Revitalizing the Vinton Palace Theatre
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 07/14/2010 - 10:04.
Vinton, Iowa is a town of some 5,000 people located on the Cedar River in the northern part of the state. In a story repeated in small towns all across the country, Vinton flourished through much of the 20th century but over the years as the importance of the family farm diminished the town began to fall on hard times. Businesses failed, people moved away and in the early 1970s, in a story also repeated in too many small towns across the country the Vinton Palace Theatre closed its doors. Today, thanks to the tireless efforts of a lot of people in the community, the theatre is a viable business again and this month it successfully premiered its first digital 3D movie.
The revival actually started more than a decade ago and its original purpose was to find a permanent home for the local community theatre group, which is officially named Area Community Theatre, Inc. The group is often referred to locally as simply Act One, in part because the URL for the acronym ACTI was already taken when they wanted to establish their website so they used act1 instead and it stuck.
Marcy Horst, who has been the fulltime manager of the Vinton Palace for four years and her husband Gerald were both active in community theatre. They were part of the group that raised $450,000 to refurbish the theatre in 1999. At the time she says the goal was simply to create a space “as a home for Act One. That was how this all started. The local theatre group couldn’t always find space for performances on the dates it wanted. Once the theatre group was established in the Palace people thought it would be a good idea to run movies again.”
“There are two separate sister entities involved at the Palace,” Horst says. “ACT I of Benton County is the local community theatre. They are a 501c3 and the original money for the Palace renovation in 1997-1999 was raised through them. ACT I owns the building and stages three or four shows a year at the Palace. The movie theatre is dark for one week for those dress rehearsals and then two weekends for their shows. They also run a six-week theatre camp for kids every summer.”
“Both organizations have a Board of Directors,” she says, “and those boards meet once a month separately and together a few times a year. It is a cooperative venture that works well in our community.”
As a movie venue the Palace had its appeals. There was and is a real sense of community in the town associated with the theatre and ticket prices have stayed at two dollars for a decade. And Horst prides herself on not pricing concessions too high. As a result the movie venture did well for several years and they were able to pay off their initial debt but eventually, she says, “The newness just wore off.”
In part this is because there are competing movie theatres in Independence, 30 miles north or Waterloo and Cedar Rapids, 40 miles north and south, respectively and all of those theatres get movies sooner than the Palace can and many patrons prefer not to wait.
To Horst digital cinema was inevitable so the next challenge was to determine what technology was needed and what it would cost. Her husband has a fulltime job with a telecom company but he also serves as an unofficial and unpaid co-manager and he understands technology so the two of them did the research together.
“We've been studying digital cinema seriously for two years,” she says. “In the past six months it had become apparent to us, because of a lack of 35mm advertising materials and prints, that we really had no choice. Also, we wanted to be able to show movies in 3D, which has fast become an industry standard. After much study and shopping around we chose Sonic Equipment from Iola, Kansas to usher us into the digital age. We've been thrilled with their overall knowledge and customer service, as well as access to and knowledge of the latest and greatest technology in the industry.”
Donations from the community enabled them to raise $80,000 for the conversion. Projectionist Roger Uthoff, who is also a paid employee made the first donation to the digital cinema fundraising effort.
Sonic Equipment installed a Christie digital cinema projector, GDC digital cinema server, RealD 3D technology, a Dolby digital sound processor, a silver screen and theatre management software to run the whole system.
The community also raised an additional $30,000 for customized rigging to enable them to raise the silver screen. “The screen was a big challenge,” says Horst. “Because the new silver screen can't bend or roll as the original white screen did, we needed to create a new method to move the screen out of reach.” The solution devised by Sonic Equipment is a special motorized rigging system to lift the screen out of the way for stage productions.
For trivia buffs, Letters to Juliet was the final movie projected in 35mm film at the Palace and volunteer Nancy Good purchased the very first ticket to the Palace’s first digital offering, which was Shrek Forever After in 3D.
“With the help of our all volunteer-run concessions and box office, we have maintained a $2 ticket price for 10 years,” says Horst. “The Palace Theatre will continue to offer a $2 2D ticket, and I believe we will be the only theatre in the world to offer a $3 3D ticket.” Volunteers get a soft drink, popcorn and to watch the movie for free. The Palace is able to charge such low prices in part because of the volunteer workers and in part because they’re an off-the-break theatre and don’t get movies for three or four weeks after they open. “By then the price is low enough that we can afford it,” says Horst.
The theatre has 196 seats, including a balcony. They also have space in the rear for people in wheelchairs and if there’s a sell-out, which happens often and if there’s room in the wheelchair space they have white lawn chairs that they can and do sell.
Horst is also taking advantage of what digital technology can offer for ticket sales. The Palace uses a service that allows patrons to select specific seats when purchasing tickets online. There is an additional three-dollar fee for that but out-of-town patrons and regulars use it frequently. If specific seats are available, walk-in patrons can purchase them for an extra dollar.
Next on the agenda is a fundraiser to raise the money to update the theatre’s seating, which has begun to show 10 years of wear. Horst has also purchased a DISH network commercial package and plans to show a wide range of alternative content. Marcy Horst seems excited about all the possibilities and she understands how vital her business is to her town. It sounds like a cliché but she really knows many of her regular customers by name.
