Tucson musician/composer Chris Black will introduce his new CD “Lullabies & Nightmares” at the intimate downtown venue 191 Toole Sept. 8.
That’s a couple blocks from where Black was initially scheduled to play his CD release concert. But the musician, who coordinates, curates and collaborates on his seven-years running Tucson classical music project ChamberLab, got the boot when the Screening Room downtown abruptly closed last week.
Black learned of the closure through a fellow musician on Aug. 23 and then got a late-night email confirmation Aug. 24 from a Screening Room entertainment booker.
In the email, the official said that after “a financially difficult summer ... we simply cannot operate any more,” which was a far different story than the one that the landlord, the nonprofit Arizona Media Arts Center, received last week. Officials with the center, which runs the annual Arizona International Film Festival at the Screening Room, were told that the operator, Grand Cinemas, was temporarily closing for the “offseason.”
In the email, Grand Cinemas managing partner Kent Edwards did not define what he meant by “offseason” or how long that would last, center officials said.
In an email to the Star, Edwards, who is now living in Texas, said that the Screening Room “has been closing periodically for the past 20 years” depending on demand for the space.
“We are hoping to work with the landlord this fall that will allow us to try a few new ideas,” he wrote. “Until then consider us on a hiatus.”
Grand Cinemas took over operations of the downtown theater, 127 E. Congress St., in summer 2014 with plans to screen near first-run movies. It was advertised as the return of new movies to downtown for the first time in 40 years; the area had been without a first-run movie house since 1974, when Fox Tucson Theatre at the west end of Congress shuttered.
The Fox was renovated and reopened in late 2005 as a wide-ranging concert venue and classics movie house, playing movies that mostly date from the 1940s to the 1980s.
Black’s concert begins at 8 p.m. and tickets are $10 at the door. Details: facebook.com/chrisblackmusic
