Big Plans for the Parkway Theater

Lots of new news on the Parkway Theater (which is now called Pepito's Parkway Theater, according to the website):

Renovations have begun, and just this week they brought in some University of Minnesota students to design murals on the interior walls, which an insider tells me will look fabulous when they are complete.

They've got the finals of the 48th Street Poetry Slam this Saturday, March 8, at 9:30pm.

They're currently playing award-winners Taxi to the Darkside (Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature) and La Vie en Rose (Academy Awards for Best Actress and Best Makeup), along with a Saturday matinee of the original Charlotte's Web (1973, featuring the voices of Debbie Reynolds, Paul Lynde and Danny Bonaduce, among others).

The Parkway will be a Fringe Fest site for 2008, so you can see some of that Fringe-y goodness at 48th and Chicago.

And at some point this spring, it sounds like they will be featuring live comedy, perhaps on a weekly basis. The folks behind the Parkway are committed to making it a multi-use arts space, so they will be hosting films, theater productions, and live performances. And keep in mind that you can take your drinks from next-door Pepito's into the theater.

Oak Street Cinema's Days are Numbered

Strib reports that the Oak Street Cinema will likely be torn down after the MSP International Film Festival ends in early May. The Film Festival's website is still under construction for the 2008 Festival. While I'm sorry to see it go, I can't say that I spent a lot of time there in the last few years. With the Riverview Theater (note the snazzy new website design), the Parkway (now owned by Pepito's owner Joe Senkyr Minjares) and others making a go of it on a shoestring, I'm not sure why Oak Street has been mired in trouble for so long. There were a flurry of articles in early 2006 about Oak Street's troubles, then not much new news. Now, it looks like it could be the end.