Weekend Event Planner

These are the 15 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

It's another busy weekend in and around Dallas. There will be two different film festivals, an NFL draft celebration, four new theater productions, two dance events, a quartet of concerts featuring well-known names, a special movie event with famous actor, and more.

Below are the best ways to spend your precious free time this weekend. Want more options? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, April 27

Thin Line Fest
Thin Line Fest combines the best of modern media to create an engaging, multi-layered experience. Thin Line Film is the longest running documentary film festival in Texas, while Thin Line Music has a mix of styles from national and regional acts on small and intimate stages. The festival will take place at multiple venues around Denton, including Campus Theatre, Dan's Silverleaf, Rubber Gloves Rehearsal Studios, and more through Sunday.

Dallas Cowboys Draft Weekend
The Dallas Cowboys Draft Weekend at The Star in Frisco will feature a Draft Day Party on Thursday to watch live coverage of the 2023 NFL Draft, including the Dallas Cowboys’ first round selection. Visitors can see current players and alumni, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, and Rowdy the mascot. On Friday, Draft Night Out will feature live draft coverage, live and local music by Ray Johnston Band, food trucks, lawn games, and more on Tostitos Championship Plaza. The weekend ends with the Dallas Cowboys Draft Day 5K on Saturday and live draft coverage.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents "Shostakovich Symphony No. 8"
Known for his interpretations of Shostakovich, conductor Jukka Pekka Saraste leads the Dallas Symphony Orchestra through the composer's Eighth Symphony. The concert will also include Sibelius' Pohjola’s Daughter. There will be three performances through Sunday at Meyerson Symphony Center.

Prism Movement Theater presents Circe: The Song of Benedito
Circe: The Song of Benedito combines dance, song, and martial arts to tell the story of enslaved Africans from Angola who developed Capoeira. The martial art utilized song and dance to secretly develop techniques that allowed them to escape their captors. There will be six performances of this outdoor production through May 13 at Kidd Springs Park.

Brian Culbertson in concert
Over the course of crafting 25 albums and releasing nearly 40 Billboard No. 1 singles as a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and producer, jazz/R&B pianist Brian Culbertson has charted his own unique course in music. The Trilogy Tour will feature a mix of songs from The Trilogy Albums, as well as the greatest hits from his catalog. He'll perform at Majestic Theatre.

Friday, April 28

Dallas International Film Festival
The 17th Dallas International Film Festival will feature screenings of more than 100 films submitted from more than 60 countries, as well as Q&A sessions with filmmakers and actors, nightly DIFF Red Carpets, a Festival Lounge, and special events. Notable films in the festival include BlackBerry, A Disturbance in the Force: How the Star Wars Holiday Special Happened, Gibson Icons: Rex Brown of Pantera, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, and more. The festival takes place daily through May 5 at Violet Crown Cinema.

HITS! The Musical
HITS! The Musical is a high energy musical production featuring a cast of 30 members who will take audiences on a musical journey through the decades; highlighting the biggest hits of all time in pop, rock, and Broadway, and the most iconic songs from the 1960s to present day. The production will have a one-night-only performance at the Music Hall at Fair Park.

Avant Chamber Ballet presents Women's Choreography Project
To finish their season, Avant Chamber Ballet presents an evening of world premieres and commissions with live music. The program features new works by female-identifying choreographers who are under-represented voices in the creation process in the world of dance. There will be performances on both Friday and Saturday at Sammons Center for the Arts.

Art Centre Theatre presents The Bad Seed
The Bad Seed takes place in a small Southern town where Rhoda is, on the surface, sweet and charming girl, full of old-fashioned graces, loved by her parents, admired by all her elders. But Rhoda’s mother has an uneasy feeling about her. When one of Rhoda’s schoolmates is mysteriously drowned at a picnic, Rhoda's mother is alarmed. The production runs through May 13 at Art Centre Theatre in Plano.

Dinosaur Jr. in concert
Alt-rock band Dinosaur Jr. has been around for nearly 40 years, gaining cult status thanks to '90s songs like "Start Choppin'" and "Feel the Pain." Led by lead singer J Mascis since the beginning, the band took a break in the late '90s/early 2000s before reuniting in 2005, releasing five more albums, most recently 2021's Sweep It Into Space. They'll play at Longhorn Ballroom.

Bruce Wood Dance presents 13th Anniversary Performance & Gala
Bruce Wood Dance's 13th Anniversary Performance & Gala will feature the work of choreographic legend Lar Lubovitch. The performance also features the world premiere of Conversing with Brahms, the Dallas premiere of his masterwork, Concerto Six Twenty–Two, and the return of his jubilant Elemental Brubeck. A gala dinner and entertainment will follow the show at Moody Performance Hall.

