long after lights-up.
Tennessee Williams’
A Streetcar Named Desire
In partnership with Argenta Community Theater, ACANSA is proud to present Tennessee Williams’ timeless masterpiece, A Streetcar Named Desire. Seeking solace from her crumbling world, Blanche arrives at her sister, Stella’s, apartment bringing her face to face with the menacing masculinity of Stanley Kowalski. Directed by Ben Grimes, the production is a raw exploration of family, sexuality, gender roles, and survival.
Community Conversation with Dr. Virginia O. Craighill,
Professor of English from Sewanee, The University of the South
American Guitarist & Composer
Bill Frisell
Known for his impressive surf, fusion, roots, Americana and folk jazz, Grammy Award-winning Bill Frisell’s career as a guitarist and composer has spanned more than 35 years and many celebrated solo and group recordings. Frisell has been recognized as one of America’s most vital and productive performing artists by Downbeat Magazine and the Jazz Journalists Association and has received the Coup de Coeur Award from the Academie Charles Cross as well as Germany’s Echo Jazz Award and The German Record Prize.
Tenors Unlimited
With a nod to THE Three Tenors, Tenors Unlimited – Scott Ciscon (tenor), Paul Martin (bass-baritone) and Jem Sharples (tenor) – bring their own take on the popular classical genre and expand the perception of what a 21st century ‘Tenor’ could be. Known as The Rat Pack of Opera, Tenors Unlimited cleverly combines popular opera, musical theatre, crooner standards, original songs, a wicked sense of humor and rich harmonies to perform at ACANSA and around the globe as the UK’s original classical-crossover ‘man-band.’
BODYTRAFFIC
BODYTRAFFIC, a world-class contemporary dance company born in Los Angeles, CA, is known internationally for its contagious vivacity and high caliber work. Founded in 2007 by Lillian Rose Barbeito and Tina Finkelman Berkett, BODYTRAFFIC continues to push boundaries through its deep commitment to producing acclaimed works by distinctive choreographic voices. BODYTRAFFIC is home to an exceptionally versatile family of world-renowned dancers who have trained with the likes of Mikhail Baryshnikov, The Juilliard School, Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and more.
Bette Davis Ain’t for Sissies
Written by and starring Jessica Sherr, Bette Davis Ain’t for Sissies is an up close and personal “conversation” with the two-time Oscar-winning and ten-time Oscar-nominated actress, Bette Davis. This 90-minute one-woman show escorts audiences to the 1939 Academy Awards. Miss Davis, nominated for Best Actress in the film “Dark Victory,” is pitted against Vivien Leigh in “Gone with the Wind.” When The Los Angeles Times leaks the Oscar winners, what will the bold, defiant and disillusioned Bette Davis do next?
Tatiana R. Mann & Friends
The extraordinary Tatiana Roitman Mann and Friends return to the ACANSA Festival with Friends to share an exquisite evening of music. Tatiana R. Mann and Friends promise unusual repertoire in an intimate setting. Tatiana’s virtuosity, described by the BBC as “formidable…both accurate and with rarely seen joy,” has led to invitations for performances across Europe and the U.S., including the premiere of E. McKinley’s Speak No Evil at the American Composers’ Forum and For Don by M. Babbitt in celebration of the composer’s 90th birthday at Tanglewood’s Contemporary Music Festival. Tatiana is a recipient of Tanglewood’s Peggy Rockefeller Memorial Fellowship.
Author & Food Historian
Jessica B. Harris
Jessica B. Harris is an award-winning food historian, internationally-renowned speaker, and one of the world’s leading experts on African Diaspora cooking. She’s the author of the memoir, My Soul Looks Back (Simon & Schuster, 2017), a finalist for the PEN/Open Book Award, about her days in Harlem in the 1970s with James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Nina Simone and other leading black intellectuals and artists of the time. The author of twelve critically acclaimed cookbooks documenting the foods and foodways of the African Diaspora, Harris’ book, High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America, was the International Association for Culinary Professionals 2012 prize winner for culinary history. [photo: Kristy May]
Dallas String Quartet
“Where Bach Meets Bon Jovi”
The Dallas String Quartet (DSQ) provides a unique fusion of classical and contemporary music on both traditional and electric strings. In addition to four studio albums and international performances, DSQ has played “at home” for Presidents Obama and Bush, the College Football Playoff, NBA, and NFL organizations. DSQ has sold out concert venues like the House of Blues and symphony halls alike, and has also played alongside such musicians and groups as Josh Groban, Chicago, and the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
Arkansas Symphony Orchestra
JoAnn Falletta & Time for Three
ACANSA Arts Festival of the South and Arkansas Symphony Orchestra collaborate to present American trio Time for Three, an ensemble that “defies any traditional genre classification, happily and infectiously,” under the baton of one of the most important conductors of our time: JoAnn Falletta. The program, which opens ASO’s 2019-2020 season, features Rimsky-Korsakov’s exhilarating and evocative Scheherazade, Higdon’s Concerto 4-3, and Ravel’s La Valse.
*You will be taken to ASO’s website to purchase tickets directly.
Saturday, Sept. 28 at the Robinson Center
7:30pm
Tickets: Prices Vary
Contact for more info