The White River Valley Herald

Playhouse Ponders Its Role in 2020

Celebrated Centennial Anniversary


From its early days as a silent movie house to its current state as a beloved downtown destination, the Randolph Playhouse Cooperative is celebrating its 100th year in the movie business.

Rewind in Time

The Playhouse opened on August 4, 1919 as the Strand Theatre, with a sold-out showing of “The Border Wireless,” a World War I propaganda silent film.

Over the years, ownership of The Strand passed from Mary Carr to Edward and Carrie O’Brien, from Barbara Robb to Jack and Gertrude Champlain, and then finally to Arnie and Clara Hendin. Renamed the Randolph Playhouse in 1941 by Robb, the theater showed movies until the late 1980s when it closed during a time of financial hardship.

Then along came David and Tammy Tomaszewski, who bought the theatre in 1988, pouring everything they owned into refurbishing the building.

The Playhouse then became a member-owned cooperative in 2012.

Last year, that cooperative’s board hired Kevin Dunwoody to operate the theater until he resigned in late January. After a two month hiatus, the Playhouse saw Lisa Wirth hired as the new manager and opened its doors to the public once again.

Now, after less than a year on the job, the Playhouse is searching for yet another manager— its third in two years.

“We don’t anticipate having a lapse in management being a problem this time,” Playhouse volunteer operations manager Bennett Law said. “Now we have more than one person who knows how to use the projector.”

Watching With Neighbors

The Playhouse is the oldest, purpose-built movie theater in Vermont that is still in use. But now, the beloved movie theater, is facing yet another threat.

In an age overrun with digital streaming platforms such as Netflix, Hulu, and (most recently) Disney+, the Playhouse, much like other small, independently owned cinemas, is up against new home streaming services, portable technology, and the decline of movie theater-goers.

“We want the Playhouse to enter the next 100 years in a position of strength,” Law said. “It’s difficult to do this when people aren’t going out to the movies, but rather staying in.”

Another difficulty the Playhouse regularly faces is options for its single-screen showings.

While some community members grow annoyed at the lack of choice in movies for multiple weekends in a row, the Playhouse has no choice but to show one film for numerous weeks. Most headlining blockbusters require three to four week rentals, not one, so in order for the cooperative to bring the new movies to Randolph, they must sign on for extended periods of time.

“Having a second screen and the ability to give the public two choices every weekend would be extremely helpful for us all,” Law said.

Law stressed that while many may enjoy the convenience of watching a movie from home, there is “nothing like going to the movies,” especially at a time when more and more movies are meant to be watched as a big-screen experience such as “Star Wars” or “The Lion King”.

“It’s one of my favorite things to do,” he said. “It’s a much more exciting, and a community event when you go to the Playhouse. When you go somewhere else, or don’t go anywhere at all, you lose that small town appeal of watching a movie with your own neighbors.”

Looking Ahead

The Playhouse Cooperative is currently circulating a petition to be put on the town ballot to vote for a $5,000 allocation to help with operational costs.

Looking ahead to another century in the business, Law said the Playhouse board has been focusing on two goals: resilience and inadequacies in the cooperative. He explained that the current operating model does not support the theater’s infrastructure needs.

The building is not well heated, nor universally accessible. Just these two issues alone would take thousands of dollars to fix.

“Our facility desperately needs some upgrades,” Law said. “We need to make a change in order for the theater to keep its doors open and patrons coming through.”

With the building currently mortgaged, Law explained one possibility the Playhouse committee is set to discuss at its upcoming meeting in February is creating a nonprofit to support those infrastructure and growth of the theater needs.

“The opportunity for making money comes in concessions, not necessarily the ticket sales,” Law said. “We have to look into what we can do to keep the theater alive and a viable enterprise.”