Princess Theater - Mount Ayr, Iowa
Population: Mt. Ayr approx. 1,800, they are the County Seat and Ringgold County in total is approx. 3,000
Movie show times are weekends only Friday/Saturday at 7pm; Sunday matinee 2pm
117 seats total in the theater. Karen indicated that attendance depends on the movie and time of year. For instance, kids movies playing on a Fri/Sat will have around 100+. She said Sundays are their lightest days. I talked with her yesterday and she said the Saturday movie had 88 attending. She commented attendance also depends on if their is a home ball game. The fall is quieter.
Admission is $5/person, no charge for 2 and under.
Staffing is one full time paid staff (Karen) which is who I talked to. The remainder of the staff is adult and student volunteers. She has 5 high school students but could get by with 3. There are usually 2 staff per movie. The student volunteers only do concessions and cleaning. Karen runs the projector and a volunteer adult does ticket taking. In order to give Karen a break, she said they have one lady who fills in for her one weekend or 3 days/month. She is paid.
Details of renovation: Their theater closed in 1985, was then made into a bar, then a plumbing store. In 2005, a gentlemen in town purchased the bldg. for $30M and gave it to the group in charge of the renovation. They hosted several little fundraisers and were fortunate to get grants from the Dekko foundation. They also had an endowment grant of $300M which currently helps with operating costs. They receive interest of $20M annually from this endowment. They sold seats for $250 each as a fundraiser and also sold bricks for $100 a piece. Their is a plaque in their lobby which recognizes the donors. Karen commented that they reached out to Alumni and that was helpful in getting donations from people that used to live in the area but have since relocated but still wanted to support their hometown theater project. She commented that one alumni from California who had done very well financially helped out with their project in several ways financially. Karen also commented to check on grants through casinos. She said each county that does not have a casino is awarded grant money that has to come through a community foundation. She said to check Farm Bureau and utility company grants. Cost of renovation was $370M. The project took 3 years from 2005-2008. Karen indicated they had a endowment committee and renovation committee. They hired a contractor who oversaw the renovation and they had several volunteer contractors who donated their time - plumbing, electrical. There was a group of women who came in and stained woodwork and they had a decorating committee. They had several volunteer workers in other words.
The theater is used for movies and community theater events (plays, singing groups, church groups, individuals). There is a full stage and movie screen and the movie screen can be pushed back. Karen indicated the school drama club uses the theater, the elementary, they will host movies during Christmas break and on early out days they will have business’s sponsor a movie. They charge $100 to show a DVD which is attached to the projector.
Karen’s advice was to have a solid core group of people. She said her group made road trips to look at different theater projects. She said to get the community involved and to try to establish an endowment. Karen said she would give us a tour of the Mt. Ayr theater if interested.