Kirkgate Cinema
To have a thriving theatre and community centre such as the Kirkgate in Cockermouth you need a team of volunteers that can turn their hands to an impressive range of tasks. Take the ever-popular Monday night cinema showings at the Kirkgate.
We went behind the scenes to see how the volunteers make sure the show goes on. Under the guidance of cinema co-ordinator Mark Skidmore, volunteer projectionists share their technical know-how to others on a buddy system to ensure there is always someone on rota to prepare and run the 35 mil celluloid dreams.
| Mike Harrison (pictured) told us what was involved: "The films are chosen by Mark and the film group. Mark draws up the schedules and books the films from the distributors." The cans of film usually arrive on Friday and typically for a two hour film there will be six reels that we have to splice together and wind onto the projector's main reel. It takes us about an hour to prepare the reels ready for the film to roll. "Fortunately I have never had a film snap, the films are pretty robust. The main risk can be if the projector lamp trips out mid performance...then we have to quickly sort it out. We also have to ensure the sound is Ok for the audience." |  |
And at the end of the show, although our volunteer projectionist do get to see top films for free, he or she still has to stay behind after the curtain call to work on late into the night separating the six reels of film again for the film to be returned to the distributors.
Kirkgate, under the guiding hand of Kate Hilton and its committee not only boasts the 125 seat theatre/cinema, with licensed bar, but has a constant buzz from activities as diverse as samba, operatic arias, folk and rock bands, pilates, art exhibitions. The list is endless and can only be fully appreciated after checking out the centre's website at www.thekirkgate.com.
And if you want to meet a great bunch of like minded volunteers and maybe learn to be a projectionist or sound mixer and engineer why not get in touch. Telephone; 01900 826448.
