Tweet Millville, NJ - Sept 9 - THE RINK, THE PLAYHOUSE

The Peacherine Ragtime Orchestra, America’s premier ragtime orchestra, will bring the thrilling era of silent comedy alive again at the historic Levoy Theatre on Sunday, September 9, 2012, at 5:00 PM. The event marks the re-opening of the Levoy Theatre, and its 100th anniversary.



The program, An Evening With Chaplin & Keaton, will feature two silent comedies, The Rink (1916) starring Charlie Chaplin, and The Playhouse (1921) starring Buster Keaton. Along with the films, a concert of rare musical selections by George M. Cohan, Irving Berlin, W.C. Handy, Scott Joplin, and others will be performed, all from the original musical scores.

The Rink features Chaplin at his comedic best as a waiter at a hectic restaurant. Chaplin prominently features his dynamic skating abilities, while trying to woo the girl of his dreams.

In The Playhouse, Keaton combines his comic and technical skills as he plays everyone in a theatre simultaneously through multiple exposures. In over 20 roles, he is the orchestra leader, all its members, the actors, the dancers, the stagehand, and the audience.

The films will be accompanied by the music of the Peacherine Ragtime Orchestra, founded in 2010 by Andrew Greene. Based in College Park, Maryland, the PRO recreates a turn-of-the-last-century orchestra, and has received high praise for presenting ragtime, theater, dance, and silent film music from the early twentieth century. Their first CD, “That Teasin’ Rag”, released in 2011, has been called one of the most satisfying ragtime music collections available.

Tickets for this cinema & live music event are $17.50 for adults and $12.00 for children under 16 and can be purchased at the Box Office, by phone, or online at http://www.levoy.net

For more information call 856-327-6400

View the promo for the event!

MILLVILLE?

I didn't think they *had* any theatres in Millville!

Millville had THREE at one point, although only the Levoy remains. The People's Theatre was literally across the street and ran from 1921 to 1951, until it closed (I think it's shops now). It also had the Alhambra Theatre, although I do not know much about it. The Levoy though ran from 1908, with expansions in 1912 and 1927, until 1974. Our performance will mark the Re-opening of the theatre and celebrate the 100th anniversary of the original upgrade of the theatre.

It's also the city's Antiques and Arts Festival during the day, so browse around Millville during the day and in the evening enjoy a silent film and concert program!

Here's a quote from a recent newspaper article about the re-opening performance by Peacherine at the Levoy:

"The theater’s first show after years of repairs and renovations is booked for Sunday, Sept. 9, when the Peacherine Ragtime Orchestra of College Park, Md., is scheduled to perform. The orchestra will play music that accompanies the showing of two silent films...The Peacherine Ragtime Orchestra is one of two such professional orchestras in the county. It re-creates music from the period 1880 to 1928.

“This performance marks the first show at the restored Levoy Theatre, its first show since 1974, and the first silent film show with live orchestral accompaniment since the 1920s,” orchestra director Andrew Greene said. “It is a tribute by the Levoy and Peacherine to the theater’s rich history and future.”

Greene said the original theater had an orchestra like his for vaudeville and film performances, until the advent of talking films.

“The Peacherine Ragtime Orchestra is possibly the most appropriate first new show to be held in the beautiful Levoy Theatre,” Van Embden said. “Visitors will enjoy the back-to-the-future effect of the recreated entertainment and will participate in making some history of their own by being part of the opening day of the new Levoy Theatre.”

Full Article Here: http://www.thedailyjournal.com/article/ ... /308290048

Another article about the show:

MILLVILLE — Silent films accompanied by a ragtime orchestra probably haven't been seen or heard in Millville at the Levoy Theater in 80 to 100 years. — give or take.

When the theater first opened in 1908, the bill included silent films accompanied by a singer. In the late 1920s, Warner Bros. took over the Levoy and used it mostly as a cinema.

But as the silent film era faded into the era of film with sound — "talkies" — so did the accompanying ragtime orchestra fade away.

Until next Sunday.

The Peacherine Ragtime Orchestra, a group of 12 musicians from Maryland, will travel to the Levoy to host the first public performance at the theater since 1974. And as an ode to the first shows that carried the Levoy, they will be performing along to silent films.

"This is a tribute to the Levoy," said Andrew Greene, the 21-year-old founder and conductor of the orchestra. "We'll hold an hour of accompanying silent films, then a one hour concert of ragtime."
The group will play along to "The Rink" starring Charlie Chaplin, from 1916, and "The Playhouse," starring Buster Keaton, from 1921.

While juggling his studies in economics at University of Maryland, Green serves as the emcee of the evening of music and film, and the conductor. Their "theatre orchestra" consists of 12 pieces, including two coronets, two violins, a viola, cello, trombone, percussion, bass, flute, clarinet and a piano.

When Greene was just an 18-year-old freshman at University of Maryland, he shared his idead of channelling the nearly lost art of silent films accompanied by live music with his professors and fellow students.

"By February I had enough people to get the orchestra together," Greene said. "By May, we had our first concert."
Since, then his group has kept local, travelling to Pennsylvania to play a few concerts, some concerts in their home state of Maryland, and a private event in Virginia.

This will be their first time bringing their act to the Garden State. And with it, they plan to feature some surprises native to New Jersey.

"We'll be playing many of the popular pieces, but we'll also be featuring some pieces that aren't as well known, but are native to New Jersey," Greene explained.
Greene said they'll be featuring Mel B. Kaufman, born in Newark in 1879 — a popular composer of one-steps and two-steps — as well as Arthur Pryor, a famed trombonist who led a concert band in Asbury Park.

Greene stressed the ragtime performance in today's world, almost a century later.

"Sometimes, people think ragtime are just these tunes played on an out-of-tune piano, but they're more than that," Greene said. "It's really America's first popular music. We wouldn't have rap, hip-hop, pop or jazz without ragtime. They all follow elements that really came from ragtime.

"It's really important to keep it going now, especially at the Levoy, because the theater opened in 1908 as a vaudeville house, and what better way to experience that than to see it now."

"An Evening with Chaplin & Keaton" featuring the Peacherine Ragtime Orchestra will be held Sunday, Sept. 9 at 5 p.m. at the Levoy Theatre. For tickets and more info, visit www.levoy.net.

IF YOU GO:

An Evening with
Chaplin & Keaton
Peacherine Ragtime Orchestra

Where: The Levoy Theatre, 126 N. High St. Millville, N.J. 08302

When: Sunday, Sept. 9 at 5 p.m.

Tickets: $25 for adults, $17.50 for youth 16 and under. Call 856-327-6400 or visit www.levoy.net.