Even with its brightly-lit marquee, The State Theatre is easy to take for granted. After all, it’s been sitting on the same College Avenue location since it opened on October 15, 1938. And in the 85 and a half years since that date, The State has avoided major modifications or dislocations — apart from one finance-based shutdown in the early 2000s.
These days, however, the old dog in downtown State College is up to lots of new tricks. Long gone are the days when a focus on survival (“Save the State”) was necessary.
These days, it’s all about moving forward with more and better productions — both live and cinematic — that are causing heads to turn. From my perspective, there’s nothing stopping The State in 2024, except perhaps the need for a state-of-the-art projector. And even that void may soon be filled.
MORE IS BETTER
“I think we’ve changed the recipe quite a bit in the last two years,” John Rattie, The State’s executive director, told me in a recent interview. “Our goal here is just to do as much as we can when we can, however we can. I think the more we do, the more we are seeding and cultivating the artistic culture out there. As far as national acts are concerned, let’s just keep doing them. We have a tremendous amount of offers that go out all the time, so the gas pedal is really down on that.”
Indeed, as the theater’s staff members look in their rearview mirror, they recall last month as a time of non-stop activity, with at least one event every day except April 3. Meanwhile, Rattie was looking forward when he told me, “If we can get to 40 national acts a year, that would be great. With movies, right now I would say we’ll be showing 10 or more a month. And…” as he pointed to his computer screen, “everything here in green is our community events. We’re just filling it.”
But why is Rattie — together with his leadership team — so intent on pushing a metaphorical pedal? “I don’t know that The State Theatre has ever reached its full potential,” he said. “So we are here to push it to its fullest potential and see what happens and see what holds up.”
Rattie, a native of the Hazleton area, came to the State College area in 1998 after finishing an associates degree in architecture at Penn State Wilkes-Barre. Prior to joining The State as production manager in 2021, he would’ve been found playing guitar and B3 organ with his brothers in the Rustlanders or booking events and running sound at the Rusty Rail brewpub in Mifflinburg.
ON A ROLL
While talking with Rattie in his cave-like office at the theater, I mentioned my own perception of an upward vibe at The State. “Yeah, there definitely is growing momentum here,” he said. “We just interviewed a person for our marketing position and I mentioned that it’s like you’re joining a band here. It’s not a place to work as much as we have a goal and a mission. Everybody here is working towards something bigger.”
Added Rattie, “If you just talk to [staff members] individually, the passion will come out. And here’s the thing, this is just a building. It’s just bricks. And there are State Theatres everywhere. But this one here, it belongs to State College and there’s a good team here. So it’s incumbent upon all of us to make it the best it can be.”
Justin Dorsey, the theater’s director of development and community outreach, explained his own special motivation for serving with The State. “Upholding and enhancing a vision of artistic contribution to the Centre Region is the thing that I’m most proud of,” said Dorsey, a Happy Valley native who graduated from State High and Penn State. “Having a stage that is supportive of these national acts. Not just by being available, but being a good professional environment for people to come into.”
KINDNESS COUNTS
When Dorsey introduced me to Dan Culpepper, I knew that I was meeting The State’s box office manager. What I didn’t realize is that Culpepper has held that role for five years, and he’s done it with remarkable patience. To illustrate that point, Dorsey asked the native of Doylestown to tell me about his experience earlier that day with an 80-something woman.
“This woman had called us twice,” said Culpepper, “and we hadn’t called her back because we were just getting out of a meeting. She was hoping to get tickets to a particular event, but she must have clicked on a bad link telling her that tickets weren’t available.
“She was pretty frustrated with the advanced technology, and she was struggling to figure out how the online seating chart worked. So she walked in here but wasn’t able to get a [legal] parking spot and she was ready to just go back home. She was saying, ‘I’m not even going to come to the show anymore. I’m just not even going to get my tickets.’
“So I was like, ‘Hey, this can be frustrating, I get it. I am here to help you. If you’re worried about being parked illegal, just pull up into the loading zone here in front of the theater. You’ll be safe there for 10 minutes. Then come in the auditorium with me. Let’s take a look at some of these seats, find out what you’d prefer and then we will get tickets for you today.’ So she went in there and we found her a great pair of seats right on the aisle so she doesn’t have to climb across people. She’s thrilled now. We all have family members who struggle with technology.”
Asked why he enjoys his job, the 2019 Penn State graduate said, “It’s a way to be involved with the community here. It’s a way to build connections. It’s a way to feel a part of something more than just clocking in and out from nine to five.”
