PRINTMaking a movie house a home
The new Ragtag raises its curtain
Alex Lewis
With construction well underway, the new Ragtag theater has taken shape. So far, more than $1 million has been spent renovating the building on Hitt Street.
February 21, 2008 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Comfy couches sagging naturally from years of use are set before the screen at Ragtag — makeshift but welcoming. There are the regulars and the newcomers, the young and the old, all settled into the grooves of the cushions and ready for the film’s blue light to cascade across their faces — to be informed and entertained. More than anything, Ragtag feels like home.
Author Dave Eggers has signed autographs in an alley behind the building. Indie musician Devendra Barnhart once perched on a table to serenade the surrounding audience. There’s a turtle shell and a pink stuffed rabbit, randomly left by patrons, that have been put together to make a “trabbit” or a “raburtle” — it depends who you ask.
$490,000
Price paid for the building in July 2005
$600,000
Amount needed for non-permanent additions (10 percent has been raised since November 2007 by the nonprofit entity)
10,000
Building’s approximate square footage upstairs and downstairs
More than $1 million
Price of building renovations
A crew from Koonse Glass works on the entrance of the new Ragtag. Rick Younger ...
Construction work continues at Ragtag near the intersection of Broadway and Hitt Street.
It’s only natural to find memories.
For nearly a decade, Ragtag played a role more significant than any multimillion-dollar multiplex could. It was built for and belongs to the community as a whole.
But in the coming weeks, as many moviegoers arrive in Columbia for the True/False Film Festival, they will find the former building on 23 N. Tenth St. vacant of any Ragtag remnants. The theater is moving to the old Kelly Press building on Hitt Street, along with local favorites Ninth Street Video and Uprise Bakery, to provide more opportunities and to
accommodate a growing number of customers.
Living History
Inside, there are high heels and checkered Vans, beards and black-framed glasses, and a multitude of hair colors and styles. There are conversations concerning hummus, film festivals and Tchaikovsky — all amid the serenading voice of Lowell George.
The bartender, Michael Lefebvre, stands behind the bar while swinging a green yo-yo. He stops when people approach him to purchase something from the array of alternative concessions offered by the theater, which includes soup, flat bread pizza and wine.
“You just get a different vibe when you come to a place where people love their jobs,” says Lefebvre. “We’re not so much the people who work here as we are the hosts, the curators.”
Since January of 1998, when the Ragtag Film Society — which first showed films at The Blue Note — started, its goal has been to enrich the community arts scene. After moving to Tenth Street, it kept the same ideals but also made it its mission to champion independent film and other media arts to create an axis of culture for the community. In addition to hosting local artists and pulling indie films into the spotlight, Ragtag also presents special events ranging from lectures to reading series.
The consensus is that the theater’s eight-year history on Tenth Street and influence has been noteworthy.
Within months of Ragtag’s initial opening in May 2000, Dan Chilton, the co-owner of the independent Moxie theater in Springfield, visited the theater every time he came to see his girlfriend in Columbia.
“The place that I looked forward to,” he says before hesitating for a moment, “second to Nicole, was the Ragtag.”
“It was a close second,” he adds with a laugh.
Ragtag co-founder David Wilson recognizes the association between fond memories and Ragtag.
“There’s a lot of faith that the move will honor what the Ragtag meant,” says Wilson. “It’s been designed with the same attention, the same intentions that the original Ragtag had — to create a communal space for people to get together and watch movies.”
However, there are only bits of nostalgia in the minds of Ragtag’s owners. They are quick to say that though great memories have been had at the Tenth Street location, they are very excited about moving.
Yet, what is most important for the Ragtag folks is the idea that the new structure will have the same home-like feel. The importance of the theater is not in the building but the business itself.
“I’d like to think that whatever space we’re in, and we plan to be in (the new one) for a long time,” says Wilson. “That sense of home and homey-ness will just develop as people spend time there.”
Columbia Cash
Wilson says Ragtag’s organization usually consists of starting a project and then figuring out how to make it work later. He pokes fun at the typical strategy by saying, “Other organizations might say, ‘well, we’ll move in three years, and we’ll start a capital campaign now and raise this money, and we’ll have giving over these three years.’ … That’s how you’re supposed to do it.”
Instead, Ragtag has little time to complete its project before the unveiling later this month. But even if this process sounds haphazard, the move wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. Since moving to Tenth Street, the owners of Ragtag knew they would eventually move into a larger space.
