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RECOMMENDED EVENTS

THURSDAY MAY 24

Music

Film

Summer Film Classics: Kickoff Weekend – Celebrating 100 Years of Universal Pictures: To Kill a Mockingbird

This atmospheric Southern Gothic was adapted for the screen by Horton Foote from Harper Lee's prize-winning novel about a widowed lawyer with two young children who takes on the locally scandalous job of defending a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman. Peck won an Oscar for his work, and Duvall made his screen debut as the mythic Boo Radley.

2PM, Paramount Theatre, 713 Congress

Arts

Austin Sketch Fest

The Sketch Fest so amazing that those Coldtowners had to move it out of Coldtowne! The Sketch Fest that ate Spider House and Hyde Park Theatre! The Sketch Fest that – oh, you get the idea. And, yes, there are troupes from all over the country coming to perform their best bits. And, yes, Paul F. Tompkins will be doing his new stand-up show as part of this festy thing and no other in town. So check the Coldtowne website for details and tickets (best bet: The Fest Pass) but see here for the shorthand of what you really don't want to miss out on:

At Hyde Park Theatre, 511 W. 43rd: Spirit Desire and Hot Property Thu., 8pm. The P! Company and One Across Thu., 10pm. Astronaut Theatre and Stag! Comedy Fri., 8pm. Fantasy Sex Picnic and Ghetto Sketch Warlock Fri., 10pm.

At Spider House Ballroom, 2908 Fruth: Paul Tompkins: Driving & Crying Sat.-Sun., 8pm. Delicious Moments and Your Terrific Neighbors Sat., 10pm.

www.coldtownetheater.com

NOW NOW OH NOW

They used to call it CL1000P, but now the Rude Mechs have transformed those earlier workshops into their newest multivalenced spectacle. This full production – inspired by evolutionary biology, the Brontës, and Live Action Role Playing communities – weaves together "a locked room puzzle, a lecture on sexual selection in evolutionary biology, and the world's weirdest night of Dungeons and Dragons." There's room for only 30 people each time, so there'll be several performances each night. See the Rudes' website for details! Thu.-Sun., through June 9. $25 (pay what you can, Thursdays & Sundays)

The Off Center, 2211-A Hidalgo, 512/476-7833

www.rudemechs.com, info@rudemechs.com

South Austin Museum of Popular Culture: Screen and Destroy

The lost art of rock posters is revived in this excellent showcase of more than three decades' worth of screenprinted works by Lindsey Kuhn.

South Austin Popular Culture Center, 1516-B S. Lamar, 440-8318

www.samopc.org

Joel-Peter Witkin

The Austin Center For Photography presents a lecture and book-signing by this renowned photographer of the human and the grotesque. Recommended? Yes, highly. Thu., May 24, 7pm. $20 ($15, in advance)

The Blanton Museum of Art, MLK & Congress, 445-6180

www.visitacp.org, amanda@visitacp.org

Community

Chrontourage