New movies, stand up magic, spiritual seances and mystery Coachella performers are just some of the attractions students can see for free at Prochnow Auditorium.
Northern Arizona University’s Prochnow Auditorium rests at the very edge of the north end of the school’s campus. Facing towards the school’s fringes and sharing a wall with the 1998 Bar and Grill, you might not even know it was there if you weren’t privy — and a surprising number of students are not. The auditorium was originally built in 1952 before NAU even had its name, and still hosts a variety of entertainment acts today.
Prochnow has been an NAU staple for 70 years and has seen some big names grace its stage over the years, but now it mainly functions as the school’s own movie theater. Free movies are shown for students and their guests every Thursday through Saturday night, and the selection is both wide and surprisingly current. Last semester’s lineup included releases like “A Quiet Place Part II” and “The Suicide Squad” while this semester has already seen “Dune” and “Shang-Chi” play on the big screen.
Despite being a student-run theater on a college campus, much of Prochnow’s slate consists of current-year releases and some films that are still showing in the Harkins theater across town. It’s Prochnow Auditorium Student Manager Sam Manning’s job to order and screen these films, a process which she has become familiar with since being hired last semester.
“[We use a] company called Swank, they have this movie service where we can rent out the movie for three days right between when they’re still in theaters or just out of the theater, and before they come out on DVD,” Manning said.
Manning is a junior majoring in political science and minoring in public relations. For her, the job seemed like a good fit from the beginning. She said found the job on NAU’s Handshake app, and has been taking care of the theater’s day-to-day operations since.
Manning isn’t the only student employee at Pronchow either, her entire staff are students as well.
“All of our employees are students, they earn hourly wages. Sometimes we have additional hours available for things like replacing the curtains,” Manning said. “Right now the wage is at $12.15 per hour. I’ve been told that we’re going to be upgrading very soon, I’m just waiting on the official word.”
Free popcorn and drinks have also traditionally been provided by the auditorium staff, but Manning explained that those services have gone on temporary hiatus due to the spread of the Omicron variant. She hopes that those services can make a comeback this semester.
Despite being free, Prochnow was not immune to the large dip in attendance that virtually all other entertainment venues have seen during the pandemic. Last semester's wowes don’t seem to be carrying over though, as the theater has seen an uptick in attendance since the start of the new year.
“This semester has been a pretty great turnout compared to last semester,” said Manning. “Last semester people were still new, especially a lot of people who weren’t here last year because of Covid. We’ve had to build ourselves up, and so far we’ve been doing great. We’ve had amazing turnouts for movies [this semester]. We had a surprisingly large turnout for our first movie of the semester “One Night in Miami” and sometimes professors also give out extra credit to try and get people to come out to these events.”
In these unprecedented times, some movie studios have gravitated towards releasing their films on streaming services in conjunction with theaters, with some films foregoing the traditional theatrical run altogether. Yet, in a world where any student with a streaming account has access to tens of thousands of films, Prochnow still sees students turn up every weekend to sit in a theater and enjoy a movie together on the big screen.
Manning herself is a firm believer in the theatrical experience. She sees it as a way to bring people together and a great thing to do for students who don’t have the means to leave campus.
“It kind of sucks, especially since a lot of our movies are now going to HBO or Disney+ in that same margin of time,” said Manning. Yeah, you could watch your movies at home, but you’re missing out on a great experience. I remember my freshman year my friends and I came to these movies a lot because we didn’t have a lot of money. We didn’t know what to do, didn’t have a car, so it was a great opportunity to just hang out, enjoy a good movie for free, get free food and drinks and being around other people made it better. They showed “Zombieland 2” and there was a character named Flagstaff. Everytime the character was introduced the entire theater was like ‘Oh my gosh’ and occasionally you’d hear clapping and laughing and jokes. Stuff like that adds so much more value than watching a movie at home.”
The films for this semester’s slate have all been picked by students via an online survey hosted by the Lumberjack Activity Board, which Prochnow partners with to schedule events. The entire slate can be found on their Instagram account @nau.lab, and features “Spider-Man: No Way Home” at the end of April, a screening that Manning said “everyone is really excited about.” On the docket this month is the 2016 film “Race” in celebration of Black History Month.
Prochnow also saw a variety of live performances last semester, including a spooky seance around Halloween. Its first live act this semester will be stand up magician Derek Hughes on Friday Feb. 4 at 8:30 pm. Manning acknowledged that some students still might not know about the theater, but hopes that more events and the partnership with the Activity Board will continue to change that.
We have a magician this Friday, and we had a seance performer last semester,” said Manning. “We had this guy do a seance here because this building is very haunted. He summoned a ghost of a person who died here in the 80s named Deb, and we love Deb here.”
Prochnow works with Campus Events Operations to plan free concerts and comedy shows for students, and has seen many high-profile acts over the years including Blink-182, Echosmith, TJ Miller and Angela Kinsey. Last semester, the theater hosted experimental pop musician Japanese Breakfast, who was recently nominated for two Grammys. Manning even admitted that she’s surprised with the amount of big names they’re able to book.
Manning is also happy with the improvements that have been done to the theater in her time there. Explaining that some much-needed renovations are finally getting underway.
“With our new management, we’ve been able to get so much more stuff in than we have in previous years,” said Manning. “We’re working on getting a new sound board and new projector, and we just got new curtains. We’ve finally gotten the funding we needed for a while, so we’re getting the renovations that we’ve needed. I love this building but it’s very old.”
The spring semester lineup at Prochnow looks to be full of quality, no-cost entertainment. From blockbuster films to stand up magic, Manning and her team are keeping their horizons wide when it comes to the shows they bring to the NAU student population.
One thing Manning isn’t telling though, is the super-secret musical guest that will be coming to NAU in a few months.
“I’m very excited about our spring concert, unfortunately I can’t tell you yet,” said Manning. “We’re finalizing everything, it’s a big band, they’re pretty well-known and it’s going to be so exciting. The concert is going to go super fast, so as soon as it’s open I highly recommend reserving your ticket, it’s on April 13. It’s going to be a weekday but it’s because they’re going to be on their way to Coachella.”
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