An Outdoor Screening, Bluey Live, and More Lead Our Recommended Arts Events

APF Movies in the Park: Elemental

Thursday 14, Circle C Park

Austin Parks Foundation revives its popular programming this spring with park playdates and the Movies in the Park series. They kick off by screening last year’s vibrant Pixar film Elemental, a cleverly crafted animation anthropomorphizing fire and water for main characters. Get to the park around 6pm to get set up, grab one of the 100 free bags of popcorn from Cornucopia, and peruse vendors that include Amy’s Ice Creams, the Art Garage, Keep Austin Beautiful, Painted by Cara, and Goldfish Swim School. Bring chairs, dogs, and/or picnics, but no glass, styrofoam, alcohol, or smoking, please!   – Kat McNevins

HFC Presents Caravaggio

Friday 15, Elisabet Ney Museum

If you’re Austin’s Hyperreal Film Club and you’re teaming up with Letterboxd to present Derek Jarman’s Caravaggio, a fictionalized portrait of the subversive artist (that, oooh, features Tilda Swinton’s first film performance), you’ll want to do it somewhere appropriate, somewhere redolent of subversion and the old-school creative life, right? Well – holy chiaroscuro, Artman! This nighttime screening takes place on the grounds of the Elisabet Ney Museum in Hyde Park, and includes free drinks (tyvm, Fairweather Cider), themed snacks, a photo booth, and live music.   – Wayne Alan Brenner

“Apotheosis” Artists’ Reception

Friday 15, Lydia Street Gallery

The freshly paved streets of Austin still echo with Kathy McCarty’s soulful warbling of “Christine” from her days as frontwoman for Glass Eye, but now she – and her husband, the artist David Thornberry – have reached their pictorial “Apotheosis” in this two-person exhibition of paintings at Lydia Street Gallery on East 11th, McCarty’s visuals bringing evocations of life in our storied metrop, Thornberry’s capturing “shapes, shadows, and light.” Sonic bonus: The lady will perform songs from her upcoming album, also called Apotheosis, at tonight’s reception. Time hasn’t stolen this creative couple from anyone.   – Wayne Alan Brenner

Bluey’s Big Play

Saturday 16 - Sunday 17, the Long Center

They’re dogs; they’re Australian; and they’re back by popular demand! Kids and parents alike will be barkin’ up a storm for this stage play featuring the Heeler family as incredible puppet creations – yes, that includes mom Chili, dad Bandit, and kiddos Bluey and Bingo. Wondering what these Aussie cattle dogs will get up to? “When Dad feels like a little bit of Sunday afternoon time out, Bluey and Bingo have other plans! Join them as they pull out all of the games and cleverness at their disposal to get Dad off that bean bag.” Wackadoo!   – James Scott

Nude Model Sketching

Monday 18, Atelier Dojo

Right, so you’re reading this because you saw “nude modeling” in the title, but then noticed the “sketching” and were still interested, because you’ve actually been wanting to capture an unclothed human figure on canvas or paper with pigments of one sort or another? Excellent – because this three-hour session happens at Atelier Dojo, the finest school of artistic realism in the city, run by painters Jennifer Balkan, Denise M. Fulton, and Karen Offutt. You don’t even have to be a student there: Show up anytime, use whatever supplies you need, and there’s only a $10 drop-in fee.   – Wayne Alan Brenner

Latinx Horror Night with Cynthia Pelayo

Monday 18, BookPeople

All those interested in the spine-tingling genre of Latinx horror will find the collective power rolling off BookPeople this Monday to be undeniable. Heavyweight pen-lifters Cynthia Pelayo and Gabino Iglesias – both Bram Stoker Award winners – will be in conversation on that subject as well as on Pelayo’s newest novel, Forgotten Sisters. The psychological horror novel follows sisters Anna and Jennie as they traverse Chicago’s ghost stories’ many unsettling pathways. Buy a copy from BP, and you’ll be able to get Pelayo’s signature in your book.   – James Scott

AFS Essential Cinema: Edward Yang

Tuesday 19 & Friday-Saturday 22-23, AFS Cinema

The history of world cinema teems with “new waves” that symbolized electrifying new directions – in technique, in the kinds of stories being told, and in the people doing the telling. In Taiwan, that New Wave revved up in the early Eighties with Edward Yang at the wheel. Austin Film Society’s new Essential Cinema presents a rare look at Yang’s filmography, which has grown in stature since his early death at 59 from colon cancer. Series kickoff Taipei Story (1985) stars Hou Hsiao-hsien, fellow titan of New Taiwanese Cinema, as a former star baseball player stuck in the past and at odds with his more modern-minded girlfriend, played by Tsai Chin, a pop singer who would become Yang’s first wife.   – Kimberley Jones

Mad Splatter Party

Wednesday 20, Dougherty Arts Center

One of the greatest decades, the Nineties gave us grunge, Seinfeld, Beanie Babies, millennials, and so much more. Celebrate the late 20th century at an arty party where you’ll make your own slime, taste some fave Nineties sweet treats at the candy bar, and make a contribution to the splatter paint graffiti wall. There will undoubtedly be a soundtrack of killer jams, and feel free to bust out your flannels and Docs or overalls with one strap hanging loose if you’re feeling especially nostalgic.   – Kat McNevins

Lounge Movie Night: Moonage Daydream

Wednesday 20, Central Library

On the third Wednesday of every month, the Austin Public Library’s central location turns its Innovation Lab – a free-to-the-public podcast, video, and music studio – into a movie theatre. March’s movie is Moonage Daydream, Brett Morgen’s 2022 ode to David Bowie. More visual experience than talking-head documentary, Morgen – who offered a tragically revealing look into Kurt Cobain’s life with 2015’s Montage of Heck – uses personal archival footage and live shots to tell his subject’s story, creating a fittingly immersive, impressionistic look at one of the 20th century’s most alluring stars.   – Carys Anderson

poolboy: don’t pick up

Thursday 21 - Saturday 23, Museum of Human Achievement

Push the boundaries between reality and fiction at this performance of Sam Mayer’s persona poolboy00, “an experimental reality show/participatory memoir/talk show for the streaming platform Twitch and irl.” Audiences will be pulled into the Houston-born artist’s tale created from over 20 years of writing – including journals, failed plays, and a School of Rock fanfic – and asked to interact through live question and answer. Be warned, however, that nothing is as it seems in this production.   – James Scott