IU to welcome new cinema

IU has had its number of great actors grace the “Little Theatre,” and now many more will come to a screen near you with the opening of the new IU Cinema.

The IU Cinema will officially reopen its doors to the public Thursday, with the screening of its first film “Lawrence of Arabia.”

“‘Lawrence of Arabia’ is one of my favorite films,” said Jon Vickers, director of the IU Cinema. “It’s known as one of the best and most epic films of all time.”

Under the guidance of IU President Herman B Wells, the theater officially opened its doors on March 19, 1941, and was traditionally known as the “Little Theatre.”  

Originally used as a performance space, the building was opened with an original variety show of music and comedy titled “Take the Day” and the world premiere of William Saroyan’s “Jim Dandy.”

The facility included a proscenium stage, two prop rooms, a scenic design room, a Green Room, two chorus rooms, four dressing rooms and seven staff offices.

The theater also contained four original paintings created by artist Thomas Hart Benton for the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, known as the “Indiana Murals.”

Until the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center opened its doors, the little theatre was the primary theater in which IU students could act.
In December 2001, the theater showed its final performance with the play “Waiting for Godot.”

In 2002, the theater closed its doors.

After the little theatre closed, it remained empty.

The stage was occasionally used for workshops and to produce independent plays by the student organization, The University Players.

It wasn’t until 2009 that the Department of Theatre and Drama started to renovate the old building.

During that time, IU took the opportunity to renovate the little theatre, and not to be used as a performance theater, but to be the IU Cinema, said Charles Railsback, theater professor and undergraduate advisor.

“The cinema has nothing to do with the theater department now,” Railsback said.

Just as President Herman B Wells had the tenacity and the guidance to build the original little theatre, President Michael McRobbie was the driving force behind the renovation and making of the new IU Cinema.

“This cinema is to allow us a great accessibility to film,” Railsback said. “Up ’til now the University has nothing in film compared to the caliber of the theater and music school.”

The new cinema is one of the few cinemas in the country that is THX certified.
Vickers said the cinema has the best in projectors, including a 16 mm and a 35 mm projector. The cinema is also 3-D capable.

The cinema is also equipped with a reel-to-reel projector, enabling the cinema to screen film reels from all over the world without needing to splice, or edit, the reels.

“One thing a lot of people don’t know is that there are over 70,000 reels of film held by the IU libraries,” Vickers said. “We have the capabilities to show them.”

Vickers said he hopes to screen from the University’s archives, including those of the Lilly Library and the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction.

Up to 40 percent of the IU Cinema program is to be in partnership with academic departments.

Railsback said before building the new IU cinema, the options to see foreign, classic and independent films were scarce at IU.

The cinema has a variety of films set up to be shown, from international art house and underground films to classic movies such as the opener, “Lawrence of Arabia,” which sold out Monday.

Vickers said of the about 90 films the IU Cinema will show this spring, only about 13 will have a ticket price. All others will be free and open to the public.

“We had ticket sales before the break, but it wasn’t until we returned the tickets sold out,” said Stacy Brown, IU Auditorium Box Office manager. “We had several lines on Monday.”

The opening of the IU Cinema brings in a new tradition of cinematic arts, and although the wait for the little theatre to come back to life has been long, the day of its premier is fast approaching.

Vickers said the cinema has the resources to offer patrons some of the best film experiences of their lives, a goal he hopes to achieve with the IU Cinema.

“I want to build a national reputation and be recognized as one of the best facilities and one of the best programs,” Vickers said. “I am hoping it will become a Bloomington art house. I want to change the way IU and Bloomington perceives the film-going experience.”