Hyart Theatre brings summer fun to the community

The Hyart Theatre has a full slate of summer plans underway for the community, including the return of their summer movie combo, fundraisers and more.

The summer movie combo provides the opportunity to attend Thursday matinees at a discounted price. This is their second year providing this service to the community, and theater manager Linda Mangus plans to make it annual.

“We were fairly successful last year,” Mangus said. “It ended up being a good outcome for us after the end of the summer, so we decided we wanted to do this annually.”

This program starts on June 4 and will run every Thursday until August 19 with the last movie being on Wednesday before the start of school. The cost to attend the movie itself is $2. A $64 punch pass is also available for purchase that comes with admission to the 10 Thursday matinee movies, a small popcorn and a small drink. This pass is optional and can be purchased at any time during business hours.

“Anybody can come, and anybody can buy the pass. The movies themselves welcome any ages, and we actually had a lot of adults that came last year because of the good prices,” Mangus said. “We want to provide this service as something additional for the community members to do in the summer months for a good price.”

Movies this summer include Frozen, E.T., The Croods, Open Season, The Greatest Showman, Storks, The Smurfs, Angry Birds, Superman and Robots. 

This opportunity is made possible by the businesses and community members that donate to the Hyart Theatre. These patrons include GK Construction, Lovell Rec District, Maneline Salon, BOCES, Barber Mafia, Minchow’s Service, Club Dauntless, Bairco, Kodiak Pest Control, Yellowstone Chiropractic, Lovell Dental, Ken and Ranee Ferbrache, Jerry and Donna Capellan, Ron and Joann Walker and an anonymous donor.

Additionally, the Hyart is bringing a fundraiser to the community for the month of June. A red, white and blue semiquincentennial-themed basket with a variety of items that brings its value to $150 will be raffled off. This basket is on display at the theater, and tickets are $5 for 1 or $20 for five tickets. The Hyart has more fundraisers in the works for the summer to keep the historic, non-profit theater running. 

“Over the last year, we’ve had a decline in the number of attendees at the theater,” Mangus explained. “We’re looking at doing several fundraisers to help keep our doors open and help with the costs of running the theater.” 

Mangus also plans to open the theater doors during the Lovell’s Days parade this year to sell concessions and offer their restrooms for public use.

The Hyart also has some maintenance and repairs planned for this summer. Armor Coat LLC will be replacing their sidewalk with a new one in early June (see related story). 

Within the next month or so, the theater board is also planning to restore the lights in the marquee sign, something that has been damaged since the hailstorm that ripped through the town years ago. 

“That has been a work in progress for so long, so that is so exciting for us,” said Mangus. 

The Hyart is also looking into leasing out the office space that is located in the southeast portion of the theater this summer. The space was the longtime office for Loretta Bischoff and Bischoff Enterprises.