by Colleen Cook
When our patrons who have been longtime Mansfield residents think about the Renaissance Theatre, they often recall fondly their visits to the Ohio Theatre to see movies throughout their formative years. When our theatre opened, it was as a movie palace that provided a considerable stage and dressing rooms for live acts.
In recent years, the Renaissance has only occasionally offered films as part of our programming, for a number of reasons. Securing the rights to films can be very costly, and certain films require highly expensive and frequent upgrades to projection technology that would put severe limitations on the live programming we're able to offer. With a great cinema nearby, film is not an avenue we've sought to aggressively pursue.
All the while, though, we are deeply aware of our roots in film, and have been more than eager to be able to include film as a more regular part of our programming. We spent the past two years restoring and upgrading the projectors in our projection booth, which were actually original to the (now demolished) Madison Theatre down the street.
So, when a community leader, Chuck Hahn, approached us about launching a Stephen King Film Festival, we were more than eager to jump on board. As the series developed, we've partnered as well with the Mansfield/Richland Public Library and will be able to include expert speakers talking about the film and Stephen King prior to many of the films in the exciting lineup.
Thanks to the financial support of Charles P. Hahn, Cleveland Financial and the Mansfield/Richland Public Library, tickets are only $5 for each of the films in the series.