OFF OFF CINEMA
As reported in Variety today: “Emerging Pictures will launch America’s first full-time commercial cinema operating only with digital projection equipment in Manhattan’s Off Off Broadway theater complex Theater Row,” located at 410-412 W. 42nd St.
“Emerging Cinema will screen arthouse fare on a calendar basis,” says Variety. “Docu Home of the Brave, bowing Oct. 27, will be the venue’s first theatrical engagement. The space houses five Off Broadway theaters, ranging in capacity from 88 to 199 seats, but only one auditorium will be used to screen films at any time. The projection equipment, which is portable, will be shuttled from theater to theater, depending on the film and the live performances schedule.”
Home to the newly launched Summer Play Festival, Theater Row was dark last night when I caught a lecture organized by dorkbot -nyc at the multimedia space The Tank, which is a block away, followed by a performance of Quincy Long’s terrific “comedy with music,” People Be Heard, at neighboring Playwrights Horizons.
The Off Off Broadway theater community is still reeling from the redesign of the Arts & Leisure section of the Sunday New York Times, which scuttled the small-print column known as The Guide that provided comprehensive listings of all legit shows, even those playing the tiniest venues; and The Tank may be losing its space and is currently scrambling to find alternate digs. Let’s hope Emerging Cinema’s newest venture — the first step in its plan to develop a digital theater chain of some 400 screens in existing theaters throughout the country — fares well.
