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Despite years of rumors and promises of revitalization, Little Rock's downtown, west of the River Market, has been mostly devoid of nightlife until recently. While the city waits for Stephens and other developers to move forward with much-hyped projects, a few entrepreneurial types have, in the last month, infused a lively independent arts scene into the area. These folks come from different backgrounds and have different ideas, but they all share a common desire to create a sense of community downtown.
Public Theater
What once hosted Little Rock's annual Shakespeare Festival, the historic two-story Public Theater on Seventh and Center Streets had suffered low attendance and long stretches of disuse in recent years. But now, pretty much every weekend until the summer, the theater is officially booked with some kind of event, be it music, movies, or a burlesque show. The building is owned by a local attorney who is whole-heartedly allowing friends John Binyon, Ike Plumlee, and Jennifer Salazar to revive the space as a community arts center.
Binyon is in charge of booking local bands, like Sugar and the Raw, XXzotic, Grand Serenade, and Tel Aviv. He sees the venue as a way to open the doors to performers who might not otherwise have a place to play. “If there's something Whitewater can't do, we want to make sure there's something going on in Little Rock. But it's not a competition with other venues.”
The Public will also host movies on Monday nights, as well as plays and improv competitions on other nights. “I want the theater to be a performing arts magnet,” explains Binyon, who also teaches high school English at Parkview, “I'd love to get the kids downtown for some hands-on experience—even folks who are trying it for the first time,” he says, noting the potential of his students. He's already talked to a few high school bands.
In the black box theater, there are 66 theater seats in the front half, followed by a great expanse of standing space and stage, with dressing rooms and bathrooms in the back. In all, Binyon estimates the theater can hold 300 folks. Certain to fill the house is the upcoming cabaret “Va Va Voom, Valentine's Day Boom Boom Burlesque,” a show of at least 20 local female cast members slated for Saturday, March 4 and hosted by the Arkansas Community Arts Cooperative. The performance will be accompanied by live music by the Parachute Woman and Chris Denny as well as various DJ's.
Also, sure to draw crowds is Neon Little Rock, a dance party to be held on the first Friday of every month.
The Public Theater, 16 Center St, 501-374-7529
Sports Page
Near the Public Theater sits the Sports Page, at 414 Louisiana St, a favorite working-class weekday burger and beer joint. Despite good business during the week and on Friday nights, Saturday nights have been slow, so Victor Wiley, a friend of the owner's son, offered to book shows. In late January, he booked his first combination show, a movie at 8 pm, followed by a show featuring The Moving Front and Clicking Beetle Bad Omen Band. Wiley, who is from Little Rock and who plays in at least three bands himself (including Clicking Beetle), just wants everybody—regardless of band—to come out and support local music. “Little Rock has this strange thing going,” he said. “There are lots of friends in bands, but they're not socializing. I want to mix things up, so there's more of a communal feel.”
He plans to book mostly bands that he likes, he said, but implied that his tastes run pretty broad. “There are bands that I love to see play because of how much heart they put into it—all those bands don't get much recognition. I want to book smaller bands with big bands.”
As for the movies, Wiley said he wants to show challenging, somewhat unheard of films, “not Raising Arizona. We're trying not to dumb it down—Little Rock's smarter than that.”
The Sports Page, 414 Louisiana St, 501.372.7930
East Street Piano Bar
Although this classy joint on Seventh Street is known as a gay bar (the owner says he didn't plan for the distinction, “I just turned the key and they came”), Easy Street is one of the most diverse places in town, especially since Henderson expanded, adding a deck and game room, and what he's calling a “cabaret room,” a space that previously served as a shoe repair shop.
“All the piano bars in New York had cabaret rooms,” said Henderson, who moved from New York to Little Rock ten years ago.
In front of the bar is the piano stage, where anywhere from three to ten musicians play nightly, and in the back is game room, replete with dartboards, a pool table, a pinball machine, and skee-ball. From the game room, a passageway runs behind the storefront that separates Easy Street and its cabaret room. The space is oriented around the stage with round tabletops set up on graduated levels. It's ideal for live music and theater, and it's attracting all sorts of folks—hosting four times a year the local Red Octopus improv group, magic shows for kids, movies on Monday nights, and wine and beer tasting.
“We'll have kids here some nights, and drinkin' and smokin' people on others,” said Henderson. “On Jazz Night (Thursdays) we've been getting the old couples who used to go to the Afterthought.”
Easy Street, 307 W. Seventh St., 501.372.3530
Riverdale 10
Even if you've already bought a combo popcorn meal and are on your way to see movie at Riverdale, you might want to peek into the theater that's hosting live music, comedy acts, or debates. Last month, Randell Shelton, president of the Riverdale 10 cinema (which is located a hop, skip, and a jump away from downtown), launched the “Live at Riverdale” series with a Toastmasters debate on the Iraq war, which 30 people attended despite a lack of advertising. Shelton says the response showed that people have wanted this kind of venue for a long time. “We're 100 percent locally owned and managed, and we wanted to do something to show the community talents, get the community involved.”
Shelton has also found running a viable movie business to be frustratingly unpredictable. “We've had to rely on Hollywood to be successful.”
The 67-seat theater that hosts “Live at Riverdale” still plays movies during the day, Shelton says, but on weekend nights, it's converted into a multi-entertainment space with a stage in front and the projector screen intact, “in case people bring in DVDs of graphics to play.” As the crowds continue to grow, Shelton says the event will move into one of the complex's larger theaters.
So far Riverdale has booked Real Fighting, Mat Mahar, and Arkatext, a comedy contest, hip hops show, debates, and a poetry slam, and the venue is serving alcohol at select events.
Riverdale 10, 2600 Cantrell Rd., 501.296.9955
Caroline Myers is an assistant curator at the Historic Arkansas Museum. In her spare time, she catalogues the dead and perfects the art of frying chicken. Tell her something good at carolinemyers@sbcglobal.net. |
