THEATER
‘& Juliet’
The First National Tour of “& Juliet” (songs by Max Martin, book by David West) is onstage, 7 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday, 1:30 and 7 p.m. Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. May 31 at Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center, 495 W. Dickson St.
The musical flips the script on Shakespeare’s most famous love story, asking what would happen if Juliet doesn’t end it all over Romeo. The show features Martin’s hit pop anthems, including “Since U Been Gone‚” “Roar,” “Baby One More Time,” “Larger Than Life‚” “That’s the Way It Is” and “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” Fabiola Caraballo Quijada, the 2025 Jimmy Award winner, plays the title role.
Tickets are $48.30-$109.25 (subject to change). Call (479) 443-5600 or visit waltonartscenter.org.
(Special to the Democrat-Gazette/©Ellen Griesedieck)
FILM
‘Give Me the Ball!’
The Arkansas Cinema Society, the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, the Clinton Foundation and the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts are teaming up to screen ESPN Films 30 for 30 documentary “Give Me the Ball!,” focused on tennis legend Billie Jean King, 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Performing Arts Theater of the museum, 501 E. Ninth St., Little Rock. Doors open at 6.
The film, co-directed by Liz Garbus and Elizabeth Wolff, premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. It features rare archival footage and candid interviews in which King “and those closest to her reveal how one woman put changing the world ahead of saving herself,” according to a news release.
Admission is $15, $13 for children and senior citizens. Visit arkansascinemasociety.org.
ETC.
Juneteenth Summit
The Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, the Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau and the City of Little Rock will hold the inaugural Juneteenth in Da Rock Summit, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. June 19 at the Robinson Center Performance Hall, 426 W. Markham St. at Broadway, Little Rock.
Part of the Juneteenth in Da Rock celebration, the summit “will serve as a premier cultural convening dedicated to economic mobility, workforce development, and meaningful community advancement,” according to a news release, bringing together leaders, innovators, employers, creators, entrepreneurs and change-makers for conversations, hands-on breakout sessions, a job fair and a “dynamic exhibition environment.”
Keynote speakers include Carlotta Walls LaNier, Terrence Roberts and Elizabeth Eckford, all members of the Little Rock Nine; Fred Taylor, former NFL running back and co-host of the Sports Emmy-nominated “The Pivot Podcast”; and former Arkansas Razorback and NFL player Darren McFadden.
Other aspects of the summit include the Opportunity Hall, breakout sessions across three focused tracks — Economic Mobility & Entrepreneurship; Workforce & Innovation; and Creative Economy, Culture & History. The Curated Experience Lounge will offer “an intentional, branded engagement space open to all,” according to the news release.
Post-summit, “A Party on the River” will feature DJ Nick Hurd and Rodney Block & Friends at the Little Rock Amphitheater, 400 President Clinton Ave.
For more information or to register for the Summit, visit juneteenthlittlerock.com.
(Special to the Democrat-Gazette)
Say It Loud!
The Tell the Story Literary Series, hosted by Say It Loud! Readers and Writers, continues Saturday with “Herstory: Publishing Poem and Prose,” featuring Parneshia Jones, award-winning poet and publisher, 11 a.m. Saturday at Rock It! Lab, 120 River Market Ave., Little Rock.
The Evanston, Ill.,-based Jones serves as director of Northwestern University Press, where her acquisitions of poetry and general interest titles for the TriQuarterly Books and Seminary Offsets imprints have garnered some of the highest literary honors. She is the author of “Vessel: Poems” (Milkweed Editions), winner of the Midwest Book Award and featured as one of “12 Books to Savor” by O, The Oprah Magazine. Jones’ work has also appeared in such anthologies as “She Walks in Beauty: A Woman’s Journey Through Poems” and “The Ringing Ear: Black Poets Lean South.” She has been honored with the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Award, the Margaret Walker Short Story Award and the Aquarius Press Legacy Award.
The event is free. For more information visit speakloudly.com.
Democrat-Gazette staff member Helaine R. Williams contributed to this roundup.
