Shortly after eight the entrance door to the old cinema is orphaned. Usually small groups of visitors stand around here when the crew around Markus Bachmeier has invited everyone, all in joyful anticipation, greeting old friends, one or two cigarettes between their lips. None of that on this Thursday evening. Culture lovers have to do without their live enjoyment once again, thanks to Corona.
The good news: it’s culture
Yes, stop. This time everything is different. There is culture. Barely 45 minutes later, Martin Frank, a cabaret artist from Lower Bavaria who should have appeared in front of a larger audience in the Alten Speicher that evening, will take to the stage upstairs in the former cinema hall – and get to the heart of the matter with the cultural workers and their audience as follows : “Of course they play, but kemma derf just koaner.” Incidentally, Frank puts the sentence in the mouth of “great culture lover Markus Söder”. So now is culture or not? The good news is: yes it is.
The old cinema goes on the offensive this evening. On the television offensive, so to speak. What Netflix can do we can do for a long time, it was thought. Namely: Bringing good entertainment home, on the sofa, where chips are ready and spirits can be enjoyed regardless of later motorized trips home. That evening, the official starting shot for the platform will be given Old cinema TV. Live or “on demand” concerts, cabaret, theater, shows, club evenings and readings can already be watched there, including the first season of “Die Heizer”, the mini-series produced in-house.
Those present cannot replace the great applause
Not that theater in the future will no longer take place in the theater and only for the stream, above all they want to take the wind out of their sails for those who think, “we would be too little receptive to the digital strategy,” recalls board member and small artist Alexander Liegl later on stage. But both he and the two musicians Ami Warning and Matthew Austin prefer to look into the expectant eyes of a assembled audience than at the red light of a camera. Even the few who are in the room cannot replace the really big applause that artists love, even if they make every effort. But for those who listen to the relaxed tones of the guitarist and the young singer-songwriter who released her third album in 2019, it probably doesn’t make any difference. This music is just right for snuggling up on the sofa.
The cabaret artist Martin Frank is the star guest in the old cinema.
(Photo: Christian Endt)
What happens here in the space between the stage and the bar has more to do with the concentrated atmosphere of a television recording than with a relaxed cabaret evening. Perhaps that is also because the tension builds up before the performance usually behind the closed stage curtain and not in front of it in the stalls. Where this time the concentrated creativity of the theater professionals unloads and includes everyone present – who are almost without exception busy getting the recording into the box. The effort to stream a theater program is gigantic – and all the more annoying for those responsible if that, the stream to the outside, does not work properly.
Managing director Markus Bachmeier keeps looking worriedly at the display on his laptop.
(Photo: Christian Endt)
At eight thirty on this Thursday evening of all times – the count down had been made several times before, ten minutes more, five minutes more, two more, everything was ready, the mixer was manned by four men, four cameras were spread out in the room, three of them stationary, one mobile, Violetta Ditterich, proven online communicator positioned at the moderation table, the whole room redecorated as a stage – that’s where managing director Markus Bachmeier escapes a curse. Half an hour earlier everything had worked, “but now everyone’s going on it” – and nothing works anymore. “Only those who are already on it are in,” complains the boss.
The old cinema manages to go to the start without any ministerial involvement
He still gives the go-ahead, after all, 40 or 50 viewers are waiting for it to start – and it does: With a presenter in live, a Hannes Ringlstetter from the tape, a tidy Alexander Liegl, about the triumphant advance of television and the Philosophizing digitization and announcing a Minister of State who is not coming, and a very confused program manager Sebastian Winkler. Liegl ends up tied up in an armchair, the program manager on the floor after unsuccessful advances to the presenter, and the starting shot for the television platform is given several times too early, but not when it is finally supposed to drop. But it doesn’t matter, Minister of State Siebler, supposedly waiting behind the stage for his appearance, “no one would have recognized it anyway,” and the old cinema manages to go to the start even without ministerial assistance.
Singer Ami Warning and guitarist Matthew Austin provide live music in the streaming program of the old cinema.
(Photo: Christian Endt)
In between there is a quiz in the parallel online chat, prepared clips from concerts and cabaret evenings, as well as interviews with stage workers who have already performed in the old cinema. Everything is very enjoyable – and towards the end a few more fans make it into the stream, who can at least comfort themselves with the fact that the show will be broadcast again the following evening. The next cinema live event will be on Thursday, December 30th with the Gankino Circus Show – and a hoster that will hopefully work.