Rialto Revived as Repertory

Just about a year ago, there was a still Rialto Cinemas on Summerfield Road, but the clock was ticking. Ky Boyd and his colleagues lost their lease on the theater, which they had helped elevate to the premiere art house in Sonoma county. The efforts to hold on to the six-screen theater against the claim by the Santa Rosa Entertainment Group were still flickering, but by the end of August Dan Tocchini had taken over the site.

Now the Summerfield Cinemas occupies the theater, and while they’ve made great strides at creating what might be called a “Rialto-like” movie schedule, there doesn’t seem to be the same feeling of community, camaraderie or conspiracy at the Summerfield as the Rialto enjoyed. Boyd built an audience if not a market for European films, documentaries, independent cinema and other less-than-mainstream films here, and to feel part of that organic community made going to the movies more than just $8 and some popcorn.

Now Boyd and a loyal group continue to show films under the Rialto Cinemas trade name, usually at the 6th Street Playhouse (52 West 6th Street) just west of Railroad Square. At present films are showing only two nights a week, with feature films on Tuesdays alternating with Metropolitan Opera and other stage shows in filmed release on Wednesdays. (This is a generalization – best to check the Rialto website for latest schedules.)

“It’s a beautiful playhouse,” said Boyd in a recent phone interview, “a little gem of a theater. And for us, it’s much different [than at the Summerfield location]. It’s more like a traveling theater company, I still have a few of my employees, we load up our cards, we show up, we unload, we set up our box office, we show the production, we pack up, we leave.”

The films that show on Tuesdays are currently bundled in what they call a “film festival” (though there’s no competition, jury, or even theme to this festival). Next up is “Making the Boys,” an insightful and well-developed documentary on the creation of the stage play and movie “The Boys in the Band” by Mart Cowley. (“Making the Boys” has multiple screenings on Tuesday, June 21.)

“Boys” had a big impact on the visibility of gays in American culture, which previously had been masked, overlooked or simply not reported – in other words, invisible. The film “Making the Boys” focuses not just on the play, but more so on the playwright: Cowley was a Hollywood hanger-on with Natalie Wood and others for several years, and is kindly remembered by Robert Wagner and others in that crowd.

His eventual success as the writer of “Boys in the Band” caught some by surprise, but the timing of the play could not have been more perfect. It opened in April 1968, over a year before the Stonewall Riots took the gay rights to the streets, and the front pages.

But  with its clichéd characters of self-loathing gay men, and the sad end several of the original cast members came to, the play was not universally loved in the gay community at the time, or now. Pulitzer-winning playwright Ed Albee, himself homosexual, is among the most critical of the play and Cowley, but even he comes to a grudging admiration.

And let's face it, 1968 was a veritable lifetime ago. Parts of the film "Making the Boys" asks today's very visible gay men and women what they think of the "Boys in the Band," and almost universally they are in ignorance of the play, or think it was a boy-band like Boys2Men. History doesn't stand still, even in the movies.

This is exactly the sort of film that you could look to the Rialto on Summerfield to show in years past, and it’s reassuring that it’s still available, though on a reduced scale at the Rialto at the Sixth Street Playhouse.

“I look back at the 10 years we were on Summerfield,” Boyd said, “and I don’t think there’s a single controversial issue that we didn’t address through film in one way or another. And I’m really proud of that.”

“There were people who labeled us a progressive theater. But we’re not about politics, we’re about story-telling. That’s what it comes down to for me, as a film programmer: what’s the story here, is it a story that people will want to see, is it told in an entertaining way, does it capture the imagination, does it touch people.”

Though it would be unrealistic to compare the six-screen, seven-days a week offerings at the Summerfield Cinemas with the occasional screenings by Rialto Cinemas at the Sixth Street Playhouse, there is a certain vindication for Boyd and his loyal employees – and audience – in their continued presence in town.

“I think there was a thought that I was going to fold up my tent and leave town,” said Boyd. “But I’m not. Rialto Cinemas has a loyal following a strong brand in this county and we’re going to keep doing what we do best.”

Once again, check the Rialto website for latest schedules.