Don’t call it a comeback.
While many arts and entertainment venues didn’t make it through the COVID-19 pandemic, The State Theatre, located in downtown State College, survived.
Kerry Cavanaugh, director of operations for The State Theatre, recently sat down with Town&Gown for a wide-ranging interview. She talked about the theater’s storied history, making it through a pandemic, and where The State is headed.
The history
If you know, then you know.
The State Theatre has been around for what seems like forever. For those who grew up in State College, the theater is like an old friend. Chances are that you saw a first-run movie there when you were younger. In recent years, maybe a play or even a concert.
A long, long time ago, downtown State College was overrun with movie theaters. For example, along Hiester Street was the popular Cinema 5, a multi-screen complex. It was the last fully-functioning movie theater in downtown State College, closing on December 20, 2007. Chipotle now sits in its spot.
Prior to that, there was The Movies, a two-screen complex, located just across the street at 407 East Beaver Avenue. It closed in 2001. Old-timers might remember The Garden Theatre, The Cathaum, or even The Screening Room.
The State Theatre has a long and storied history. It first opened its doors on October 15, 1938, when Warner Brothers opened it as a test market for new films. The state-of-the-art cinema was built in record-time – just four months – for a whopping $70,000. It offered patrons four different flicks each week. General admission was 30 cents for matinees and 35 cents after 5 p.m. Children’s tickets were just 15 cents.
But The State Theatre lost its luster as the years went by. It closed its doors in 2001 and re-opened, of course, as a multi-purpose community arts venue in 2006.
Cavanaugh says she is proud of the fact that the theater has survived the test of time.
“We still screen a lot of movies incorporated with our general programming,” Cavanaugh says.
In October, the theater showed multiple Halloween screenings, including Hocus Pocus and the classic Rocky Horror Picture Show. Around the holidays, the theater often shows classic Saturday morning cartoons and the Christmas favorite It’s a Wonderful Life.
Surviving a pandemic
It was the start of 2020 and life was fairly normal, remember? However, as the coronavirus made its way to the United States, things began to change. February of 2020 was business as usual, even though cases were being reported in the United States. Then, March arrived. Life, as everyone knew it, stopped.
“Once we got the word that the university was shutting down for a period of time, that was sort of the writing on the wall for all the organizations in town,” Cavanaugh recalls.
At that point, the popular saying was “two weeks to flatten the curve.”
“We were like, ‘OK, this is a new situation that we haven’t really dealt with before,’” Cavanaugh says. “We had a lot of events that we had to hurry up, scramble, and reschedule. We were re-scheduling for four weeks down the line, five weeks down the line.”
Of course, weeks turned into months and rescheduled events turned into cancellations.
“The can kept getting kicked down the road. A couple more weeks and a couple more weeks,” Cavanaugh says. “At some point, we realized it was going to be a long-term thing. We really had to accept and reckon with the fact that we didn’t know what the timeline was going to be for these large-scale, public in-person events to start happening again.”
Cavanaugh says that she and the staff at The State Theatre quickly realized that the doors would be closed for “quite some time.”
“Our industry was one of the first to shut down and looking at the writing on the wall, it was probably going to be one of the last to come back,” Cavanaugh says.
Some venues shuttered their doors and weren’t able to re-open them. The State Theatre, however, simply pivoted. To weather the storm, Cavanaugh and her staff thought of other ways to use the venue.
“We were able to pivot to host Penn State classes and host small-group, private-screening rentals and even some virtual screenings,” she says.
One of the classes that the venue played host to for the 2020 fall semester was Comm 150, which Penn State describes as “an introduction to cinema studies which aims to provide students with media literacy for a world in which communication is increasingly visual and cinematic in its form.”
The State Theatre and its big screen proved to be perfect for the class.
“It’s a film class, so students come, they watch the movie in a theater on the big screen and then the professor teaches about it. It’s a cool class,” Cavanaugh says.
As it turned out, The State Theatre was an ideal classroom for many Penn State classes. Because of the size, Cavanaugh says, there was a plethora of space for social distancing.
“Through last fall, we basically hosted a full schedule. Five days a week, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.,” Cavanaugh says.
The State Theatre survived. Its doors remained open.
Success.
Mask up
Like many venues in the area, The State Theatre has a strict mask policy. Those attending events at the venue are asked to wear a mask when not in their seats or consuming concessions.
According to Cavanaugh, this hasn’t presented any problems thus far.
“There’s always a bit of a challenge, operations-wise. What’s the best way to implement this? What’s the best way to communicate this with our patrons? It’s all about execution and enforcement,” Cavanaugh says.
The theater’s staff has been extremely helpful in getting the message to patrons who are entering the venue, she says.
“We clearly communicate our policies and expectations for each event,” Cavanaugh says.
If a patron does not want to adhere to The State Theatre’s policies, refunds are available.
However, as Cavanaugh points out, people are so excited to get back to watching live events that the policies have resulted in very few problems.
“Most people are happy to be out having fun again,” she says. “Most of our patrons have been absolutely fantastic.”
A true community asset
Since the doors have reopened and shows are making their way back to the stage, Cavanaugh says her job has changed, getting a little more hectic with every passing day.
“It is a ton of work and there are always what I call bombs getting dropped in your lap about things that need to happen and change or whatnot. That’s sort of the nature of live events and putting shows on and all that good stuff,” she says.
However, Cavanaugh can’t get enough of the chaos.
“At the end of the day, most people like myself who work in this industry and have been at it for a while just really have a passion for the art and live events,” she says. “I have gotten to build relationships with so many local performers. I really feel that the work I do day-to-day truly brings value to my community. That makes it all worth it.”
Coming soon
Now that The State Theatre is back at full capacity, there are some big events on the calendar.
The popular 1990s band The Gin Blossoms will grace The State Theatre stage on November 16. Lotus Land – An American Rush tribute band, is next, on November 20.
“We are super-pumped for both of those shows,” Cavanaugh says.
There are a couple of events that dot the calendar in December. Eurydice (December 4) and the David Bromberg Quartet (December 10) are the highlights during the holiday season.
Once the calendar flips to 2022, there are a few more highlights, including comedian Paula Poundstone on March 4.
“We have welcomed her to The State Theatre a number of times and I just can’t speak highly enough about what a funny, funny woman and entertainer Paula is,” Cavanaugh says.
Keep an eye on The State Theatre calendar because more shows will be announced in the New Year, she says.
For more information about The State Theatre or to purchase tickets for upcoming shows, visit thestatetheatre.org.
This story appears in the November 2021 issue of Town&Gown.
