Moving Pictures

For the sixth year, Living Arts will again host the Oklahoma Dance Film festival November 2-4.

Festival curator Jessica Vokoun compared the elegance of movement that is dance to that of words well-used.

"Our purpose is to present this experimental, unique genre of films that uses dance to either create visual poetry or dance to tell a story," she said. "They use the vocabulary of dance through the medium of film."

Friday, Nov. 2, the event takes place at Living Arts, 307 E. Brady St. A looping installation begins at 6pm, consisting of four films, each looking at dance in its own, unique way.

"They come from artists all over the world, and they range from pieces that are true narratives with a full plot and story to work that is more visual -- that uses the body and the human form to create sort of an abstract visual work," Vokoun said. It really creates a new stage for dance, and through editing and technology, it allows dance to transcend barriers it can't onstage."

Beginning at 8pm is No Place Like Home, a program consisting of several short films.

"Those are the programs that really inspired the whole festival," Vokoun said.

Also included in No Place Like Home are live performances by Tulsa Modern Movement, Living Water Dance, and Portico Dans Theatre.

Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 3-4, the film festival moves to Circle Cinema, 12 S. Lewis Ave. Beginning at 11am both days, the festival will show one feature-length film followed by two shorter works.

"The first feature film will be Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake," said Vokoun. "It was originally a stage production, but was restaged for the camera, and it's more of a performance documentation."

Wim Wenders' 2011 film Pina will show on Sunday.

"It's sort of half documentary and half performance film. There's a duet that happens on a train platform, just really unique locations," Vokoun said.

Festival day passes are $12 and are available at okdancefilms.com.

Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps, presented by the PAC Trust

When one thinks of Alfred Hitchcock, many words spring to mind. "Suspense," "shower," "birds," "Tippy," "mother," "Jimmy Stewart." But not "comedy."

That may change, though, when the Performing Arts Center Trust brings Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps.

Hitchcock's 1935 spy thriller pits a regular guy against an evil spy team, and is really quite a good flick. Funny, though, it ain't.

But in the touring production coming to town Nov. 2-3, this version has taken a page from the Tuna guys and boiled it down to roles for four actors.

I know!

"So the story is there's this theatre company," explained Toby Shaw, one of the four actors touring with the show. "There's a leading man and a leading woman, and they want to put on this show. So they find two clowns backstage, and they put on a show."

It would seem that this would make for a lot of manic, slapstick comedy.

"It's an absurd cast, and the comedy comes from the absurd idea of taking on this impossible task," Shaw said.

The show itself got its start in London, and Shaw said it went through a couple of revisions before it ended up playing in that city's West End.

From there, it headed to Boston for a bit, eventually landing on Broadway, and now on a tour.

"There have been a lot of regional productions of this show, but the touring production is the Broadway production -- same sets, the same costumes, the same choreography," Shaw said. "There have been some changes along the way, specifically, like for me, one of the clowns. There are just things that work for one actor but not for another."

Greatly benefitting the show is a director who is extremely familiar with it.

"Our director is Kevin Bigger, and he's been with the show since Boston -- about 6 years," Shaw said. "He knows all the characters in and out, and he's very good about letting us know what he wants."

This show is quite different from the spy-thriller film, but Shaw loves it, and thinks Tulsa will, too.

"It's a fun show. Whether you've seen the film or not, we've got all sort of Hitchcock references in there for the pros, but if you've never seen Hitchcock before, it's still a great show and a lot of fun," he said.

The Drama Desk Award-winning Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps comes to the PAC downtown Nov. 2 and 3 at 7:30pm with a Saturday 2pm matinee. All shows are in the John H. Williams Theater of the Tulsa PAC, 110 E. 2nd St., and tickets and information are at 918-596-7111 or tulsapac.com.

Chasing Manet, presented by Heller Theatre

Henthorne's Performing Arts Center, 4825 S. Quaker Ave., will play host to another Heller Theatre production over the next two weeks, as the troupe continues making use of its city-maintained space.

Chasing Manet tells the funny tale of two elderly women -- a nearly-blind artist and a matriarch slipping into dementia (sound hilarious yet?) -- who plot their escape from a nursing home, hoping to score passage to Paris on a cruise ship.

Heller veteran and TATE Award-winner Julie Tattershall directs the comedy which features some Tulsa stage regulars like Billie Sue Thompson, Jan Simpson, and Ron Friedberg, among many others.

The show opens Nov. 2 at 7:30pm and runs through Nov. 10. The Nov. 4 show is a 2pm matinee. While tickets are $10 for adults and $7 for students and seniors, Heller continues its Tuesday night practice of offering a pay-what-you-can night, when, as you might imagine, admission is any amount.

Tickets are available at the door, and more information is available phone at 918-746-5065 or online at cityoftulsa.org/henthornepac.

Open Studio Arts Festival, hosted by Garden Deva Sculpture Company

Lisa Regan started the Garden Deva Sculpture Company in 1996. Since then, she's moved into a studio, been on television, and generally just sculpted the crap out of stuff -- even landing a piece of hers on permanent display in the Philbrook Museum gardens,

This week, Regan's Garden Deva hosts its 13th annual Open Studio Arts Festival on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 3-4. The festival features the artwork of local artists in all manner of fields, from sculpture (kind of an obvious example) to ceramics to soaps. There will be lots of jewelry and other fun things to shop for at any one of the many outdoor vendors participating in what is basically and arts-aware street party complete with live music from local musicians and samplings of food from many Tulsa restaurants.

Sounds good to me.

Garden Deva Sculpture's 13th annual Open Studio Arts Festival runs from 10am-8pm on Friday, Nov. 2, and 10am-6pm on Saturday, Nov. 3, and will be held in and around 317 S. Trenton Ave.

Send all comments and feedback regarding Arts Experienced to bmorris@urbantulsa.com.