For Regent Square, theater’s lost summer may yield long-term improvements later
The ardent fans of arthouse cinema who have spent a lost summer without the Regent Square Theater will need to be patient until September, apparently, but in the long run they may be able to attend a modernized theater with new lobby and restrooms.
Thatwas the word Friday from Germaine Williams, CEO of Pittsburgh Filmmakers and Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, after a community meeting the night before the theater-owning group arranged with Regent Square residents and merchants and longtime theater attendees. He said the meeting confirmed the intense interest in and support for the theater from the neighborhood, which Mr. Williams hopes to capitalize on through a community steering committee that will help raise needed funds.
“This is really about more than fixing a piece of equipment to reopen the doors,” Mr. Williams said. “This is about how can we make this a model arthouse theater, how can we connect the programming more to the community, how can we improve the inside of the theater.”
The Regent Square, for decades a reliable venue to find independent and foreign films that don’t make it into multiplexes, has been closed since May 28 because of problems with projection equipment that have defied a quick and easy repair. A key replacement part still needs to be tracked down, Mr. Williams said, which will likely postpone the reopening into next month.
In the meantime, he said, he and community representatives are interested in starting a committee that would channel the neighborhood support for the theater into a means of helping raise funds for longer-term improvements. The state seven years ago approved a $400,000 grant for renovations of the 81year-old facility’s lobby, cramped bathrooms and heating and ventilation equipment, but it can be accessed only if Pittsburgh Filmmakers itself raises $600,000 to meet the $1 million target cost.
Mr. Williams encouraged anyone interested in serving on the steering committee, which he expects will consist of no more than a dozen individuals, to email him at gwilliams@pfpca.org. Additionally, individuals can subscribe to an e-newsletter the organization is starting to better communicate information about the theater’s progress to the public.
Mr. Williams said he does not expect the Regent Square’s primary purpose to change, as the largest of the three single-screen theaters operated by Pittsburgh Filmmakers.
“From our standpoint, arthouse cinema is artistically key to the programming we’re doing ... and we wouldn’t really want to deviate from that,” he said. “That’s what people love about the Regent Square and expect to continue.”
But, Mr. Williams noted, ticket sales alone rarely can sustain any arts organization. He hopes developing a fundraising plan with community support over the next few months will assist in not only the physical theater improvements, but in providing reserves so closures similar to this summer’s might not be necessary when future equipment problems occur.