By MCN Editor editor@moviecitynews.com
State Theatre Takes Major Next Step in Renovating Downtown Traverse City’s Historic Movie Palace
“ANOTHER HUNDRED YEARS” YEAR-END FUNDRAISING CAMPAIGN FOR FRONT EXTERIOR RENOVATION AND COMMUNITY FUND SURPASSES HALFWAY MARK
Traverse City, Mich. (November 22, 2011) — The Traverse City Film Festival has surged past the halfway point to mark $317,000 in progress just days after launching a year-end capital and community fund campaign called “Another Hundred Years!” that aims to raise $500,000 by December 31. The community is answering the challenge of major donors and organizations to match pledged funds for replacing the crumbling 1949 front exterior of the historic downtown theater, and underwriting the State’s educational, community and charitable programs.
Michael Moore, president and founder of the Traverse City Film Festival and the State Theatre, issued the challenge: “As stewards of our beautiful and historic movie palace, where people have watched movies for nearly a hundred years, we take our responsibility to continue this tradition very seriously. We ask you, the stakeholders of this theater and film festival, to join us. The theater facade is literally crumbling. We need your help.”
In less than two weeks, over 600 people have helped by visiting anotherhundredyears.org and supporting the first fundraising campaign the theater has embarked upon since the State opened almost four years ago this week, on November 17, 2007. Owning a piece of history (one of the original 1949 red panels), sponsoring a seat or a new red panel, buying or gifting memberships, and donating in any amount have been some of the most popular ways to make tax-deductible contributions to the 501c3 nonprofit.
The State Theatre’s marquee is doubling as a campaign thermometer until the end of the year, with the heartbeat of lights on each side of the marquee marking progress along the road to a $500,000 goal. “We’ve already been able to turn on 45 bulbs on each mirrored side — 28 more to go,” said building manager Alan Collard.
The State Theatre has celebrated many accomplishments in its four years, welcoming its 500,000th patron in December of 2010 and regularly leading the nation in box office for the film it was showing, despite facing significant challenges. One of these challenges is common to historic theaters — ongoing repairs, both major and minor.
“We knew the front exterior needed repair when Rotary Charities donated the building to the festival in 2007 — it had not had any kind of real attention since it went up in 1949,” said Deb Lake, TCFF Executive Director. “At that time, repairing or replacing the facade wasn’t the most urgent need, so we undertook a search for a way to replace the red tiles on the front of the theater in an historically faithful manner.”
Volunteer experts working on the theater’s behalf found a workable solution shortly after water started leaking into the basement this fall, and “just as experts told us that the exterior’s issues had developed to the point that we needed to address them within the next six months to a year,” said Lake.
Since the theater reopened in 2007, other major capital projects have been announced and accomplished, including installation a complete fire suppression system, laying cement in the theater’s dirt basement to create a storeroom, major additions and ongoing upgrades to the theater’s best-available projection and sound systems, and several energy conservation projects. The theater’s long-term capital plans include work on the theater’s HVAC system, creation of a second screen, and an urgent need for upgrade or replacement of the theater’s digital projector.
Like other single-screen theaters, the State also faces the challenge of distribution policies that require more popular films to be held for many weeks without interruption by special events, limiting options for members and moviegoers. And, uniquely, the State is only able to show a limited group of films.
“We suffer more challenges than most because of a deed restriction that prevents us from showing any film that opens on more than 200 screens. We can’t show most movies because of this restriction imposed on us by the only movie chain in town, a restriction that flies in the face of our monopoly laws and that prevents us from showing the most popular films, the ones that bring in the largest box office,” Moore said.
Despite the fact that most every operating cost has gone up since the theater first opened, the State still charges the same price for admission as it did on Day One, and remains committed to the community programs that have brought new and diverse groups of people downtown in droves for four years.
“People who love the theater and what it does for our community are saying that they want to keep the State strong and vibrant for another 100 years, to underwrite the great things the theater does in the face of great challenges. They want to provide ongoing support for a historic theater and the things we do for the entire community, including families, seniors, students, and area nonprofits,” said volunteer house manager David Poinsett.
The State’s full calendar of educational, charitable and community events and programs includes weekly 25-cent movies for kids and seniors; weekly use of the theater by non-profits and groups of all kinds at no charge; free year-round admission for active duty military personnel, peace workers and anyone using a wheelchair; special film series like Monday Night Docs and Friday Night Flicks that bring films to the big screen that would otherwise not be available to audiences; full weeks of free popular films during spring break week and the Cherry Festival; donations to area food banks; free viewing parties for Michigan’s sports teams and for local teams when they play in championships; free community events of all kinds, year-round; and film screenings for students.
“It is part of our theater’s soul, part of our mission, to bring cinema to the community — the entire community,” wrote Moore.
These free and community events have real costs: film rentals and shipping, utilities, staff and projectionist costs, and other costs associated with keeping the 8,000 square foot historic movie palace open.
“Underwriting these programs will help ensure that we can continue them and make them grow, and supporting the capital campaign will ensure that the theater will shine brightly and strong many years to come. We have seen tremendous support of the State’s campaign thus far — we’re ahead of our goals and estimates. We hope to end the year with good news, ready complete the renovation this spring and continue the community programs that are essential to our mission,” said Lake.
In upcoming weeks, the campaign will focus on a $10 text to donate competition that allows people to use their cell phones to support the theater and at the same time vote on an age-old intrastate rivalry: Michigan State vs the University of Michigan. The score currently stands at MSU 30, UofM 13 in the still largely under the radar competition. The winning team’s colors will decorate the theater in January 2012.
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