Campus Offers Cheap Entertainment

By KASEY NABAL

Who wants to stand in a long line at the cinema or deal with the baby crying two rows back?  Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Cheap Seats Cinema puts on two movies in Ball Circle, Monroe or Dodd Auditorium. Cheap Seats is an entertainment organization that brings movies to campus that have yet to be released on DVD. They also have a television station on channel 27 as well as offices at OSACS.

As a cheap, local alternative to Central Park’s Regal Cinemas, CSC is an amazing bonus to Mary Washington students.

They also offer prizes and theme nights. Encourage your friends to participate in movie nights—the more people who participate, the bigger and better the prizes will be. After all, that’s what the $1 fee to get in goes toward.

A quality assurance guarantee comes straight from the CSC technicians who work hard to ensure proper acoustics and sound, as well as take care of the projector and screen.

Mike Kappert and Megan Whiteaker are both co-chairs of Cheap Seats Cinema. Their job is to meet once a month with the 50+ staff members of CSC, cover general operations and organize events. In the springtime they view movie trailers and take votes on which movies should make the fall lineup.  They also go to each show over the summer to further fortify their assertions that their choice of lineup is good enough for the viewers, the student body.

“Mike [Kappert] is very good.  I like him,” said CSC sound technician Cari Kreidinger.

One of the great things about Cheap Seats is that those who do not have cars or the extra cash are able to have entertainment on campus that is really cheap.

“It’s great to see new movies before they come out on DVD,” explained UMW student Sarah McDermott.

The roommates attended “Sex & the City” two weeks ago on Ball Circle. They loved the laziness of lying on top of a blanket on the ground and watching a movie with a few friends.

“It’s awesome to see a movie for just $1,” said freshman Mary Cait Nannery.

CSC must pay a fee ranging from $100 to a whopping $900 for each movie shown depending on how old or new the movie is. The money buys a license to show the film before it is released on DVD from a productions company and is provided for CSC by the UMW Finance Committee. It would be illegal to show the movie with out proper licensing.

This week’s movies are “Hancock” and “WALL-E” in Monroe. Don’t think about missing them. For more information on schedules and movie info visit the CSC website online at http://students/umw/edu/~film and don’t forget to join the CSC student group on Facebook.