Could the Palace’s business model work in other communities? “I think it could,” she says. “It all depends on the number of volunteers they could get. Without our volunteers we probably couldn’t stay in business.”
The revival actually started more than a decade ago and its original purpose was to find a permanent home for the local community theatre group, which is officially named Area Community Theatre, Inc. The group is often referred to locally as simply Act One, in part because the URL for the acronym ACTI was already taken when they wanted to establish their website so they used act1 instead and it stuck.Marcy Horst, who has been the fulltime manager of the Vinton Palace for four years and her husband Gerald were both active in community theatre. They were part of the group that raised $450,000 to refurbish the theatre in 1999. At the time she says the goal was simply to create a space “as a home for Act One. That was how this all started. The local theatre group couldn’t always find space for performances on the dates it wanted. Once the theatre group was established in the Palace people thought it would be a good idea to run movies again.”
“There are two separate sister entities involved at the Palace,” Horst says. “ACT I of Benton County is the local community theatre. They are a 501c3 and the original money for the Palace renovation in 1997-1999 was raised through them. ACT I owns the building and stages three or four shows a year at the Palace. The movie theatre is dark for one week for those dress rehearsals and then two weekends for their shows. They also run a six-week theatre camp for kids every summer.”
“Both organizations have a Board of Directors,” she says, “and those boards meet once a month separately and together a few times a year. It is a cooperative venture that works well in our community.”As a movie venue the Palace had its appeals. There was and is a real sense of community in the town associated with the theatre and ticket prices have stayed at two dollars for a decade. And Horst prides herself on not pricing concessions too high. As a result the movie venture did well for several years and they were able to pay off their initial debt but eventually, she says, “The newness just wore off.”
In part this is because there are competing movie theatres in Independence, 30 miles north or Waterloo and Cedar Rapids, 40 miles north and south, respectively and all of those theatres get movies sooner than the Palace can and many patrons prefer not to wait.
To Horst digital cinema was inevitable so the next challenge was to determine what technology was needed and what it would cost. Her husband has a fulltime job with a telecom company but he also serves as an unofficial and unpaid co-manager and he understands technology so the two of them did the research together.
“We've been studying digital cinema seriously for two years,” she says. “In the past six months it had become apparent to us, because of a lack of 35mm advertising materials and prints, that we really had no choice. Also, we wanted to be able to show movies in 3D, which has fast become an industry standard. After much study and shopping around we chose Sonic Equipment from Iola, Kansas to usher us into the digital age. We've been thrilled with their overall knowledge and customer service, as well as access to and knowledge of the latest and greatest technology in the industry.”Donations from the community enabled them to raise $80,000 for the conversion. Projectionist Roger Uthoff, who is also a paid employee made the first donation to the digital cinema fundraising effort.
Sonic Equipment installed a Christie digital cinema projector, GDC digital cinema server, RealD 3D technology, a Dolby digital sound processor, a silver screen and theatre management software to run the whole system.
The community also raised an additional $30,000 for customized rigging to enable them to raise the silver screen. “The screen was a big challenge,” says Horst. “Because the new silver screen can't bend or roll as the original white screen did, we needed to create a new method to move the screen out of reach.” The solution devised by Sonic Equipment is a special motorized rigging system to lift the screen out of the way for stage productions.
For trivia buffs, Letters to Juliet was the final movie projected in 35mm film at the Palace and volunteer Nancy Good purchased the very first ticket to the Palace’s first digital offering, which was Shrek Forever After in 3D. “With the help of our all volunteer-run concessions and box office, we have maintained a $2 ticket price for 10 years,” says Horst. “The Palace Theatre will continue to offer a $2 2D ticket, and I believe we will be the only theatre in the world to offer a $3 3D ticket.” Volunteers get a soft drink, popcorn and to watch the movie for free. The Palace is able to charge such low prices in part because of the volunteer workers and in part because they’re an off-the-break theatre and don’t get movies for three or four weeks after they open. “By then the price is low enough that we can afford it,” says Horst.
The theatre has 196 seats, including a balcony. They also have space in the rear for people in wheelchairs and if there’s a sell-out, which happens often and if there’s room in the wheelchair space they have white lawn chairs that they can and do sell.
Horst is also taking advantage of what digital technology can offer for ticket sales. The Palace uses a service that allows patrons to select specific seats when purchasing tickets online. There is an additional three-dollar fee for that but out-of-town patrons and regulars use it frequently. If specific seats are available, walk-in patrons can purchase them for an extra dollar.
Next on the agenda is a fundraiser to raise the money to update the theatre’s seating, which has begun to show 10 years of wear. Horst has also purchased a DISH network commercial package and plans to show a wide range of alternative content. Marcy Horst seems excited about all the possibilities and she understands how vital her business is to her town. It sounds like a cliché but she really knows many of her regular customers by name.
Could the Palace’s business model work in other communities? “I think it could,” she says. “It all depends on the number of volunteers they could get. Without our volunteers we probably couldn’t stay in business.”
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