Take your trophy photos with De Niro and DiCaprio cutouts

You don't have to know anyone well-connected. You don't have to beg. You don't have to lurk on street corners in Pawhuska and Fairfax, waiting on a momentarily incautious celebrity to make a public appearance.

The Constantine Theater has you covered. For free, if you visit the theater, you can take a selfie with life-sized cardboard cutouts of Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio.

“People are so excited about this movie that just getting to pretend for a while will be fun,” said theater manager-in-training Jennifer Adair, who allowed the Journal-Capital to take her picture with the cardboard film idols, whose flesh-and-blood counterparts have been cast in Martin Scorsese's motion picture adaptation of David Grann's book "Killers of the Flower Moon."

The theater has created hashtags you can use in posting your photos online. Examples include: #robandleoattheconstantine and #constantinetheaterpicturewiththestars.

“And I hope that Leo and Robert are flattered,” she added. She explained that the Constantine has a reputation for being haunted, and sometimes when she enters the building the first sight of the cardboard cutouts catches her off guard -- spooks her, you might say.

The theater is open right now from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. That schedule is planned until school is out in mid-May. Then the plan is to go to six days a week, Mondays through Saturdays.

After you've taken that selfie with the movie stars, you can ease into the theater and watch documentary films about Osage County, which Adair said have proven to be of interest to visitors.

"They are fascinating – a lot of things people don’t know about Oklahoma,” Adair said of the historical films.

There had been more than 700 visitors to the Constantine since March 15, Adair said April 22. She voiced a desire for people to actually set foot in the theater building and find out how attractive it really is.

“I just want everybody to see it,” Adair says of the theater, “and see what a great, wonderful thing it is.”

Need more inducement?

“We actually have the cleanest air that you can breathe in this whole town in this building,” she said, referring to the effect of air-filtration equipment that has been installed at the Constantine to help protect against COVID-19.

Adair has been working under the tutelage of Shannon Martin, the interim director of the Constantine. Martin, who is director of the Burford Theatre in Arkansas City, Kansas, is working as a consultant to help the Constantine develop programming.

The approach that Martin has taken in helping the Constantine is to encourage active citizen participation -- visiting the theater to do more than sit in a chair.

“That’s the purpose of the theater," Martin said. "It’s a theater for the whole community, and so we want to have activities for the whole community.”

Talent show planned

For instance, Martin explained that a talent show has been planned for 7 p.m. Saturday, June 12, dubbed "Pawhuska's Got Talent." Persons of all ages are invited to participate.

Video submissions by potential talent show participants are encouraged. The video submissions are due by Tuesday, May 11, and may be up to two minutes in length. If you would like an in-person audition, you will need to make an appointment.

Talent show performances should be family-friendly in tone and content. Performances should not, for instance, include profanity or weapons. Send your audition videos to the following address: contact@constantinetheater.com. If you desire an in-person audition, call 918-900-6161.

Actual performances on June 12 may be up to five minutes in length, and the Constantine is encouraging what it refers to as "a broad range of performing arts and special skills." Persons who are selected to perform will be required to attend any rehearsals that are scheduled.

Performances will be judged by a panel, and there will be modest prizes. Performers will receive two free passes to the show for family members and friends.

Tickets at the door will be $5 for adults and $3 for students. Children 5 and younger will be admitted free of charge.