I live in Austin, Texas, which obviously a lot different from Madison. But, one of my favorite things about Austin is the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, a concept which I think relates to Erin’s idea here.

The Drafthouse currently has 4 locations around town – 3 show first-runs plus the downtown location which shows a random assortment of strange horror movies, cult classics, and old favorites (we saw Napoleon Dynamite there recently, with one of the actors present). The original occupies an old downtown building and was renovated pretty much (from what I know) entirely by the couple who started the place. They’re moving to renovate another old theater soon due to rising rent costs. The theater at both the original and their newer locations are set up with every-other-row of chairs removed and a small table placed instead. This gives you a place to hold your popcorn and soda (or other drinks, as the name drafthouse implies) — and because they also offer a menu of pizzas, burgers, etc., you can eat your dinner, too. Everybody in town knows the Alamo (or at least everybody vaguely in my age range) and it’s definitely a local icon.

Something on that scale might not work in Madison, but the core idea of taking an old building, doing some remodeling, and creating a fun theater seems transferable.

The old Masonic temple building is a nice architectural change from the other brick structures on Egan Ave. We lived just a few blocks from there during my last years in Madison. I remember it as Mason’s on Main, of course (they had good chicken picatta and nice rolls!). If I still lived in Madison and it was a theater, I’d go! It would have been nice to have something like that in town (and not just out of town, like the west twin) when I was in high school, plus summers at home in college. I imagine DSU students would appreciate it a lot.

By the way, if any of you South Dakotans happen to be in the Black Hills area on July 31st, you can catch the Alamo Drafthouse’s “Rolling Roadshow” putting on North by Northwest at Mount Rushmore (http://www.originalalamo.com/Default.aspx?l=5)
This is their 2nd or 3rd year of showing classic movies all over the country.

I’ve read about other theaters that are run by volunteers. It’s definitely a great thing for a town to do, but I’m personally drawn to the small business ownership aspect. Although I’m critical of capitalism on the megacorporate level, I’m a firm believer in its benefits at the smaller local level. I recognize that there are great community benefits from a theater run by volunteers, but there is a huge economic benefit from one run as a small business, since the money made by the theater owners can turn over within the community many times.

A small town neary banded together to create a theater in an old building. They also use volunteers.

We were at one show, and the manager came in beforehand to tell the tweens in attendence to stop talking or he’d take away their movie privileges. How great is that!