If all goes according to plan, the Patricia Theatre will be reopening in the early fall, under new ownership and management.
Over and above the impending purchase of the theatre, according to Gary Shilling, executive director of Powell River Film Society, an important development is the society has found a local person, Laura Wilson, who is willing to step up and take the theatre manager position. She is a Powell River resident and meets a lot of the criteria of what the society was seeking in a manager.
Shilling said Wilson was involved in the planning of The Nook coffee shop in Powell River Public Library and was also a coordinator of volunteers for PRISMA. She also has a history of managing a recording studio in Burbank, California.
“She’s going to be an asset to the community and the society,” said Shilling. “She’s excited about the opportunity, so we’re going to build from there.”
Shilling said current theatre co-owner and operator Ann Nelson will work with Wilson to do as much of the knowledge transfer as possible, to smoothly transition into the new era, which will be evolutionary, and there is still much to be organized.
Social start-up
“We are planning to run the theatre as a social enterprise and we have a dedicated group of seniors who like volunteering with us,” said Shilling. “We would also like to create training opportunities for youth.”
Getting to the current status has been a longstanding process for the film society. Shilling said the purchase agreement for the theatre was first put in place in 2018, which, at the time, was from Friends of the Historic Patricia Theatre Society, which amalgamated with Friends of Film Society of Powell River to become Powell River Film Society.
“We’re excited about the future, but at the same time, we’re getting all of our ducks in a row,” said Shilling. “We have to get inventory and we have to get films lined up. We have to get our volunteers coordinated and we have to clean up the place because it hasn’t been used in more than a year. There’s a lot of work ahead.
“We love the prospect of opening sometime soon and the other great thing is with finalizing this purchase, we’ll be able to do the exterior upgrades we received funding for from Heritage BC.”
Helping hand
To complete the purchase of the theatre, an individual named Thomas Lightburn, who has been involved in film, assisted the film society with a mortgage at a better rate than commercial lenders would provide, according to Shilling. He said Lightburn lives in Vancouver and has a property on Savary Island. He added that the mortgage is in process now and will close this summer.
“The funds will change hands and we’ll take possession of the theatre, the storefront and the apartment upstairs in September,” said Shilling. “From there, however long it takes us to get organized will determine our opening.”
Getting to this point has involved incredible community support, according to Shilling.
“Really, it was testament to how much the community cares about the Patricia Theatre,” he said. “So many messages came along with donations about how important the theatre is to them personally and to the community. For the longtime residents, it had been part of their lives growing up. Quite frankly, there was just a lot of love for the theatre.”
With COVID-19, fundraising moved online. Shilling said he wasn’t sure how well this would work but the response was “amazing.”
“People literally came out of the woodwork,” said Shilling. “We had people who lived in Powell River and people who had passed through Powell River or heard about the Patricia Theatre and wanted to make sure it would be there.”
Society targets community engagement
Shilling said the society is going to bring more of that community engagement to the theatre.
“It’s been engaged with the community since 1913, when it started,” said Shilling. “When it was in the old building where Dwight Hall currently is, they used to do everything from films to vaudeville to boxing matches to fashion shows – you name it.
“The future of the theatre, with the changes happening in the film industry, will be moving back to that, to more multifaceted events, whether they be musical performances, cinema or theatre. The real future of it is to go back to having an even mix of all of those things. The theatre has been part of the community since it began and will continue to be so in a way that perhaps hearkens back to its beginning.”
The theatre exhibition business is changing. Shilling said Disney, for example, is releasing blockbuster films on Disney+ for a fee at the same time as theatre releases. Shilling said whether families will come back is unknown. He said blockbuster movies that attracted families were the bread and butter of the theatre because families are the ones who use the concession the most, and that’s where the money has been in theatres, “pretty much since they introduced popcorn.”
Disney takes something like 65 per cent of the ticket sales, said Shilling.
The theatre offers 260 seats and is acoustically very good, according to Shilling. He said in the way the society supports local filmmakers, it wants to support local theatre, local musicians and live performances.
“We’re in the process of trying to figure out a game plan,” said Shilling. “People, I know, are anxious for the theatre to open now that COVID-19 is loosening up. We do have a fair bit of work to do and we expect to open in the fall. We don’t have a specific date.”
