Big Trouble in Chinatown: The Toronto Underground Cinema Prepares Its Debut

Friday May 14th marks the grand opening of the Toronto Underground Cinema [TUC], and owners Nigel Agnew, Charlie Lawton, and Alex Woodside plan to treat audiences to a free first come, first served double-bill screening of Jonathan Lynn's 's Clue (7pm) and John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China (9pm), which pretty much clarifies the cinema’s mandate of offering theatrical screenings of classics, cult, and rep material in the trio's 700 seat theatre.

Located at 186 Spadina Road, the cinema was formerly known as The Golden Classics Cinema, which showcased Asian films for about a year until it was shuttered in 1995, and pretty much sat unused for 15 years.

The cinema's disuse seemed a natural outcome of the film exhibition climate during the nineties and early oo's when the Festival Cinemas chain was struggling to maintain cinemagoers who were getting accustomed to catching rep, foreign and cult material on cable TV and home video.

If first-run houses weren't boosting admission and concession stand prices, the parent companies were phasing out single and dual screem cinemas in favour of mega-screen complexes designed to be The entertainment hub for urban and outlying suburban communities.

What's surreal is that instead of the shuttered Golden Classics being converted into a health club, furniture store, office supply shop, clearance outlet, or building storage, it apparently just sat there, frozen in time for 14 years. It's last tenant was the Acacia Centre, which made use of the cinema a handful of times before it too folded, leaving the vintage cinema intact.

To some extent, vintage is the key word in describing the theatre's decor: there's mauve tiling at the street level doors that lie at the end of the main entrance hallway of the building. Stucco walls follow the the descending steps into the theatre complex, and curved walls and ceilings guide patrons towards the concession stand and doors to the theatre auditorium.

From the projector's maintenance records and cinema ephemera, the theatre may have been built during the late seventies/early eighties, but the original mono audio system will be upgraded to stereo for the cinema's opening (all the better to hear Big Trouble's bass-friendly music) and Dolby Digital 5.1 as soon as possible, according to Lawton.

As in the photos taken of the cinema (see Facebook link), everything is in excellent condition, from the seats to the wall-to-wall soundproofing, and the screen, which can handle 'scope and 3D films (depending on the type of film and 3D process).

Prior to the cinema's grand opening this week, I asked Lawton and his partners a handful of questions regarding the city's newest and most intriguing rep theatre.
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Mark R. Hasan: Has your experience in theatrical film exhibition at the Bloor Cinema helped in setting up the Underground Cinema, or are there aspects of the venture that are still pretty intimidating?

Charlie Lawton: I wasn't a manager at the Bloor, that was Alex and Nigel, I was a friend of theirs as well as a fan of the theatre and the events it put on. So for me most of this is pretty intimidating at times, but so far I'm loving it and finding it to be a fun challenge.

Alex Woodside and Nigel Agnew : It helped us a lot, though that was working in a operational theatre, so opening up a new business is a new challenge.
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MRH: What have been the three biggest challenges in setting up the theatre for its May 14th opening?

CL: Getting people to know about the space and where we are, getting all the details set up within the limited time frame, dealing with the unexpected, such as the harmonized sales tax. How does one open a business right before a while new tax system rolls out?
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MRH: Partnerships benefit from each person's skills set, interests, and quirks, and I'm curious as to what you find are the group's strongest qualities?
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CL: Our friendship, as well as our love of movies. We work well together because we each have different personalities, and each one fits better to a different job, so we work well together as a team. Charlie works well with people, so we made him the public relations manager, Nigel is a details man so he oversees the operations, and Alex has works well with numbers so he's in charge of financing, and Alex also has the most experience with theatre management.
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MRH: The atmosphere of moviegoing has changed in the past decade to where films fans have to travel to multiplexes in urban hubs, be surrounded by masses of people, and deal with more lobby noise and an unavoidable bombardment of ads before each film. Do you feel neighbourhood cinemas are part of a quiet resurgence, in terms of offering a purer moviegoing experience, as well as a greater variety of material?
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CL: Yes, I feel people like going to rep cinema's because it's a different vibe then a multiplex, it's more of a cinema experience then just seeing a movie. You get to see more and varied films, as well as it has a different feel then going to a big box theatre and seeing Armageddon 2: Electric Bugaboo. For me an integral part of any theatre going experience is the audience you see the film with, I can go see Armageddon 2 in a multiplex with 400 people and feel like I'm sitting home alone watching a DVD, but I can watch a Puppet Master in a single screen rep house with 50 people and be blown away by the buzz of the crowd.
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MRH: Lastly, without giving away any secrets, does the Underground Cinema plan to offer more special events such as the oft-cited Edgar Wright and Kevin Smith guest series, given Toronto is home to permanent and visiting filmmakers year-round?
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CL: YES! We are 100% planning more events of that nature, hosting events like that is why we wanted to open the theatre in the first place. We hope to host many more events of that type, and plan to announce one similar to them soon.
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After the grand opening May 14th, TUC will begin daily screenings Friday May 28. A website is currently in development, but astute patrons of the classic, the weird, foreign, and contemporary flicks can find up to date details at the cinema's Facebook page.

Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com

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