The Union Theater, located on the second floor of the LSU Student Union, is the center of student life on campus. Many students are introduced to the space during Bengal Bound, Orientation and other such enrollment events. While here, students can enjoy orchestra performances, choir concerts and conferences, all held in the theater.
However, the Union Theater is rarely ever used for the one purpose its name might suggest: as a movie theater. The Union Theatre Thespians are fighting to change that. On Wednesday, Oct. 29, the club put on its first movie night with its showing of “Sinners.”
“We decided to start the Union Theatre Thespians because we wanted to bring more theatrical events into the theatre space,” said Shannon Horvath, club sponsor and manager of the Union Theater.
This free event took place at 7 p.m., welcoming about 400 students to experience the Union Theater as they never had before. Movie-goers came dressed in pajamas, Halloween costumes and even as characters from the movie itself.
To give students an authentic movie theater experience, the theater made the rare exception of allowing food and drink. LSU Dining donated 300 bags of popcorn and Coca-Cola beverages, and students were also free to bring their own snacks (and even full meals, as was the case with many students). Auxiliary Services ensured that the space was thoroughly cleaned afterward, as this exception to the rules did result in some fallen popcorn kernels and empty candy wrappers in the aisles.
Because this movie night was such a new undertaking, it took many people to get the show on the road and actually convert the space into a movie theater for a night. Before any plans could be set in stone, club treasurer Talon Cotton had to apply for a grant from Student Government to purchase licensing for the movie. After that, Gilana Warren, another UTT officer, advertised the event via social media.
Theater staff also had to figure out the logistics of projecting the movie onto the big screen.
“This is not a movie theater, per se,” said Horvath, “so sound qualities and lighting are really important.”
Before the event, sound technician Donald Moore and lighting technician Kory Jenkins had to work out how loud the volume had to be, what settings made for the clearest picture and more. But Horvath and everyone else involved were determined to make movie night a success.
“Sinners” itself was chosen for many reasons. For one, the movie was filmed exclusively in Louisiana despite being set in the neighboring state of Mississippi. Additionally, the movie, only recently released in April of this year, was perfect for the Halloween season, said Horvath, as it mixes vampiric legends with Southern myth to create a horror movie perfect for LSU.
Horvath wasn’t wrong in her movie selection. Students sat on the edge of their seats as the dark plot unfolded. Each kiss, kill and song was met with roaring applause, infectious laughter or audible gasps from the audience. The audience even sang along to parts of the Irish vampire Remmick’s folk song “Rocky Road to Dublin.”
“What I loved most about my experience was the unison audience reactions when quoting lines from the movie, laughter or the oohs and ahs from the scenes,” said Ashari Harper, a junior theatre performance major.
UTT hopes to host more movie nights in the future, and after the success of “Sinners,” it is safe to say that students want to see more. At the end of the day, the Union Theatre Thespians are hoping to give students a space to enjoy cinema right here on campus, in a theater that, up until now, showcased very little theatre.
“We would really like to make this a monthly thing for students to have on campus that they can go to and relax and watch a movie,” Horvath said. “Maybe really just to have a place to go that’s different than what is offered right now on LSU campus.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source lsureveille.com ’
