The lights in the theater lower and the rumblings of the audience hushes to a silence. The projector starts and within minutes the audience is treated to their first encounter with Bruce, a massive great white shark.
No, this isn’t “Finding Nemo” – it’s “Jaws,” the Steven Spielberg classic that made it scary to go to the beach. The picture is one of 22 set to unspool at the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts’ yearly Summer Movie Series, taking place at the Ohio Theatre.
Now in its 34th season, the series features a broad range of pictures, some of which are making their series debut. The lineup also spans numerous decades beginning with the 1928 Buster Keaton silent film “The Cameraman” and going until 1983’s “The Right Stuff.”
“We’re starting to gear out movies to cover a couple of generations,” said Elizabeth Trupp, spokeswoman for CAPA. “With inclusions like ‘Psycho,’ we’re getting a lot of younger audiences.”
Trupp said CAPA likes to attract younger audiences to the series, and said she thinks recent classics like “Jaws” and “Psycho” will bring them in, but many students don’t believe the series is going to bring in the younger generations.
“Unfortunately, I think for the most part, only students who are big film fans will go see these,” said Bryce Gorman, a sophomore in business.
But Gorman, who does count himself as a film buff, said students should be attracted by the chance to see these films on the big screen.
“A lot of these are classic movies, and it’d be nice for people who have grown up with multi-million dollar special-effect movies to see something that relies on a story more than anything else,” he said. He listed “The Producers,” “The Godfather” and “The Magnificent Seven” as the films at this year’s series he’d like to see.
Trupp agrees students aren’t often given a chance to see these types of movies.
“The whole thing is an experience,” she said. “For one thing, it’s movies you don’t get to see that often any more, and especially not on the big screen.”
Stephanie Williams, a senior in special education, who saw the Sidney Poitier film “To Sir, with Love” at last year’s series, said she loved going to see old movies on the big screen.
“The atmosphere at the Ohio Theatre is totally different,” she said. “I love that they show older movies that were once famous. It makes you feel like you’re actually in the past, watching these movies.”
Williams also said the organist adds to the experience. A 13-year veteran of the Summer Movie Series, Clark Wilson performs both before the show and during the intermission. He will also accompany “The Cameraman.”
“(The organ) is a huge draw for families – the kids really love watching the organ come up from the stage,” Trupp said. “He loves matching up the music to the film too. It keeps the integrity of the theater and the old films.”
The organ will also be an integral part of this year’s production, because 2003 marks the 75th anniversary of the Ohio Theatre. While CAPA is keeping parts of the theater in tact for historic reasons, they are celebrating the anniversary by investing $37,000 into updating much of the equipment. Two carbon arc projectors were replaced with xenon lamp houses and a new sound processor was installed, making the films brighter and the sound quality better.
Strips of 10 general admission tickets are available at the Ohio Theatre for $21.50, and day-of-show tickets will be available for $3.50. Audio descriptions for the visually impaired will be available for three films; “The Producers,” “The Way We Were” and “Psycho.” The series begins June 13 and concludes Aug. 24.
