Excitement swept through the air as a crowd filed into The Colonial Performing Arts Center for its centennial celebration.
On Sunday, Feb. 18, The Colonial screened “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” from the year 1923, the first film to ever have been screened at the theater. Alongside the film was keyboardist Jeff Rapsis, the live accompaniment for the event.
The Colonial began construction in 1923 and by 1924, it was complete. Former owner Charles Baldwin gave away 6,000 free tickets to “The Hunchback Of Notre Dame.” Now, the theater is 100-years-old and to celebrate, a free screening of the same film was shown along with free popcorn provided to audience members.
Alec Doyle, executive director of The Colonial, provided background. “Back then … there was not any television … so people’s entertainment [were] movies and things,” Doyle said. “With the advent of TV and stuff like that … our income stream is primarily … live programming, whether it’s music, or comedy, or education or what have you … [but] we still are a film house. We feel it’s important … to be able to provide that for the community.”
Doyle further explained The Colonial’s significance in the community. “We like to think of it as the crown and the jewel. I mean, we are very fortunate to be sitting right in the middle of Main Street … Now we’re the last remaining historic theater in the entire county. So we feel that we hold a real place of importance.” “I hope that they walk away with a deeper sense of community,” Doyle elaborated, “There are many people in town who still have memories from being here when they were teenagers.”
One of those people is Rapsis, a New Hampshire-based musician who accompanies silent films with a live score. He’s been working with The Colonial for the past decade but his introduction is further back than that. “I’ve been involved with the Colonial since I was seven years old back in ‘71,” he said. “I got frightened by a screening of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and it scarred me for life.” Rapsis explained that The Colonial is “quite an achievement,” stating, “This is a rare surviving theater from the era of the early days of cinema. Most of the theaters that were built for movies 100 years ago [have] been demolished … if you’re putting together a show that tries to revive an older film from that era, it’s an important element to have an actual theater setup that way.”
Audience member Carrie Bergeron, who has been coming to The Colonial for thirty years, said, “It sounded great … It was a great idea.” After the screening, audience members joined together in the lobby for free champagne and cupcakes to finish off the celebration.
Benjamin Martins can be contacted at
bmartins@kscequinox.com