“It’s very frequently that they have sellout crowds,” says Janet Marsh, co-owner of Ninth Street Video. “Maybe Ragtag got sick of turning people away.”
So about three years ago, the owners of Ragtag began looking for a new location. Eventually they found it in the old Kelly Press building, a “fixer-upper” according to Bill Bellinghausen, co-owner of Ninth Street Video. But it wasn’t until last June that construction finally was able to get underway.
Three principal groups have been involved with the constructing and outfitting of the new building. The building owners, 12 individuals including Wilson and Bellinghausen, are finishing the building and working on all of its permanent aspects. The second group, which includes Ragtag, Ninth Street Video and Uprise, is paying for non-permanent things that are reflective of their respective stores, such as ovens and movie shelves.
Finally, the nonprofit has been raising money since November 2007 that covers the costs of all non-permanent theater improvements, which includes chairs, sound dampening materials, the screens and the projectors.
In addition, the nonprofit offers an opportunity for locals to donate with the “Save Your Seat” program. For $350, donors can opt to preserve a chair from the old theater or buy a new chair for the theater, so moviegoers can enjoy comfy seating in the new Ragtag. Until the money is raised, however, the theater will use folding chairs for seating.
This idea of going back to the community to ask for help is central to Ragtag’s founding principles.
“We’ve sought help from people and businesses and foundations that can give a lot of money and tried to get as much of that as possible,” says Wilson. “And the next step from there is to go to the general public. So much of our support has always been broad-based, grassroots support.”
For some members in the community, though, the project extends beyond just opening up a new place to see movies and devour pastries. For them a new generation of entrepreneurs is beginning to emerge with the opening of this building and the development of the Ragtag enterprise.
“It’s run by young people, and if we’re talking about economic development, … we need to support the entrepreneurial vision,” says Nikki Krawitz, chair of the capital campaign committee of the nonprofit. “They’ve contributed a tremendous amount to the community, and who knows what their next idea will be.”
Ragtag to Riches
It might have been the oversized garage doors or the legions of delivery trucks that swarmed outside, but something set the Hitt Street Coca-Cola bottling plant apart from its residential neighbors.
Some 70-odd years and three owners later, the building still stands, though now the trucks are not there to pick up Coca-Cola or sheaths of paper. They are there to drop off paint, drywall and electrical wires for the new Ragtag’s renovations.
Susan Hart, vice president of Huebert Builders, Inc., the general contractor for the project, says the building’s owners wanted to maintain some historic aspects, including the external facade and the interior architectural features.
However, using the Kelly Press structure has brought with it a slew of issues that must be addressed. Because it was built in 1935, its current owners must work with representatives from the State Historical Preservation Office to determine what can and cannot be done.
Wilson says having to cope with historic preservation can be very challenging. Every decision has to accommodate the historical plan, and it limits what can change. “Some things that seem like they would be really obvious, really useful, just don’t fit with that historical rubric,” Wilson says.
Keeping their principles in mind (and to save money), the owners also are reusing materials such as overhead beams by making them into tables.
Doing so “saves the energy that was expended in making the building,” says Brian Pape, the Columbia-based architect who worked on the project and has been renovating buildings for 30 years.
Although the economic conversation is important, the historic aspects are equally important. “It tells a story, tells something about the people and the people that used the building,” Pape says. “(If) you lose the building, you lose the story.”
Historic guidelines have encouraged the owners to keep things the same, but the state and federal tax credits that come with preserving a historic building provide a secondary motive. Missouri matches 25 percent of the approved costs associated with qualified renovation, and the federal government matches 20 percent.
It’s the People Inside
“Soon, soon,” Ragtag projectionist John Gilbreth said to Columbia resident Chris Mezines, who questioned when Ragtag would move. “You mean this could be my last toast at the Ragtag?” she responded, a glass of red wine in one hand and a bag of seasoned popcorn in the other.
But it’s important to remember the same faces and personalities will continue to cluster in discussion, the ideals and beliefs on which the theater was founded will persist and the impression it has had on the community as a whole will likely remain the same.
Although there are some dissenters who argue that Ragtag cannot easily be moved — the “purists,” as Mezines calls them — the consensus is it’s not where the place is, it’s the people and the feeling inside that make Ragtag what it is. V
