Northern Nevada resident Austin Lugo is looking to revolutionize the theater industry by bringing a virtual arthouse cinema to the Reno/Sparks area.
Lugo and his wife moved to Reno a year ago from Indianapolis, Indiana. His wife was originally from Carson City but moved to Indiana when she was young, and the couple grew up together.
“We’ve known each other since kindergarten and I always knew we’d come back here,” he says, mentioning that his wife still has a lot of family in the area. He spent many rainy, gray days in Indiana and enjoys that the weather in Northern Nevada is so different.
“Reno is just a wonderful city. I love the sun and seeing sunshine every day is a magical experience,” Lugo says.
However, there is one thing that Northern Nevada (and the state in general) is lackingand that’s an independently owned arthouse.
“Reno is built like Indianapolis but oneeighth the size,” Lugo says. “I was lucky enough to have access to a lot of independent, arthouse films in the small town we’re from in Indiana and was surprised that I couldn’t find anything like that here when we moved a year ago.
“Nevada is only one of three states in the United States that doesn’t have an independent arthouse- in the entire state,” Lugo adds. In the past year or so, one of his best friends was living in Louisville, Kentucky, bragging about all the incredible independent films he was seeing every week.
“It was just infuriating,” says Lugo. For instance, last year when the A24 “Red Rocket” film came out, Lugo was sure he’d be able to find a showing of it in Reno or somewhere close by but to no avail.
“That was the last straw. And then my friend said, ‘Well, you can sit around and complain or do something about it’,” and thus, the idea for Theater 42 was born.
According to its website: “We, the people, are what make movies worth watching. Not just by viewing them, but by experiencing them, by living them. We walk into a cinema as strangers, barred by traditions, assumptions, and expectations. We are all hindered by our own biases and belief systems.
But for those few magical moments inside a theater, we are not a collection of strangers, but a community, driven by the thoughts and feelings and emotions of what lay upon the screen, transforming what was once a mere collection of strangers into a powerful presence which has the ability to change the world.
That is the magic of Theater 42. A place where communities are born and sustained by the magnificence of art. More than a theater, this is a safe haven for all the misfits, weirdos, and oddities of the world.”
Lugo originally wanted to build a physical theater in the Reno/Sparks area but finding the right location is proving to be a challenge. Him and his team are still looking for the perfect spot to open a physical arthouse but are also concentrating on adding a virtual cinema element around it as well.
He says that the theater industry is a loving community, and his fellow cinephiles encouraged him to open a virtual space as well.
“I think a physical space is important, but we want to make it interactive,” Lugo says. Virtual attendees will be able to visit Theater 42 free of charge, comingling with fellow theater attendees and VR users.
“No longer will you be hindered by location, population, or the predatory nature of franchise cinema. For the first time ever, anyone in the world can enjoy the arthouse experience,” he adds.
Currently, the items on its list to prepare for launch include finding a location and launching its Kickstarter campaign to help build its community of local leaders and fellow theater aficionados in the beginning of August.
“If things fall into place exactly the way we want them to, then we can lock down a location at the end of this year, start construction in March of 2023, and open in early 2024,” Lugo says.
“This is for people who love cinema and want to engage with it or at least have the opportunity to experience it,” he adds.
“The most important thing about this to me is building the community and providing something valuable through the art house, independent films, live events, and the virtual experience,” says Lugo.
Theater 42 also strives to be a net zero company by using clean and solar-powered energy. For more information about Theater 42, visit https://theater42.org/.
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