The night will also temporarily preview how the theater’s iconic marquee jester will appear once fully restored. A bright projector will blast the front of the Fairborn Phoenix, via 3D mapping, lighting up Broad St. with a hypothetically restored marquee. Proceeds and donations from the event will go directly toward its restoration.
The Fairborn Theatre opened in 1948 as a single screen cinema, predating the city of Fairborn itself. What’s more, Fairborn was technically conceived in the historic building, with plans to merge Fairfield and Osborn being written up inside.
In the 1970s, in an attempt to compete with area multiplexes, the theater’s auditorium was split in half to accommodate two screens. It was renamed Fairborn Twin Cinemas. In the 1990s, as digital projection started to take hold, the theater continued using 35mm and 70mm projectors until it closed in 2000.
Two decades later, Emmy-nominated filmmaker and Fairborn native Jordan Terrell was looking for a place to screen his documentary, “HEROINOHIO,” about the current opioid epidemic. He’d spent four and a half years filming it, and was searching for a venue to screen it, in the community in which it was filmed.
Having been priced out of other theaters, Terrell reached out to the city of Fairborn and asked if he could screen his documentary at the abandoned Fairborn Theatre. With the help of his family, Chris Morse, and a few random volunteers, Terrell was able to clean the space and host a screening. It sold out immediately. The second show was just as successful.
Due to the buzz surrounding the temporary reopening of the theater, Terrell and Morse put it in motion to renovate and reopen the theater for good. The city earmarked $500,000 in ARPA funds for the project by the 501c3 nonprofit group, Fairborn Phoenix Foundation. They replaced the building’s roof and gutter system, compensated a handful of businesses and organizations involved in the project, and received the deed for a fabled one dollar bill. The dollar was also donated, as neither Terrell nor Morse had cash on them.
The theater hosted its debut event, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” in 2020. The Dead City Film Fest in 2022 was the first time it hosted music.
“We didn’t have bathrooms at first,” Terrell said. “We had to throw shows for people who didn’t care about it being a very nice, clean place. So that’s metal and punk shows and EDM raves.”
The Fairborn Phoenix mostly throws shows with a DIY aesthetic, including the aforementioned genres. When the DIY house venue Mendelsons House was shut down earlier this year, promoter Max Lightcap took some of his shows to the theater.
“The whole reason why we created this spot,” Terrell said, “is for artists to be able to host the thing they want to do. Whether it’s showing their own art or curating others’ art, I feel like the younger crowd that comes out to the punk shows love the spot. They see the vision.”
The BAM Harvey Theater in Brooklyn, New York, was one of the tentpole inspirations for Terrell’s vision of his and Morse’s theater. Much like the BAM Harvey, the Fairborn Phoenix exists in a preserved state of natural decay, maintaining a rustic and dilapidated vibe, and updating what is only necessary, allowing it to exist in a particular space and time. With some repainting and a new bar concession area, the space stays true to its history while also giving new life to the theater.
Fairborn’s 75th Gala Celebration is the Fairborn Phoenix’s attempt to prove that they just don’t host crazy and loud shows, that there is sometimes a jazz cabaret or a magic show occasionally sprinkled into the programming. In the same breath, the current founders want to also invite the community in, to attract those with nostalgia for the original intent of the space, too.
“We hear stories about people having met at the theater,” Terrell said. “We want them to come and see what we’ve been doing.”
Contact writer Brandon Berry at branberry100@gmail.com.
HOW TO GO
What: Fairborn 75th Gala Celebration: A night of music, magic and more
When: 8 p.m. Sept. 6
Where: Fairborn Phoenix, 34 S. Broad St., Fairborn
Cost: $15 pre-sale; $20 at the door; $150 VIP table
Tickets: fairbornphoenix.com
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