Nicki Wilson was shocked when her local newspaper reported in March 2023 that the Triplex Theater, an independent film house with four screens in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, was closed in business after almost three decades.
The plywood, the only theater in the city, was a beloved fixture, who attracted cinema visitors from all over Berkshires, even on winter evenings, while not much else was open, Mrs. Wilson said.
“I couldn't imagine that I would live in a city without a cinema,” she said.
Mrs. Wilson was not the only one who felt that way, and after a community campaign the plywood reopened in November 2023 in a much different form. It is no longer dependent on the sale of tickets and popcorn. The plywood has become a non -profit organization that depends on donations, subsidies and a lot of volunteer work. And instead of leaning on the next Hollywood -Blockbuster, the plywood focuses on what the community wants to see.
“In an independent theater you can show what you want,” said Gail Lansky, vice president of the plywood board. “You can show retrospectives. You can show foreign films. You can do film festivals. Free Saturday for children “
Certainly not all non-profit theaters are doing well, but the model has worked, at least so far, in places such as the Berkshires, where a devoted and well-to-do customer-friendly and able to support the art. Two nearby non -profit cinemas in New York, the Filmhuis in Millerton and the Crandell Theater in Chatham, have attracted considerable fan bases. There are more than 250 cinemas non-profit organizations throughout the country, said Bryan Braunlich, executive director of the Cinema Foundation, a group industrial group that offers research for cinemas.
“We definitely see a trend of communities that gather around their local theaters,” he said.
And cinemas need storage. Since 2019, the number of screens active in the United States has fallen to 36,369 from 2023, said David Hancock, chief analyst in media and entertainment at the research agency Omdia. The popularity of home flow in the past decade was a factor. Before the pandemic the number of public had already declined, but Covid almost gave the industry a manslaughter, because consumers got used to staying at home and became more picky about which films they went to a theater to see.
“People certainly came back, but much slower,” said the former owner of the plywood, Richard Stanley. “Eventually I saw the handwriting on the wall and I decided that I had to close.”
When a theater in the city is closed, it is not just a problem for film lovers. Because of their unique architecture, with sloping floors and few windows, they are difficult to convert to other purposes and often leave prominent areas empty.
By becoming a non -profit, theaters can use different sources of income, such as film festivals, and the hope is that a theater will build a loyal and supportive basis for the people of a city.
This does not happen from one day to the next. That was the case with the Belcourt Theater in Nashville. A community group had collected millions of dollars to serve and renovate the film palace from 1925, which briefly served as the main stage of the Grand Ole Opy.
“Each of us who work in the theater remind themselves the days that we would show 'Badlands' to four people, and now we show 'Badlands' to 150 to 200 people,” said the executive director of Belcourt, Stephanie Silverman, referring To the director Terrence Malick's debut function from 1973.
Those who gathered around the plywood hope for the same. When the theater opened in 1995 at the location of a burnt -up Houthakker, shopping centers in the neighborhood had sucked life from Main Street and Great Barrington was struggling economically, said Mr Stanley, the former owner of Triplex.
Main Street is today a very different place, mainly because of an inflow of tourists and weekends, and the plywood “was a very crucial, real core thing that brought people to the city,” said Betsy Andrus, executive director of the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Trade.
By 2023, two other plywoods in the Berkshires, in Lanesborough and North Adams were already closed. But Mrs. Wilson believed that there was hope in the plywood. She called Mr. Stanley to ask if there was a way to reopen the theater.
“I asked what we could do and said:” Well, pay me $ 1 million and you can buy the theater, “she said.
Mrs. Wilson did not have to save $ 1 million, but she had many friends. In April 2023 she invited her neighbors in her living room to discuss the theater. The group, who called itself Save the Triplex, created a GoFundMe page and a website to raise money. The answer was overwhelming, said Hannah Wilken, who had spent many weekends as a teenager in the plywood with her friends and was involved in fundraising.
Even people who had not been to the theater since Covid had not been a visceral connection with the place. “We have just begun to be flooded with people who say: 'I want to help. I want to donate. Sign up, “said Mrs. Wilken.
The actress Karen Allen, who owns a fiber optic store in the city, has transferred Memorabilia to “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, in which she played for an auction. A big boost came when the photographer Gregory Crewdson donated $ 225,000, after selling copies of a signed limited edition of his work.
Within a few months, the group had collected $ 246,000 – enough to pay the mortgage of the first year. Mr. Stanley thought the idea to keep the plywood alive as a non-profit organization of the inhabitants of the city and gave Mrs. Wilson's group a five-year mortgage to buy the theater.
The campaign has benefited from the large and devoted Berkshires Arts Community, which regularly attracts celebrities to the city. Bill Murray appeared in the plywood to discuss 'The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou', the Wes Anderson film in which Mr. Murray played the title character, and Joan Baez was there for a show of a documentary about her life. Arlo Guthrie discussed the film 'Alice's Restaurant' from 1969 that was filmed nearby. Not all events have earned money, but enough have done well to maintain the plywood.
Film theaters remain a Dicey company, and for the plywood to survive the long term, it needs much more money. The four screening spaces need major renovations. And although an active board supervises the activities of the theater, it had only two full -time paid employees until this month. (A third full -time employee starts later this month, and the theater also has part -time help, including the people who sell tickets and popcorn.) Mrs. Wilson, the president of the board, hopes to hire more people, but for now the theater is hanging Still largely rid of volunteers.
“The challenges are real,” said Mrs. Lansky, vice president of the board. “Everyone knows that an independent theater cannot only rely on tickets and concessions.”
Non -profit theaters are also usually a low priority for film distributors, Mr. Hancock of Omdia said. That means that they cannot always show the latest Hollywood -Blockbuster and find other ways to maintain the enthusiasm of the public and to maintain a constant dedication of the members of the community to donate money and do their time volunteering, he said.
“The model can work, but only if the cinema is appreciated by the local community,” Mr Hancock added.
Yet those behind the revival of the plywood believe that there is an audience. Sitting at home and watching movies on Netflix is just not the same, said Ben Elliott, a creative director at the theater and one of the few paid employees.
Mr. Elliott grew up in Great Barrington and regularly visited the plywood as a child. One of the things he missed during Covid was the sound of conversations in the lobby after a film ended.
“Being together in a physical space is something that becomes rarer and rarer, and holding on to it, I think, is important for communities throughout the country,” he said. “It is also the most feasible way for us to keep a theater open.”
