W H E R E & W H E N | ENTER TAINMENT THREE DOG NIGHT April
COMMUNITY AZALEA FESTIVAL April
11 Choctaw Casino and Resort, Durant Rockers
1-30 Honor Heights Park, Muskogee Visit this
choctawcasinos.com
visitmuskogee.com
TONY BENNETT April 18
MONTMARTRE CHALK ART FESTIVAL April 2
extraordinaire Three Dog Night come to the Grand Theater. Winstar World Casino and Resort, Thackerville One
of the world’s most lauded crooners visits the Global Event Center. winstar.com
VINCE NEIL AND STEVE ADLER April 18 Choctaw
Casino and Resort, Durant
See the frontmen of Motley Crue and Guns N’ Roses perform together.
choctawcasinos.com
KRIS KRISTOFFERSON AND THE STRANGERS
April 19 Winstar World Casino and Resort, Thackerville Kristofferson’s
success as a songwriter triggered his career as a performer and brought him to the attention of Hollywood. winstar.com
ART FINAL FRIDAY ART CRAWL April 24
Downtown Stillwater
Inspired by First Friday events in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, this lively art crawl is on the final Friday of every month and celebrates the art culture of the community. museum.okstate.edu
STATE OF THE ART 2020
Through May 24 Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Ark. A team of curators at
Crystal Bridges traveled across the country to select a diverse group of 61 artists from varied backgrounds and at different points in their careers.
crystalbridges.org
TEMPERA Ongoing Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Ark. Tempera painting (also known as egg tempera) has a rich history as a medium for artists from ancient times to today, and is an older form of painting than oil. crystalbridges.org
SPORTS OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY BASEBALL
April 3-5, 14, 18-21 Allie P. Reynolds Stadium, Stillwater
See the Cowboys take on Big 12 Conference foes. okstate.com
OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY SOFTBALL April 9-11, 15 Cowgirl Stadium, Stillwater Enjoy
the spring weather by watching the Cowgirls.
okstate.com
stunning park throughout April for one of the top events in the south.
University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, Chickasha The annual
Montmartre Sidewalk Chalk Art Festival features hundreds of artists of all ages creating colorful works of art in chalk. usao.edu
SCISSORTAIL CREATIVE
APRIL’S A MIXED BAG
decade, this bookish blowout has brought together award-winning writers, academics and the public for readings.
A haunting documentary, a Wes Anderson revamp and a slew of horror films round out this month.
WRITING FESTIVAL April 2-4 East Central University, Ada For more than a
ecuscissortail.blogspot.com
BISON BISON FILM FESTIVAL April 3-4
City Central, Ponca City
Watch everything from thought-provoking and entertaining short films to horror features and dramas. bisonbisonfilmfestival.org
SYMPOSIUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN April 8-13 Northeastern State
University, Tahlequah The 48th annual Symposium on the American Indian is a mix of scholarly and cultural presentations that are open to the public free of charge. nsuok.edu
89ER DAYS CELEBRATION April 14-18
Downtown Guthrie The
annual 89er Days Celebration commemorates the Land Run of 1889 and the birth of Guthrie.
89erdays.com
WATER LANTERN FESTIVAL April 18 Route
66 Park Amphitheater, Yukon Enjoy a day near
the water, along with food trucks and fun.
waterlanternfestival.com
OKLAHOMA RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL April 25-26 Castle of Muskogee Step back in
time to the 16th century with Queen Elizabeth I of England, King James of Scotland and more than 600 costumed performers and artisans as they create the boisterous village of Castleton. okcastle.com
TUMBLEWOOD CALF FRY April 30-May 2 Tumbleweed Dancehall and Concert Venue, Stillwater This
popular, unique outdoor gathering features multiple entertainment acts on various stages at the famed Tumbleweed Dance Hall.
calffry.com
FOR MORE EVENTS IN TULSA, OKC AND AROUND THE STATE, HEAD TO OKMAG.COM.
94
ANTLERS
OKLAHOMA MAGAZINE | APRIL 2020
Around Town
If you can’t get enough of Oklahoma City’s DeadCenter Film Festival and eagerly await its return in June, festival organizers have a little something to help you scratch that itch – a series of free screenings of documentaries that have played at previous festivals. This month’s screening is especially intriguing, the 2016 documentary Tower, which chronicles the 1966 shooting spree at the University of Texas at Austin. Far from a typical historical documentary, the film tells its story through the memories of several survivors and reenacts these scenes through animation. This process is done with rotoscoping, where animators trace over live-action footage and give the whole film an otherworldly feel appropriate to its chilling story. Tower screens at 2:30 p.m. April 24 at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
At Home
It seems like every time Wes Anderson releases a film, critics hold a referendum on whether he is an incredible director or a shallow stylist with no emotional depth. This writer falls firmly into the first camp, and one of his best films, The Grand Budapest Hotel, receives a deluxe re-issue from the Criterion Collection this month. The film blends Anderson’s whimsical fussiness with a bittersweet undercurrent, featuring heartbreak and comedy in equal measure. Aside from the usual Criterion goodies (a digital transfer for sharper images; new commentary by Anderson and co-star Jeff Goldblum; a making-of documentary), the
special features shine with critical works. Video talks by film scholar David Bordwell and critic Matt Zoller Seitz – who literally wrote the book on Anderson – are accompanied by two essays by The New Yorker’s Richard Brody, who understands Anderson as a director on a primal level. Make sure to splurge for the Blu-ray version, which includes a two-sided poster that (likely) features drawings done in Anderson’s signature dollhouse style.
In Theaters
Though I’m far from a big fan of horror films, I find myself intrigued by a trio of entries in the genre this month, all with a different feel. First up, The New Mutants, an X-Men spin-off that seems to lean into the surveillance and body horror aspects that franchise has always dabbled in. With superhero films feeling increasingly by-the-book, the creeping terror vibe of the film is promising – as is the cast, which includes Maisie Williams and Anya Taylor-Joy. Antlers features a similarly strong pair of leads in Keri Russell and Jesse Plemons, and the presence of solid director Scott Cooper should elevate its classic sci-fi/ horror premise, where a supernatural creature terrorizes a small town. Finally, Antebellum looks to be another entry in the recent spate of horror films about racial issues (its producer also produced Jordan Peele’s films Get Out and Us). Singer Janelle Monae stars as an author transported back to a time before the Civil War – with both scares and social commentary emerging along the way. ASHER GELZER-GOVATOS
Photo courtesy Fox Searchlight Pictures. © 2019 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, all rights reserved.
CONCERTS
FILM AND CINEMA