City of Davis

March 5, 2010 — City of Davis Announces Open House and Celebration of Varsity Theatre’s New Second Screen

Contact:

• Anne Brunette, Property Management Coordinator
• 530 757-5689
• abrunette@cityofdavis.org

The City of Davis is hosting an open house and clebration of the recently completed second screen at the Varsity Theater located at 616 Second Street on Thursday, March 11th at noon.

The Varsity, which began life as a single-screen movie theater in 1950, was split into two screens in 1976, renovated and reopened in 1992 as a performing arts center, and returned to a single screen movie theatre in 2006 showing mainly independent and art house films. Due to the success of the single-screen the City and Redevelopment Agency began construction of a second auditorium in October 2009 with contractor JDS Builders Group, Inc of Winters, CA.

The second screen auditorium is located behind the current screen in the space formerly used as a theatre stage. The new movie theatre has 100 comfortable new seats in “stadium seating” style on raked rows and Dolby surround sound. Along with the second screen improvements the main theater is now equiped with a state of the art Digital projector with Dolby 3D capability. With the second screen, the Varsity will be able to greatly expand their selection of independent and art house movies and offer more special events such as film festivals, speakers and rentals. By the beginning of April, the second screen room of the Varsity Theatre will be fully equipped and ready to show both pre-recorded and live opera events in collaboration with the Emerging Cinemas of New York. Live performances of Verdi's Simon Boccanegra (La Scalla) and Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio (Gran Teatre del Liceu) will be the first performances to be digitally streamed, with many more to follow.

The City Council and Redevelopment Agency set a goal of reusing the Varsity Theater to attract more visitors to downtown Davis with the reuse as an independent movie house. Davis Downtown Business Association, Director, Joy Cohan noted that “the impact to downtown has been immediate. The success of the Varsity has allowed them to attract movies like ’Alice” in 3D that will be a regional draw to downtown with movie goers lingering, shopping and eating in local businesses.“ She is excited to report that “the synergy is contagious with businesses such as The Wardrobe hosting events focusing on the movie’s costume designer.”

Also included in the renovation is the installation of four wall murals, reproductions of the original 1950 murals in the main auditorium that were removed in the 1990’s. The murals reflect the agriculture in the region, and reproduce the style and colors of the original artworks.

The Varsity is located at 616 Second Street in Downtown Davis. For more information, please call the City of Davis Parks & General Services Department at 757-5689.