Oklahoma City artists are converging on a 100-year-old Stockyards City movie house this Friday for a first-of-its-kind night of theater, music, dance, film and magic — timed deliberately to the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Collage Cabaret, a one-time showcase built by seven main producers and media staff, kicks off at 7:30 p.m. at Rodeo Cinema, with a program that folds a solemn 9/11 tribute into an otherwise celebratory evening of local creative work.
The event was created by executive producer Alexandria Yolie and director of media Clayton Jones, according to News 9. Both trained at Oklahoma City University, whose School of Theatre marked 100 years of drama education during the 2022–2023 academic year, per Facebook OCU Theatre Alums. Yolie, a Los Angeles-raised Chicana artist who trained as an actress for over a decade, now works as outreach and festival manager for the deadCenter Film Festival and has acted with Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma. Jones has acted and understudied in Lyric Theatre productions including “The Play That Goes Wrong” and “A Christmas Carol,” according to Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma.
The organizers describe their goal simply: to create a space for local artists to collaborate, showcase their work and build a stronger creative community, bringing together performers from different creative circles across the city, the station's report notes. The lineup spans theater, musical theater, original songs, dance, a short-film premiere, a music video and a magic act — a deliberately genre-crossing bill meant to give artists another platform to celebrate their craft and reach new audiences.
A 9/11 Tribute Woven Into the Program
Because the show falls on the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Collage Cabaret includes a dedicated tribute to those affected by that day, complete with a moment of silence. Vocalist Lindsay Bell will perform a musical-theater piece tied directly to the tribute, per the same account. The program also incorporates an interview with a September 11 survivor, Jeff Bacone, who agreed to be interviewed for the show and whose segment Jones will edit himself.
Bacone was in Manhattan on September 11, 2001, and was about four blocks away when the twin towers were hit, according to the report. His account will be presented alongside the evening's lighter, celebratory performances rather than as a standalone segment, blending memorial content with the broader showcase.
Intermission Activity and a Post-Show Mixer
Between performances, attendees will be invited to take part in an intermission activity, writing down what they are grateful for, why they love art, and who they love in their life. After the roughly two-hour show wraps, an hour-long mixer will give artists in the audience and performers a chance to network and keep collaborating beyond the one night.
Tickets for the 120-minute performance run from $10 to $15, per listings from the Rodeo Cinema Foundation, which organizers describe as a premium show kept at an accessible price point. Tickets are available at rodeocinema.org.
A Century-Old Theater Built for the Moment
Rodeo Cinema first opened in 1924 to screen silent films, celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2024, and operates today as Oklahoma City's only non-profit arthouse theater, according to TravelOK. The Rodeo Cinema Foundation, organized as a 501(c)(3) non-profit in 2018 to support independent film screenings and community arts education, brought in new local leadership in December 2024 to push the venue toward more event-driven programming, including live performances and local film showcases, reported Oklahoma City Free Press. That shift followed operations temporarily halting in late 2024.
The theater sits in Historic Stockyards City, a district established in 1910 around the Oklahoma National Stockyards that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and named Oklahoma's first Urban Main Street program in 1992. The neighborhood remains home to the world's largest stocker and feeder cattle market, a striking backdrop for a night built around cross-disciplinary indie art. Hoodline covered another recent gathering in the district, the 140-car Chrome Stampede show, part of a broader pattern of public events finding a home in Stockyards City.
For now, Collage Cabaret is billed as a one-time performance, with no announced plans for a repeat. Organizers are framing Friday's show as both a tribute and a proof of concept — a test of whether Oklahoma City's scattered pockets of theater, music, film and dance talent can share one stage and one audience for a single night.
