CAMAS — If you’re hungry for great performances but have little patience with most of what happens at the movies today — superheroes, big explosions, serial killers, sleaze — there’s a refuge for you in downtown Camas.
Last year, the Liberty Theatre launched an Event Cinema sideline that brings some of the world’s greatest live theater, dance and opera performances to the smaller of its two screens. You can even go to the Liberty to take in art documentaries, music-appreciation lectures and other presentations — from TED Talks through Claude Monet’s water lilies to the studio creations of the Beatles.
Liberty owner Rand Thornsley said he got interested in showing “highbrow” cinema events simply because he was looking to expand his theater’s audience. The Liberty has chiselled out a niche as a local second-run cinema, he said, because that’s less expensive than booking first-run fare both for himself and, in the end, for his ticket buyers.
But it also means he must keep his screens busy with lots of diverse programming, and he’s always looking for ways to pull in new patrons.
“Event Cinema brings an audience to this theater that wouldn’t come in otherwise,” he said.
They don’t always flock to the theater in huge numbers, he added — but sometimes they do. If advance ticket sales are soaring, as they did for the National Theater’s live-in-London production of “War Horse” and for musicologist Scott Freiman’s guided tour through the making of The Beatles’ “White Album,” Thornsley juggles other screenings and moves the special event into his big, central auditorium. The schedule can get a little confusing, Thornsley admitted, so it’s important to check the theater’s website for the latest details.
Because much Event Cinema programming comes from Europe, he added, “live on stage” doesn’t usually mean live in the literal sense. There’s an eight-hour difference between London and Camas; 8 p.m. curtain time over there is a noon lunchtime here.
Small, independent
A dedicated audience for Event Cinema has started to emerge, he said, but it’s still pretty segmented. He knows an opera lover who comes all the way up from Corvallis, Ore. — but only for opera screenings. He knows a ballet fan who shows up for ballet events but doesn’t give a hoot about Shakespeare.
In fact, turnout for live Shakespeare on stage has generally been disappointing, Thornsley said — but he’s hoping that an upcoming high-tech production of “The Tempest,” by the Royal Shakespeare Company, will fascinate a new generation of Bard lovers.
Chock full of monsters, fairies and other supernatural beings, “The Tempest” is one of Shakespeare’s most magical plays. So it’s fitting that this new production features startling motion-capture technology that translates the movements of live actors into digital, animated wonders. It’s the same technology that transformed a live actor into the frighteningly real Gollum in those “Lord of the Rings” films.
Thornsley said he works with about a half-dozen different distributors of this fine-arts programming — and they’re glad to help his small, independent theater grow its audience in their direction. The latest to get into the act is Stage Russia, which will debut at the Liberty on Feb. 19, with a modern-dance version of the classic Tolstoy novel “Anna Karenina.”
“Clark County has a sizeable Russian population, and we are looking forward to presenting these programs to that audience” and anybody else interested in Russian culture, he said.
Fathom Events is the biggest player in this field, Thornsley said, but it only works with chains and megaplexes on first-run events; once it has sent something like “War Horse” to Regal Cinemas, he said, it steps away again. That’s when Thornsley can step in and bring the second run to Camas.
And that’s another draw for Event Cinema at the Liberty, Thornsley added: downtown Camas itself, with all its charming shops, cafes, restaurants and art galleries. Not to mention free, easy parking, Thornsley said.
“People like coming out to Camas, even from Portland,” he said. “Some people come a long way to do this and make a day of it.”