Saturday, April 29

Hardy in concert
Going only by his last name, country singer Hardy has quickly made a name for himself in the genre. He released his debut album, A Rock, in 2020, which featured the No. 1 song "One Beer." He's already had one hit song, "Wait in the Truck," off of his 2023 sophomore album, The Mockingbird and the Crow, with more sure to come. He'll play at The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory in Irving.

Ochre House Theater presents Darken: Less A Light On
Ochre House Theater presents Darken: Less A Light On, which takes place in truly absurd times. A woman, having done something brave, now fears for her safety, and falls into a cloud of fear and paranoia. An oddball group of friends, family and strangers try to push her forward, or pull her back. The Absurdist piece points out the fears (both outside and within) people live with, in these precarious times. The production runs through May 20.

Sunday, April 30

Bruce Campbell presents Bruce-O-Rama: Evil Dead II
Cult favorite genre film star Bruce Campbell comes to Dallas as a part of his tour, Bruce-O-Rama. A two-part evening of indulgent fun, it begins with Last Fan Standing, an interactive game show exclusively for fans of pop culture. In the second half, Campbell will introduce Evil Dead II and take questions before the screening in a lively half-hour of anecdotes, insults, and random cash giveaways. The event takes place at Texas Theatre.

Seal in concert
Seal comes to Dallas as part of his 30th Anniversary Tour, commemorating three decades of his landmark self-titled 1991 debut album and eponymous follow-up Seal II (1994). He will perform the records in their entirety for the first time, delivering a set highlighted by hits like “Crazy,” “Future Love Paradise,” “Killer,” and “Kiss From A Rose.” Soul staples and standards will be peppered throughout the concert, taking place at the Music Hall at Fair Park.

Art Centre Theatre presents The Bad Seed

Photo courtesy of Art Centre Theatre

Art Centre Theatre in Plano presents The Bad Seed, April 28-May 13.

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Movie Review

New film The Plague turns tween bullying into chilling drama

Photo courtesy of IFC

Everett Blunck in The Plague.

Anybody who’s attended elementary school in the last 100 years knows the concept of “cooties,” a fictional affliction that is typically caught when touched by a member of the opposite sex. A more updated version of the same idea is featured in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, this time called the “Cheese Touch,” making anyone who touches a moldy piece of cheese on the school’s basketball court an outcast.

A much more menacing version of this “disease” is on display in The Plague, which takes place at a summer water polo camp for tweens. The film focuses on Ben (Everett Blunck), a slightly awkward boy who struggles to fit in with the “cool” crowd led by Jake (Kayo Martin). That group has no problems making fun of others that they deem to be different, especially Eli (Kenny Rasmussen), who has been ostracized because of a rash he has that the kids call “the plague.”

Ben wants to be part of the main group, but his natural empathy leads him to reach out to Eli on more than one occasion despite Eli engaging in some uncomfortable behavior. With the camp’s coach (Joel Edgerton) not much help when it comes to the bullying tactics by Jake and others, especially those that take place at night, Ben is left to fend for himself. His vacillations between wanting to be accepted and wanting to do what’s right continue until his hand is forced.

Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Charlie Polinger, the film has all the feel of a horror movie without actually being a horror. The staging used by Polinger gives the film a claustrophobic feel as Ben can’t seem to escape the psychological torture inflicted by Jake and others no matter where he goes. He also employs a jarring score by Johan Lenox to great effect, one that’s designed to keep viewers on edge even when nothing bad is happening.

No matter how far removed you are from middle school, the film will likely bring up feelings you thought you had left behind. Much like with Bo Burnham’s Eighth Grade, Polinger finds a way to tap into something universal in his depiction of tweens, an age when everyone is still discovering who they really are. Some go along to get along, others don’t even attempt to fit in, but no one truly feels settled.

Whether the plague is real or not in the world of the film is up for debate. While most of the time it comes off as something made up to underscore the feeling of otherness felt by Ben, Polinger does literalize it to a degree. He even tiptoes up to the line of body horror before wisely retreating, although what he does show will still make some viewers squeamish. However, because he seems to be leaning one way before pulling back, there’s the possibility that some will be disappointed by the tease of something more intense.

The film’s biggest success is in its casting. Finding good child actors is notoriously tough, and yet Polinger and casting director Rebecca Dealy found a bunch who sell the story for all it’s worth. Blunck, Martin, and Rasmussen get the most play, but everyone else complements them well. Edgerton is the only well-known actor in the film, but he’s used sparingly and isn’t asked to do much, leaving the kids to carry the story on their shoulders.

Fitting in as a tween is hard enough without others actively trying to find ways to cast someone out. The Plague is an effective demonstration of the dynamics that can play out in a competitive environment that also includes a group that has yet to develop into fully-rounded people. It features discomfort on multiple levels, marking an auspicious debut for Polinger.

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The Plague is now playing in theaters.

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