UPDATE (Monday, May 1, 2023): Tickets for Friday night's screening can now be purchased directly through the Edmond Town Hall website in advance. They can also be purchased at the event Friday night.

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Edmond Town Hall (ETH) will see the return next month of its summer drive-in movie theater offering. One Newtown High School (NHS) senior is using her Capstone Project to raise funds for the town’s ecumenical workcamp program by organizing an outdoor movie night for all ages.

Footloose will be screened behind Edmond Town Hall on Friday, May 5.

Additionally, while the May 5 special event is a one-night event, there are plans for the popular screenings to return regularly later this season.

The ETH team first conceptualized the drive-in as an alternative to the theater’s standard indoor movie screenings in June 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although intended as a temporary, one-time movie-viewing adaptation, Edmond’s drive-in quickly became a popular summer reprieve for all ages during months when there was very little direct contact between people outside their own households.

The 2020 project successfully hit the ground running with a movie screen adhered to the west side of the 1930 Georgian-style building. Vehicles parked in the building’s upper, back lot.

Moviegoers lined up to secure their parking spot and order in-house concessions, which were hand prepared and delivered to vehicles by ETH staff. Although a success, execution of the drive-in involved many expenses. The projector rental and installation of the film screen were especially costly. The first season closed in October 2020, with multiple community members since requesting and hoping for a reprise of the experience.

A Capstone Project

NHS Senior Abigail McManus is behind the planned May 5 screening. She decided in December to begin working on the project, she told The Newtown Bee last week, after doing some brainstorming. Every NHS senior does a capstone project, she said, creating a product that benefits the community. While meant to be a physical project, Abigail said, she decided to take a different route with her capstone offering.

“It can also be partnering with an organization, which is what I chose to do,” she said April 20.

Abigail has partnered with Edmond Town Hall’s board of directors to create the event.

She is also working with the board of Newtown Ecumenical Workcamp Students (NEWS), which will benefit from funds raised during the screening. Abigail was part of the NEWS group that traveled to Puerto Rico last summer. She is part of this year’s group, planning for a trip to Kentucky in late June.

Abigail hinted at her plans for the drive-in movie during the NEWS Fundraising Breakfast in March. She was among those who offered testimonials during the event, which is the group's largest annual fundraiser.

Abigail was given a positive reception from the town hall board when she initially reached out with her idea, she said. She was also told up front, she said, that arranging for a drive-in screening would be expensive.

Fortunately, she had already made initial outreach to Todd Ingersoll, a Newtown resident and owner of Ingersoll Auto of Danbury, who has been very generous with support for Edmond Town Hall and other local projects over the years.

Ingersoll Auto has “graciously donated” a new screen, Edmond Town Hall Business Manager Lauren DiMartino confirmed. “It is a standalone inflatable screen that is 23 feet wide by 16 feet high,” she added.

For vehicles to have an optimal view of the screen, it will be positioned it on a flatbed trailer to raise it approximately six feet off the ground, DiMartino also told The Newtown Bee. The screen is available for Abigail’s project, and will then be a piece of Edmond Town Hall equipment.

11th Hour Productions, which specializes in visual storytelling, has also provided “a very generous donation,” Abigail said. That funding will cover the cost of renting an outdoor projector for the evening.

“Those were really the big things we needed to have happen in order for it to go through,” she said.

With official approvals also in hand, Abigail selected the day for her screening — “May 5 will be early enough for me to finish the work and do my presentation at the end of my capstone project, and the weather should be nice,” she said of the timing — and arranged for the feature film.

Slight Change Of Plans

Last week she and Edmond Town Hall issued publicity announcing the event and the featured film: the 1978 John Travolta-Olivia Newton-John musical Grease.

Due to licensing issues, however, the film needed to be changed. Organizers learned of that challenge a day after releasing their publicity materials. The change was accomplished, but not without some stress and quick work.

“We still wanted to keep an older movie, for the classic drive-in movie experience,” she explained. “We thought Footloose is a good family-friendly movie. It’s a classic that people like.

“We were able to reach back out to Paramount and ask for the rights for that movie,” she said. “In less than 24 hours we were able to regroup.

“We got it,” she added, laughing. “It’s confirmed. It’s going to be Footloose.”

The parking lot will open at 8 pm, with the screening to begin at 8:30.

Rain date will be Saturday, May 6.

Tickets are $15 for ages 13 and up, and $10 for ages 12 and under, with a $50 vehicle maximum. Tickets must be purchased in advance through edmondtownhall.org.

Payment by check can also be arranged. For additional information call NEWS board member Laura Roche at 203-219-1748.

Concessions will also be available that evening.

“We’re going to offer refreshments as well as the tickets and screening,” Abigail said. Proceeds from all will benefit NEWS.

“I’m excited,” she said last week of her work to bring another drive-in movie to Edmond Town Hall. “A lot of my friends went during COVID, and they loved it. They thought it was a really good idea.”

Summer Season

The May 5 screening will be in the lower rear parking lot of 45 Main Street.

Abigail’s initiative to hold a drive-in movie, combined with public demand for the summer drive-in, inspired a proposal by Edmond Town Hall staff for a newly revamped full season outdoor movie experience.

In addition to the new screen on a flatbed, screenings will continue in the westernmost parking lot. DiMartino said following the razing of Newtown Hook & Ladder’s former firehouse behind the town hall building, the rear and lower parking lots are being repaved and the new lot “will consist of pedestrian lighting and walkways … and three electric vehicle stations will be added for the community’s use.”

Presenting the drive-in at the lower lot will provide indoor building visitors, who were not permitted inside the theater in 2020, with adequate parking space for their events.

The ETH drive-in is expected to fully emerge once again in June. DiMartino said additional details, including the 2023 summer schedule and ticket prices, will be posted shortly.

The drive-in will continue to feature concessions and on-site drive-in staff, she added.

The goal, the business manager said, “is to make the drive-in a seasonal occurrence and one that the community can look forward to year after year.”

Tickets for the May 5 screening of Footloose are $15 for ages 13 and up, and $10 for ages 12 and under, with a $50 vehicle maximum. Tickets for that event can be purchased in advance at EdmondTownHall.org. Tickets can also be purchased at the event. For additional information call NEWS board member Laura Roche at 203-219-1748.

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Managing Editor Shannon Hicks can be reached at shannon@thebee.com.