The Scala
There is a downside to living in a rural backwater, and that culture can be a rare luxury. We have just one arthouse cinema in the entire North of the Country which screens foreign films once daily and one quality theatre ( both located at Theatre Clwyd which lies sixteen miles away)
The local community cinema , The Scala in Prestatyn, is another favourite venue of ours, but financial problems and funding issues has caused that to be closed only yesterday.
I'm saddened by the apathy of the majority of locals who are probably more than happy to buy knock off dvds to watch on their 64 inch monster TVs than to invest in a theatre ticket to see a quality movie on a cracking digital state-of-the-art screen..
It was a case of use it or lose it
And the bloody population has sadly lost it.
Geraint Roberts ( centre) backed by the choir in the village hall
I was also slightly worried that the musical director and conductor of the Trelawnyd Male voice Choir has stepped down after leading the choir for the past thirty years. The local press state that no one has taken over the role of director and that the choir is now looking for a new leader......I do so hope that there are no more troubles ahead for the famous choir.
Hey ho
Yes, it's going the way of the milkman and paperboy.
ReplyDeleteI nominate YOU John. Sing low sweet chariot.
ReplyDeleteHe can sing!
DeleteWe all heard him. 'Let it go, let it go....'
DeleteSad news, John. As our world gets larger, it gets smaller at the same time. Isn't that odd?
ReplyDeleteRIP The Scala. I see that its main supporters are to launch a new campaign to try to save it next week but they are up against the withdrawal of grants etcetera. I can only fully immerse myself in a film at the cinema. At home on the telly it is never the same.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember when the last time we went to the movies was. Must be at least ten years. I think the last one we went to see was "Other People's Lives". An inside view on the German STAZI spying on the bohemian society. Sadly none of the subject matter presented on the big screen or on TV for that mater is of much interest.
ReplyDeleteGoes to show how long ago it was. The actual name was "The Lives of Others"
Deletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lives_of_Others
When I hear about a local cinema closing it hits me like a punch in the gut. So very sad.
ReplyDeleteBtw: In your final (pre-"Hey ho") sentence above do you want to insert a "no"?
That's what I was thinking, too. He can't have meant what he typed. My fingers like to leave out a letter or word now and then as they try to keep up with my brain. Or my brain drops it altogether!
DeleteSmall theaters that only show one movie at a time are no more here. The local downtown theater that hubby used to frequent as a teen - The Don Theater - closed long ago but is still there. He remembers being able to watch movies all day on Saturdays for ten soda bottle caps.
Sadly, times change.
Hope all have a wonderful weekend. ♥
I used to feel as you do John when I first came up here. We previously lived in Wolverhampton and only fifteen miles from Birmingham with a good train connection regularly. Any film/opera/musical event etc that came out we could see at the drop of a hat.
ReplyDeleteUp here is almost a cultural desert apart from local folk who put on exhibitions of their own art, and musical choirs/groups who perform. I now reason that I spent a lifetime going to wonderful operas, fantastic ballet performances, great films on the big screen. Now, in my dotage, I am happily plodding along without any of them. But I do take your point - it is rather sad.
Hope someone steps in to save the choir. If you are reading this...might it be YOU?
ReplyDeleteit's the same with the pubs around here.Though Punch Taverns are as much to blame as the local populace who can buy six cans from Mr T. for the price of a pint
ReplyDeleteJust looking at the choir photo..and the age of the members...I think it tells a tale in itself.
ReplyDeleteJane x
Another bit of community lost. So sad.
ReplyDeleteIt's so sad isn't it. I really must make more of an effort to support local things this year now that we've settled in properly.
ReplyDeleteOff to Osbournes tonight ... we're always happy to support them :-)
Sorry to hear the local theater is going the way of all things. Too bad. I think you used the time going as some of us do to decompress. I think that progress can sometimes be a sad thing.
ReplyDeleteThat would be a disaster! Formed in 1933 I read....they need to enlist more youth into the group to keep it alive. Surely there's interest.
ReplyDeleteLiving in a rural location with no public transport. I find it easier to sit down in my favourite armchair,in my scruffs, crack home a can of Newcastle Brown bitter and click the television remote control. I do find it sad when a cinema closes though John!
ReplyDeleteSo you are adding Cinema owner and Choirmaster to your curriculum vitae?
ReplyDeleteI was telling my son that when we were kids, we had a cinema in every town. Ours was just across the road from our house. The queue for every film would be all the way round the building and down the street. The kids would all go to the Saturday matinee, regardless of what was showing, and it cost very little. We took our son to see the Hobbit at one of the huge multiplexes (the only small cinema is now closed) in the city at Christmas - 30 quid!!! Another 6 quid for parking and a tenner for petrol. Despite our village growing rapidly, we are losing more and more facilities and have to travel quite a distance to do anything.
ReplyDeleteI love that the choir members all appear to be smiling despite the sad news such troupers! Perhaps you would like to have my 18 y.o. granddaughter come over - she's a first soprano and assistant director of her wonderful high school choir - I'd love to see her enjoying a different life in your beautiful Welsh village!!!
ReplyDeleteMary -
P.S. She's a beauty too - I know those happy folk would love having her join them.
Time has a horrible way of chipping away at a community.
ReplyDeleteA shame about the Scala closing. As you say, what a pity the locals are too indifferent to somehow find a way of keeping it open. A packed cinema watching a great movie on a giant screen is a unique experience.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a great innovation that local (1+ hour away) cinemas are now showing opera, concerts and ballet (not too keen on the ballet, but each to his own) For those of us who don't want to spend £156 for a train ticket plus overnight accommodation to go to London it's a real improvement.
ReplyDeleteWhat really, really annoys me is the report in a national newspaper which says that an exhibition in London is 'new'. NO... no, it is not new. We, in this little backwater of the North East of England, saw this exhibition 6 months ago thanks to the amazing Bowes Museum.