Kentucky Theatre’s Summer Classics series only part of its reopening success after COVID

Stores have Black Friday. The Kentucky Theatre has its Summer Classics series.

Much like retail establishments make a lot of their money in the holiday season, Kentucky Theatre Director Hayward Wilkirson says the Kentucky looks forward to its annual summer lineup of classic films on Wednesdays as a time people will turn out, even as theaters are still striving to bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic.

For a while, it looked like the Kentucky might go down as one of the business casualties of the pandemic. In October 2020, with restrictions to curb the spread of the disease preventing large gatherings and few movies available to show, the city-owned Kentucky Theatre closed, with no certainty it would reopen.

A little less than a year later, the city announced that the Friends of the Kentucky Theatre, a group formed in 2012 to support the Kentucky, was granted the management contract for the theater, which reopened early in 2022 as a non-profit.

Wilkirson says the non-profit status sometimes confuses people and notes the theater still needs to make money, but all of the money it makes goes back into running the theater. Non-profit status also allows the theater to apply for grants and other support, and it runs on a membership model, where people can join the theater at a variety of levels.

Does the Kentucky Theatre make money?

As it approaches a year-and-a-half since it re-opened, Wilkirson says the theater is operating in the black without the support of COVID-relief funds that have helped keep other art house theaters afloat. The theater was not eligible for relief funds because it had closed and Friends was not managing the theater until late 2021.

Since the management change and reopening, there has been a shift in the theater’s programming with more of an emphasis on series and festivals such as the newly initiated Freaky Friday series of cult classics such as “Reefer Madness” in April and “Zardoz” May 19 and the newly announced Twelve Lions Film Festival, which is taking submissions until July 15 and is slated to take place Sept. 28 to Oct. 1 at the Kentucky and surrounding venues such as the Farish Theatre at the Central Library, the Lyric Theatre, Pam Miller Downtown Arts Center, and 21c Museum Hotel.

“We had thought about that three years ago, just talking to local filmmakers that we knew, and they said, ‘You know, Lexington is right for a film festival,’” Wilkirson said, adding that he is really pleased with submissions thus far.

The biggest challenge in programming the theater, Wilkirson said, is creating a balance between first-run films, independent releases, and repertory fare and series. First-run films like the recent booking of “Air” usually come with a requirement the theater run it a specific number of weeks at specific times, which can make working other programming in difficult.

“We want a mix, because we try to serve a pretty broad group of people,” Wilkirson said, adding that bringing in first-run fare such as “The Fabelmans” can help support more niche fare the Kentucky presents such as the Rosa Goddard International Film Festival.

One thing that has not proven to be a big challenge, Wilkirson says, is LexLive, a new downtown entertainment venue at the corner of Broadway and High Street that includes a 10-screen multiplex. The Kentucky and LexLive are really going for different audiences, Wilkirson says.

As the Kentucky Theatre turns 100, its fans look ahead to its next act

Summer Classics and new initiatives

Another new feature of the revived Kentucky Theatre is greater audience interaction, such as the contest the theater ran to guess the lineup for this year’s Summer Classics series based on an image posted to the theater’s Facebook page. It has generated a lot of response, Wilkirson said, though as of the morning of April 21, no one had guessed all the movies correctly.

The lineup, announced April 25, includes proven hits in the series as well as new titles such as “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980) June 21, following up “Star Wars’” (1977) sold-out debut last year in the series. Other newcomers include two Martin Scorsese classics: “Raging Bull” (1980) and “Goodfellas” (1990), and the series aimed to be timely, like presenting the classic musical “Fiddler on the Roof” (1970), whose star, Topol, died earlier this year.

Last summer was the first for Summer Classics since 2019, and Wilkirson said nights like the sold-out “Star Wars” showing demonstrated there was still a vibrant audience for movies in a theater.

In addition to traditions such as Summer Classics, the theater is also embarking on new initiatives and partnerships such as the recent engagement of “Chevalier,” about composer and violinist Joseph Bologne — Chevalier de Saint-Georges, which featured a showing preceded with a performance of some of the composer’s works by the Lexington Philharmonic String Quartet. The Philharmonic is also set to perform Bologne’s Symphony No. 1 at its April 29 concert.

“We’re trying to continue all the best traditions in the theater, including keeping a lot of our old staff, not the least of which is Fred,” Wilkirson said, referring to Kentucky Theatre manager Fred Mills. “It wouldn’t be the Kentucky without Fred down here. But we really did want to try to introduce some new programs and new initiatives to inject a little renewed energy into the theater.”

Kentucky Theatre Summer Classics 2023 film lineup

Here is the list for the Kentucky’ Theatre’s 2023 Summer Classics movie series. The classic films are shown every Wednesday, a matinee at 1:30 p.m. and evening showing at 7:15 p.m. from late May until early September. Ticket prices are $6.50.

May 31: “Vertigo”

June 7: “Raging Bull”

June 14: “Fiddler on the Roof”

June 21: “The Empire Strikes Back”

June 28: “His Girl Friday”

July 5: “Rebel Without a Cause”

July 12: “Jaws”

July 19: “The Maltese Falcon”

July 26: Walt Disney’s “Pinocchio”

Aug. 2: “The Princess Bride”

Aug. 9: “Adams’s Rib”

Aug. 16: “Goodfellas”

Aug. 23: “The Last Picture Show”

Aug. 30: “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”

Sept. 6: “The Big Lebowski”

xxxx

Speaking of the Philharmonic and movies

Mélisse Brunet, who is wrapping up her first season as music director of the Lexington Philharmonic is featured in the documentary “Maestra,” which is an official selection of this year’s Tribecca Festival. The event, formerly the Tribecca Film Festival, was founded by a group including Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro to revitalize lower Manhattan following the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Director Maggie Contreras’ “Maestra” follows a group of women participating in La Maestra, the first only competition in the world for women conductors. Women still make up a small percentage of orchestra conductors in the world, and even ones who ascend to the podium face countless obstacles not faced by their male counterparts.

“I want to thank Maggie and all the team of the ‘Maestra’ movie for choosing us, for being such wonderful supporters of our art, and for being strong women’s advocates,” Brunet, who is featured in the film’s poster image, said in an Instagram post.

In other Lexington orchestral news

The Lexington Chamber Orchestra will present its first post-Covid concert at 7:30 p.m. May 13 at Centenary United Methodist Church, 2800 Tates Creek Road, under the baton of its new music director, Marcello Cormio. The Italian conductor is best known to Lexington audiences as the music director of the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestras. In his new post, Cormio says he is bringing something unique to Lexington audiences.

“I feel that some of the most beautiful repertoire ever written is for chamber orchestra and is seldom performed in Lexington,” he said in a Chamber Orchestra news release. “Our ensemble will fill that void in our community with our local, high-caliber musicians.”

Admission to the May 13 concert is free.

Rich Copley covered Lexington arts and entertainment for 20 years as a Herald-Leader staff reporter. He is a Lexington-based multimedia storyteller.