It is happening today!! The Triplex Cinema will be reopening its doors for the first time since it closed them on June 4. Hallelujah! So much credit goes to the team of people who have worked so hard to make this happen this week.
Allegrone Construction has been outstanding. They committed to have the first phase of the renovation done by our opening and they are making good on that promise. All week long there has been a constant flurry of activity with walls being painted, new carpet being cut, pictures being hung, and concession cases being stocked.
Lisa Myers, a volunteer and a movie production designer, was busy putting the finishing touches on her beautiful redesign of the lobby. She even enlisted her friends Nicki Ritchie and George Veale to help in the unpacking of various items, carrying new chairs up into the mezzanine and adding signage in strategic places. Mackenzie Kruvant and Estelle Caswell of Middle Child Studio (our volunteer branding consultants) and Caroline Pratt and Sophie Lavine of Pattymelt Creative (our volunteer graphic design team) were all on board to help ready the theater.
Bobby Houston, the owner of Scout House, came over and helped scrape vinyl off the glass window panes, while Ted Marcus, a filmmaker and a volunteer, made a pre-roll that will be shown before each film. I am looking forward to seeing that as much as I am the films themselves. We are so lucky to live in a community with so many talented and helpful people. Just being in the Triplex with so much going on makes one feel a heightened sense of anticipation.
I want to give a shout-out to the local media this week for their coverage of the imminent opening. Rural Intelligence has an excellent feature about it; Berkshire Magazine’s holiday edition beautifully traces the history of the community’s effort to buy and open the theater; Jesse Stewart on WSBS in Great Barrington asked great questions about the big day in our interview on Tuesday; and the multi-talented Multimedia journalist Dan Reidy from Spectrum News’ Berkshire county bureau came to interview and film Ben Elliott (the managing director) and myself to be shown on Spectrum 1 today from 6 a.m. on. Both The Berkshire Edge and The Berkshire Eagle have been on top of the community’s efforts to save the Triplex from the beginning and their coverage has been outstanding.
This whole weekend promises to be full of rich offerings. We begin the showings of “The Holdovers” at 1 p.m. today and “Trolls Band Together” at 1:30 p.m. At 5 p.m. today, Scout House will be hosting Melissa Newman to speak on her book about her parents Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. All book sale proceeds will go to the Triplex. And on Sunday, Prairie Whale restaurant will host a celebratory evening “Dine to Donate,” with live music from “The Lucky Five” between 5 and 10 p.m. Ten percent of all restaurant proceeds will go to the Triplex. We hope you can attend one or all of these special events to help us start our opening week off with a bang.
Tickets for the Triplex’s second big fundraiser, “Bring Back the Movies — the Holidays,” are on sale now. Our last event sold out quickly, so we hope you will buy your tickets as soon as you can. Last August we had some adult content, but this will be a joyous, family-friendly holiday event, perfect for all ages. In addition to the movie scenes, we will have holiday songs and live music. The cast includes Karen Allen, Jayne Atkinson, Greg Boover, Maconnia Chesser, Michel Gill, Danny Osman, David Rasche, and others. Gigi and Tom Teeley will provide the music and Michelle Joyner will direct. To buy tickets, please go to our website: thetriplex.org. There will be an arrow on the left and the right edge of the image. Scroll in either direction and that will bring you to the “Bring Back the Movies” page (see below). Click on that image and you will get to the ticketing page.
If you would like to take a business ad or make a tax-deductible congratulatory ad in the playbill to support this production, email us at triplexads3@gmail.com.
See you at the Movies!
