White Plains CitizeNetReporter - <i>KING KOMMENTS:</i>Open Letter to Louis Cappelli

White Plains Common Councilman William King attended a recent event at the Jacob Burns Center (the old renovated Rome Theatre in Pleasantville, that this reporter used to go to), and here are his impressions about what a Fine Arts Theater might be like:

You should take in a movie at the Jacob Burns Film Center in Downtown Pleasantville. You've probably read about it if you haven't been there. They have a nice lobby and the theater I was in on the ground floor (there were stairs leading up to something else upstairs) was very nice: exposed brick walls (a really good look) with some acoustic sound panels mounted on them, a stage - but not a full one, just one where you can pull up some chairs from the side for a pre- or post-movie discussion (the stage could also be used for concerts, etc. I would imagine).

The chairs were pink salmon upholstered - nice but probably not that much more expensive than what's at New Roc. They had wood armrests with cupholders. The screen was big - the theater was wider than a lot of the shoebox size theaters that old moviehouses have been cut up into. You should check it out.

I think it would be good to have the fine arts theater(s) (in the City Center) "look" a little more upscale and be somewhat separate from the theaters that are showing Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius (not that that wasn't a very good movie - just for a younger crowd) and American Pie 2.

There's competition out there for the growing fine arts theater audience so you have to do things to attract this crowd to a multiplex - there's a fine arts theater in Scarsdale on Central Ave. and a small 3-plex in a strip mall in Greenburgh has been making a go of it since they switched to primarily "higher brow" films.

--Bill P.S. That block of stores between the City Center and the Galleria has to be dealt with - have you guys talked to Leon Silverman about what he is doing? I see no signs yet of him making any serious moves there in anticipation of City Center.


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