Buster Keaton Marathon with Live Theatre Organ Accompaniment
Reads & Company PresentsProof of vaccination is no longer required. Masking remains encouraged but optional.
Dana Stevens, our special guest speaker, will briefly introduce each film and conduct a Q&A after all three films are completed.
About
Join us for an afternoon in tribute to film pioneer Buster Keaton. The Colonial will screen three of Keaton’s short films with live music on the Theatre Organ Society of the Delaware Valley’s Wurlitzer Theatre Organ. There will also be a discussion by film critic Dana Stevens, author of “Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century.”
Special thanks to the Theatre Organ Society of the Delaware Valley (TOSDV) for use of their theatre organ.
About the organist, Brett Miller was a finalist in the American Theatre Organ Society’s Young Organist Competition and has been performing for the past ten years over the country specializing in the art of Silent film accompaniment. He has been featured with the New Jersey Capital Philharmonic at the Trenton War Memorial as well as opened for the sold-out appearance of George R.R. Martin, author of the “Game of Thrones”. He was featured on PBS “State of the Arts” as well as in the Philadelphia Inquirer “We The People” for his organ accompaniment and preservation of silent films. Along with his brother he founded “musicalpromise.org” , a musical initiative to help fund the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Brett has received the White House Student Film Festival honorable mention for a film featuring this community service work. Prior to his present studying as an undergraduate student at the Eastman School of Music, Brett was involved in the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra as well as many school-related musical organizations and was awarded for these efforts. He is an active advocate for the education of the presentation of silent films and performing the scores to them “live to picture”. Brett continues to be involved in various organizations including Empire Film and Media Ensemble, the Garden State Theatre Organ Society, the Rochester Theatre Organ Society, the American Theatre Organ Society, and the Historic Pipe Organs at Boardwalk Hall.
About the Speaker: Dana Stevens has been Slate’s film critic since 2006. She is also a cohost of the magazine’s long-running podcast, the Slate Culture Gabfest, and has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Atlantic, and Bookforum. Stevens lives with her family in New York. You can follow her on Twitter @thehighsign.
There is plenty of parking near the theatre, and it’s free on Sundays!
TICKETS
Adults: $12
Children: $7
ABOUT THE FILMS
One Week
(Dir. Edward F. Cline & Buster Keaton, 1920, 25 minutes)
A newly wedded couple attempts to build a house with a prefabricated kit, unaware that a rival sabotaged the kit’s component numbering.
The Playhouse
After waking up from his wacky dream, a theater stage hand inadvertently causes havoc everywhere he works.
Sherlock Jr.
(Dir. Buster Keaton, 1924, 45 minutes)
A film projectionist longs to be a detective and puts his meager skills to work when he is framed by a rival for stealing his girlfriend’s father’s pocket watch.
Sponsors
Thank you to Reads & Company for partnering with us on this event!
Visit in Reads & Company Presents in PhoenixvilleAdditional Information
General admission seating. Ticket prices include a $2.00 per ticket Processing Fee. Tickets are available with cash, check, or credit card at the Colonial Theatre Box Office, or online.
Copies of “Camera Man: Buster Keaton, the Dawn of Cinema, and the Invention of the Twentieth Century.” will be available for purchase courtesy of our good friends and neighbors, Reads & Company.
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