By Joey McWilliams
DURANT – Showing movies in the Black Box Theater at the Durant Library has become something of a staple during Spring Break and summertime in recent years. But those movies have generally been for the children.
Donald W. Reynolds Library is looking to open things up for the adults. It is inviting people of the community out for its debut of Dine In Movie Night on Saturday, Apr. 14.
The evening will include a buffet dinner and a movie showing in the Black Box. Reservations are required and the cost will be $20 per person. Concessions will also be available.
The movie to be shown on this opening night will be “The Greatest Showman.”
It is being presented by the Friends of the Library.
Library director Robbee Tonubbee said the idea came after the recent murder mystery had sold out.
“When we were selling tickets for the murder mystery, we had a young man come in wanting tickets, and when he couldn’t get tickets, he expressed an interest in looking for other activities,” Tonubbee said. “So he talked to Angie and Jeremy at length about the need for there to be activities or opportunities for date night around here. Something that doesn’t involve driving to Sherman or Dallas or Frisco.
“They got to thinking and since the Friends of the Library support our movies by purchasing site licenses for us, we can show just about any movie that comes out. And we’ve got the nice big theater and we thought, ‘Why can’t we do a dine-in movie?’ And it doesn’t necessarily have to be the ‘date night’ kind of thing. Singles can come. Couple can come.
“This is our first attempt to do that and we’d like to do it two to three times a year. And as it turns out in planning for the movie, “The Greatest Showman” is coming out. That’s a movie that I’ve heard really great things about. It’s something that you could bring a date to. You could bring your kid to. We’ve not had a lot of luck in showing grown-up movies in the theater on Saturday afternoons, so we thought this might be a venue to do something and kind of class it up a little bit.”
The library’s murder mystery event sells out every year and there is a waiting list to attend the event. Tonubbee said this allowed for much response from people in wanting to be a part of something like this.
“It’s not going to be one of those fundraisers that is going to make us a lot of money. It’s more about giving the community an opportunity to come and have fun at the library and learn more about the library.
“We’ll try and cater locally, so this year Roma is going to cater for us. There will be a dinner buffet – dinner, dessert, drinks and you’ll get a little bag of popcorn. And there will be other concessions available.
“We talked with our Friends group and they seemed excited. And we said since this is our trial run, they may end up having to be the ones to buy all the tickets. But $20 for dinner and a movie is not bad. You’re supporting local business and supporting your local library and for us it may capture an audience we’ve yet to reach.”
About 50-60 seats will be available. Contact the library at 580-924-3486 for more information.
