BRYN MAWR, Pa. (KYW Newsradio) — A Bryn Mawr entertainment landmark — shuttered in March 2020 by the pandemic — is reopening its doors for weekend movies.
Samuel Scott, executive director of the member-supported Bryn Mawr Film Institute, said timing is everything.
“We finally felt the time was right,” he explained. “We were always looking for that time. And when I tell you I had dates that go back as far as November — we’re going to open the week of November X — and you get there and it just wasn’t the right time.”
He said tickets will only be sold online through a process he described as dynamic reserved seating where you can select your seats inside one of four theaters.
“As soon as you do that and purchase the ticket, it blocks out the seats around you with that 6-foot radius,” Scott said. “So the next person comes on and those seats around you are not going to be available. They’re already X’ed out as unavailable.”
Scott said the online ticket process isn’t going to get people back in theaters all at once.
“It doesn’t make for a packed house but then again, we’re not looking for that just yet,” he said. “What we’re seeing is those that really are just aching to get back have already started buying their tickets and that’s fine.”
Scott conceded he’s not expecting big crowds in the beginning.
“There are going to be plenty of people who aren’t quite ready yet,” he said. “The last thing we want to do is try to and convince somebody that they need to come to the movies right now.
“People will be ready when they’re ready and when they’re comfortable. But when they are, we want to really be a well-oiled machine.”
Scott said extra deep cleaning measures will be conducted and a new fresh air circulation system will be used.
“We utilize what is known as needlepoint, bi-polar ionization which sounds very 'Star Trek'-like,” he said. “But, in fact, it’s a very real technology. It’s been around for awhile, but it’s very appropriate for spaces such as ours.”
Scott said a crop of this year’s Oscar-nominated films will be on the menu for the four theaters the next couple of weeks.