NOT YOUR GRANDMA’S ATTIC
Despite Rattie’s earlier statement that the State’s building is “just bricks,” he’d be the first to say that those bricks actually surround two special performance venues. As for the main facility, the Friedman Auditorium, he said, “It’s kind of like a sanctuary. When you have people on stage, the real good ones are extremely vulnerable under a lot of light in front of 600 people. And that’s when it’s a show.”
Upcoming in Friedman Auditorium are such artists as soul singer Lee Fields (June 20), folk/rock band The Felice Brothers (July 10 in partnership with ArtsFest) blues guitarist Jimmie Vaughn (Aug. 11) and Southern rock singer Paul Thorn (Aug. 15).
And then there’s “The Attic,” an intimate upstairs venue that even old-time townies like me may have never visited. I’m not sure how many decades it lay dormant, but it’s been used in recent years and the current management opened it again in November for a dramatic presentation by Warren Zanes, author of “Deliver Me from Nowhere: The Making of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska.”
Since then, four or five other performances have found an intimate setting in the 49-seat Attic. “It’s almost like a living room,” said Rattie. “When you’re in that room with someone like Jim Lauderdale, who you’ve seen at the Ryman (the former home of the Grand Ole Opry), it is pretty spectacular. I don’t know if the community really understands what we’re doing there yet. It’s pretty amazing.”
SURGE IN CINEMA
Although Rattie and Dorsey are musicians — Dorsey plays upright and electric bass guitar — they both beam when talking about The State’s recent upsurge in movie offerings and attendance. In the past, the theater’s movies would, at best, break even despite the popularity of a few special flicks like “It’s a Wonderful Life” or “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” But last year, film attendance was way up as The State reached 150% of its financial goal for the movie category.
Why the breakthrough at the box office? Was it because of better marketing, better selection of films or just the higher volume of movies? Rattie offered an “all of the above” answer and also suggested that perhaps some unknown factors may have helped.
Regardless of the reasons, the positive outcome from films is continuing in 2024. The State adopted last year’s figure as the goal for this year and, amazingly enough, that target had already been reached by the end of April.
PROJECTING A NEW PROJECTOR
Ironically, at the very time when films are proving most profitable, The State’s projector is a limiting factor. Culpepper, always one to respect the elderly, suggested that “It’s a great projector, but it’s at the level of what you would see in a really nice church or high school auditorium.”
Dorsey, meanwhile, offered a pragmatic summary of the projector itself and its supporting technology. “The current projector,” he said, “is at the end of its physical life. It’s a system that’s been patched together over the years. And the technology is… I don’t want to say obsolete… but it’s definitely not the newest.”
Whereas the current projector has a brightness output of 8,000 lumens and runs on xenon lamps, The State’s desired new 4K laser projection system would deliver 24,000 lumens. Furthermore, the current projector was discontinued by its manufacturer in 2012 and that means replacement parts are hard to find and maintenance technicians are no longer trained to fix it.
As for accompanying technology, the current system works with Blu-ray while the new one will utilize Digital Cinema Package — the standard in the industry which is necessary to show all first-run movies, including independent productions from Studio Ghibli and A24.
“We can’t show first-run movies now,” noted Rattie, “because we don’t have the equipment. When we get the equipment, maybe we can show some of these releases that say, ‘Only shown in select theaters.’ And with the 4K digital system we can also use our 35-millimeter projectors — they’re in perfect condition — to show films like ‘Jaws’ or ‘The Wizard of Oz.’ ”
When asked to compare the two projectors by using an automobile metaphor, Will Jossart, The State’s production manager, willingly complied. “Right now,” he said, “I’m driving a 2010 Honda CRV with the ‘check engine’ light permanently on. It’s got about 205,000 miles on it, and I need to add oil after every four hours of driving. That would be our current projector. As for the new one, it’s not a Mercedes but maybe an Escalade. It’s nice. It works well. It’s got the size that fits our need and the standard that everyone uses.”
FINDING THE FUNDS
Although The State isn’t buying a Mercedes, no one is hiding the fact that Escalades aren’t cheap. The sticker price for the new projector system is about $120,000. And that’s a chunk of change for a community-owned, nonprofit organization.
As a result, The State’s leaders are following a multi-pronged approach to raise the necessary funds. Said Dorsey, “We have been developing a pool of leadership donations to incentivize smaller giving that will happen through our own fundraising campaigns and through Centre Gives. So far, we have raised $20,000 due to a 100 percent commitment from our board members and a handful of other major donations. And we’re applying for a large grant from Happy Valley Adventure Bureau.
“But clearly, the arrival of a new projector at The State Theatre is going to depend largely on local people who donate $50 or $100 or $250 through our own website or through Centre Gives on May 8 and 9. And because all of our programming works to support all that we do, a gift toward the projector will help produce greater profits from movies that will fund live performances, community events and educational programs.”
