Meet Me Downtown

With a countdown from local newsman and former downtown resident Dan Marries,  the brand-new marquee at The Screening Room on Congress Street was lit up Friday night to the cheers of a crowd of a couple hundred celebrants who filled the north lane of Congress.

The obligatory self-congratulatory build-up included on-stage recognition of people that made it happen, such as Michael Keith and architects Ibarra and Rosano, joyful appreciation from Arizona Media Arts Center denizens Giulio Scalinger and Claudia Jesperson, and political speeches.

After the new marquee was lit up, the Fox Theatre marquee–one block to the west, and the Rialto Theatre marquee–two blocks to the east, were turned on as well, in a symbolic reference to the fact that the three marquees have been installed and lighted just within the last several years.

Even as controversy envelops the property one block east of The Screening Room, the north side of the 6th Avenue to Scott Avenue block seems to be on its way back to vitality.  The Screening Room’s bright, but appropriately-scaled marquee, is the new visual anchor of that block, but it is flanked by the new Zen Rock nightclub, and the soon-to-open steak restaurant, A Steak in the Neighborhood.

The Screening Room, a cozy independent cinema on Congress Street, now has a real movie theater marquee, as of Tuesday morning. 

Congress Street is narrowed to one lane between 6th Avenue and Scott Avenue, so that workers can complete the installation of the sign.  The marquee was paid for by the Arizona Media Arts Center (AzMAC), which owns and manages the theater, and by a matching Facade Improvement Grant from the City of Tucson.

As noted before in this blog, the marquee will give The Screening Room a much-needed boost in its visibility and profile.   The theater is the home of the annual Arizona International Film Festival, and what AzMAC calls “Extraordinary Films Not Shown on Ordinary Screens”.

A lighting ceremony is planned for Friday, October 30 at 6:00pm, 127 E. Congress St.

Book-ended by the historic Fox and Rialto Theatres, Congress Street has a two-block stretch in between that is notably quiet, empty, and dark. A vacant lot, empty buildings, a parking lot, and occupied buildings that are open for public uses only occasionally are what characterize the blocks between Stone and 6th Avenues.

Rendering of the new marquee at The Screening Room

Between Hydra and Chicago Store at 6th Avenue, and the banks at Stone Avenue, only some offices, the 24-hour diner, Grill, and the sushi restaurant On a Roll provide much life.

The Arizona Media Arts Center, which runs The Screening Room and the Arizona International Film Festival, is working to light up its section of Congress with a neon movie marquee on the front of its small cinema building at 127 E. Congress. Awarded a matching grant from the City’s Façade Program last year, The Screening Room is raising money for its half of the approximately $125,000 façade re-do and marquee construction, and it is putting on a party this Friday night at the Rialto as a benefit.

“Bad Fest” at the Rialto Theatre will feature a multi-sensory extravaganza with five bands, an art show, video streaming on the theatre walls, and “special” performers among the crowd. So says an announcement from Michael Keith, a board member of the Media Arts Center/Film Festival, downtown developer, and long-time supporter of downtown and the arts.

(Disclosure: I like and respect Michael Keith and consider him a friend. He’s actually built things downtown, including Franklin Court, homes just across Franklin and Court from El Charro Café. He coordinated the creation of the 2007 Downtown Infrastructure Report, which chronicled the need for infrastructure capacity improvements in Downtown Tucson. He also personally sponsored some events we helped to put on, such as the I Madonnari Chalk Art Festival.  I supported the award of one of four Façade Improvement Grants to The Screening Room when I was with the Downtown Tucson Partnership last summer.)

Keith says that he and downtown arts entrepreneur David Aguirre (“an idea machine”) planned the event, which features Marianne Dissard at 7pm, Jimmy Carr’s Awkward Moment at 8pm, Calle Debauche at 9pm, Monster Pussy at 10pm, and Flagrante Delicto at 11pm.

The intermediate goal of this party is to generate cash for the façade and marquee, which will be under construction in a couple weeks, and wind up this fall, if all goes to plan. “We’re going to rip into it July 1, restore the façade that dates to around 1910, then build a blazing neon marquee that is going to light up Congress for a hundred years,” says Keith. The project also includes interior improvements and HVAC work, which will allow The Screening Room to become more of a year-round venue, and Keith hopes the venue will fill an edgy niche in the middle of Congress—hosting the Ignite Tucson series, small music shows, and other special performances in addition to movies.

The long-range vision of Keith and the board at the Film Festival is to turn the annual festival into the “Sundance of the South”. “Once the streetscape work on Congress is done, we can really build this film festival into a one-to-two-week event, with the Fox and Rialto as partners,” Keith says. He sees red carpets, celebrities, and urban elegance.

For now, there’s Bad Fest at the Rialto, with its Bad ticket packages: from 6:30 to 9pm, the Bad Attitude ticket will cost you $15, Bad Company is a $25 ticket for couples (includes one Bad Fest t-shirt), and $40 for couples (and two Bad Fest t-shirts). Discounts apply for Bad Cats and Bad Dogs after 9pm.

All contributions earn a 1-year membership to the Arizona Media Arts Center and the knowledge that you are supporting a bricks-and-mortar project that will have a long-term physical, social, artistic, and economic impact on Downtown Tucson.