The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Page Manor theater restoration benefit is today

Ohio’s abundance of water parks makes it easy to melt away your cares
5/25/12
Taste of Cincinnati expected to draw 500,000 people
5/24/12
How discount program is helping arts, patrons
5/22/12
Local ingredients key for bartender
5/16/12
Health clubs giving lifestyle campaign a rigorous workout
5/16/12
> More headlines

By Lauren Beach, Staff Writer 6:11 PM Thursday, March 11, 2010

RIVERSIDE — It’s not cheap to renovate a theater that was built in 1967, has been stripped of its film equipment and has been described as a “bare-bones facility.”

But the Nouveau Cinema Group, a nonprofit organization, has taken on restoring the old Page Manor Twin Cinemas, located at 5584 Airway Road in Riverside, into an “arts center” by offering more than blockbuster hits, said Jack Oberleitner, the organization’s business and theatrical consultant.

Redefining the role of the movie theater in the community, the Nouveau Cinema Group has renamed the theater the Page Cinema Arts Theatre and hopes to be the final answer to what the theater, which has been run by seven different companies, needs to be successful once again.

“The whole idea was to create a facility that could be showing off film from all around the world, classic film, locally produced film and music,” Oberleitner said.

In addition to independent foreign and domestic films, the theater will show encore presentations of big box-office films, Hispanic films, Bollywood films and cult classics. The theater hopes to provide a venue for local theater troupes to hold small productions on the stages located in both of the theater’s auditoriums.

The theater also plans to offer annual scholarships “to people who are wanting to pursue a career in the arts at a collegiate level,” Oberleitner said. For people not planning on going to college anytime soon, Oberleitner said the Page Cinema Arts Theatre will have a free film society. “It’s sort of like taking a film course at a university,” he said.

“We’re hoping this idea will catch on and have a mushroom effect in the country,” he said.

One obstacle the organization has faced is finding the equipment the theater needs in order to show a variety of films.

“Motion picture equipment is generally not real easy to find, especially for classic films,” Oberleitner said. He said the advent of digital and 3-D film has also posed a challenge.

The Page Cinema Arts Theatre is the organization’s first restoration project since beginning last April. Oberleitner estimates the cost to resuscitate the theater to be somewhere between a quarter of a million to a half-million dollars but said, “The sky is the limit,” when it comes to revamping the building.

With the projected June 1 opening date approaching, the group is working harder than ever to raise the money that is needed to finish and run the theater.

A benefit for the theater will be held at 5:30 p.m. today, March 12, at Expressly Espresso, 101 Woodman Drive, across from the Airway Shopping Center.

The benefit is free and open to the public, and tax-deductible donations will be accepted. Live entertainment will be provided by Kenny Collins from The Stumps and keyboard player Joey Huber.

There also will be door prizes, a silent auction and a 50/50 raffle. Participants will have the chance to win a seven-day, seven-night stay at Myrtle Beach, S.C., a one-year pass for two to the Page Cinema Arts Theatre, a $250 radio/CD/mp3 player, plus other prizes.

How to go

What: Page Cinema Arts Theatre Benefit

When: 5:30 p.m. Friday, March 12

Where: Expressly Espresso, 101 Woodman Drive, Riverside

Cost: Free

More info: www.nouveaucinema.org or call Expressly Espresso at (937) 254-1114

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-0633 or lbeach@DaytonDailyNews.com.

Share this article