Due to the encouraging response on Saturday evenings that we have received from the community, we will now be showing a movie EVERY Saturday night (with the exception of Easter weekend). The movies will start at 7:30 PM and screenings will continue on Saturday evenings through mid-June.

It does appear that we can draw a good audience on Saturday evenings and we are going to focus on screening a great selection of  movies on that night.

The two Classic Movie Series will be screened as planned. The next movie in these Series will be Singing in the Rain (Series I)shown on Saturday, March 6 and The Letter (Series II) on Saturday, March 20. Seats are available at these Series movies for non-subscribers.

Ticket price for all the Saturday evening movies is $6. Tickets may be purchased at the Firehouse prior to the movie or by reserving tickets through Will Call (phone 798-9721 and ask about Will Call).

And then, beginning Saturday April 10^th, we will introduce our “Second Saturday” matinee!  We will show a 3 PM children’s movie on the “Second Saturday” of April, May, and June. Do mark your calendars as an outing for children ,grandchildren, or a birthday party.

By the way, these Saturday afternoon movies are a great opportunity for sponsors to reach families in our community. ( Call Jennifer Chambers at 304-5588 for information on sponsoring these movies)

We may have other, special events at the Firehouse so keep an eye on the newspaper and our web site. We have decided to suspend Friday night movies.

In many aspects the Firehouse Theater is proving successful. We sold some 120 subscriptions to our two Classic Movie Series. We had fourteen (14) sponsors sign up to sponsor the two Classic Series.

We continue to receive a great deal of encouragement from the community, including calls from Richmond and other Central Virginia communities, on moving the Firehouse forward as a community theater and a venue for good movies.

We cannot possibly thank each of you enough for the support you have given the Firehouse Theater. We do ask for your continued support…and feedback… as we work to develop a successful business model for our community theater.

Please call me or any Board member if you have questions….and do check our web site for listings and information…

We are also working on plans to run two other series of movies, starting in February. One series, “Sunday Seniors,” would be directed at elderly residents of our community. A second series for children would be screened as a Saturday matinee. We will have announcements on these movies in the near future.

Please contact us with your ideas and comments. We do want to be responsive to our community. Without your support the Firehouse Theater would not exist and will not succeed.

The wife of a rubber plantation administrator (Bette Davis) shoots a man to death and claims it was self-defense; a letter in her own hand may prove her undoing.

Series II Description –  The Camera at Work:  Art Direction and Cinematography

Saturday, March 13 – 7:30 pm

A filmmaker recalls his childhood, when he fell in love with the movies at his village’s theater and formed a deep friendship with the theater’s projectionist.

It was originally released in Italy at 155 minutes but poor box office performance in its native country led to it being shortened to 123 minutes for international release. It was an instant success. This international version won the Special Jury Prize at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival and the 1989 Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. In 2002, the director’s cut 173-minute version was released (known in the U.S. as Cinema Paradiso: The New Version).

It stars Jacques Perrin, Philippe Noiret, Leopoldo Trieste, Marco Leonardi, Agnese Nano and Salvatore Cascio. It was produced by Franco Cristaldi and Giovanna Romagnoli, and the music was by Ennio Morricone along with his son Andrea Morricone. [wikipedia]

March 6, 2010 at 7:30 pm (Series I)

In 1927, Don Lockwood (Gene Kelly) and Lina Lamont are a famous on-screen romantic pair.  When Don and Lina’s latest film is transformed into a musical, Don has the perfect voice for the songs.  But Lina – well… Kathy Selden (Debbie Reynolds) an aspiring actress, is brought in.  Will Kathy continue to “aspire”, or will she get the break she deserves ?

John Wayne stars as Sean Thornton, who has returned from America to reclaim his homestead and escape his past. Sean’s eye is caught by Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O’Hara), a beautiful but poor maiden, and younger sister of ill-tempered “Red” Will Danaher (Victor McLaglen).  The riotous relationship that forms between Sean and Mary Kate, punctuated by Will’s pugnacious attempts to keep them apart, form the main plot, with Sean’s past as the dark undercurrent.

Saturday April 10 - 3pm

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 American science fiction film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Melissa Mathison and starring Henry Thomas, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, and Dee Wallace. It tells the story of Elliott (played by Thomas), a lonely boy who befriends a friendly extraterrestrial, dubbed “E.T.”, who is stranded on Earth. Elliott and his siblings help the extraterrestrial return home while attempting to keep it hidden from their mother and the government.

The concept for E.T. was based on an imaginary friend Spielberg created after his parents’ divorce in 1960. In 1980, Spielberg met Mathison and developed a new story from the stalled science fiction/horror film project Night Skies. The film was shot from September to December 1981 in California on a budget of US$10.5 million. Unlike most motion pictures, the film was shot in roughly chronological order, to facilitate convincing emotional performances from the young cast.

Released by Universal Pictures, E.T. was a blockbuster, surpassing Star Wars to become the most financially successful film released to that point. Critics acclaimed it as a timeless story of friendship, and it ranks as the greatest science fiction film ever made in a Rotten Tomatoes survey. The film was re-released in 1985, and then again in 2002 with altered special effects and additional scenes. Spielberg believes E.T. epitomizes his work [wikipedia]

April 10, 2010 at 7:30 pm (Series I)

The John Ford classic.  A simple stagecoach trip is complicated by the fact that Geronimo is on the warpath in the area. The passengers on the coach include a a drunken doctor, two women, a bank manager who has taken off with his client’s money, and the famous Ringo Kid, played by none other than John Wayne.

During the WWII housing shortage in Washington, two men and a woman share a single apartment and the older man plays Cupid to the other two.  Starring Jean Arthur, Joel McCrea and Charles Coburn.

Series II Description — At the Helm:  Direction