The Varsity Theatre

Russell Greene remembers watching movies at the Varsity Theatre on Franklin Street when he was a UNC student.

Twenty years later and now a film editor in New York City, Greene is making a trip back to Chapel Hill and to the Varsity Theatre.  But this time it’s his own film he’ll be watching on the big screen.

The Varsity Theatre will screen Greene’s short film “Easy Street” at 5 p.m. April 1. The film is Green’s writing and directorial debut. The Varsity will also screen “About Time,” a short film directed by UNC communication studies professor Joseph Megel. Greene, who also edited “About Time,” said it was Megel’s idea to show the two films at the Varsity Theatre.

“Joseph had the idea to screen his film at the Varsity and he asked me to show 'Easy Street' there as part of a double feature,” Greene said.  “I jumped all over it because the Varsity is a really special movie theater in my life.”

Greene, who graduated from UNC in 1997, said he spent many of his college nights watching movies at the Varsity Theatre.  Greene said that it was at the Varsity where he learned he had a passion for films.

“When I was a student at UNC, Carolina had just gotten rid of their film department,” Greene said.  “So the Varsity was like my film school.  It had films that I wasn’t exposed to before coming to college.  I started to really think about critically examining films.”

Greene said that it was after watching the independent film Smoke at the Varsity that he decided he wanted to pursue filmmaking as a career.

“I remember when I came out of the theater, I said to my friend, ‘I think I want to make movies,’” Greene said. 

After college, Greene went on to study film at New York University and has lived as a film editor for the past 15 years, 9 years spent in New York.  Greene has participated in 29 film festivals in the United States and has won best film honors at five festivals.  “Easy Street,” which is about a Southern lawyer’s job interview with an eccentric federal judge, is Greene’s first attempt at writing and directing a short film.

Greene said he is excited to share this new experience with Chapel Hill students and residents at the place that started it all — the Varsity Theatre.

“The whole thing feels like 20 years coming full circle,” Greene said.

But Greene hasn’t been back to the Varsity since it came under new ownership a few years ago.  The theater is now run by Paul and Susan Shareshian.  The Shareshians bought the Varsity from the previous owner, Bruce Stone, who closed down the theater in June 2009 after several months of sagging ticket sales.  The Shareshians renovated the Varsity and re-opened it Thanksgiving weekend 2009. The first film they showed at their restored theater was The Wizard of Oz.

Paul Shareshian said he and his wife decided to buy the Varsity after reading in the newspaper that it was closing down.  They had no previous experience owning a business, let alone a movie theater, but Shareshian said they thought it would be a profitable investment.  The Shareshians put a business plan together, bought the theater and set to work remodeling the place to a ritzy “Old Hollywood” grandeur it had not known for some time.

“We updated the lobby, recarpeted and repainted it to make it look older in a sense,” Shareshian said.  “We used a lot of reds and golds.  Before, it had steel walls and was very cold, so we changed it into a more welcoming place.” 

The Shareshians also updated the upstairs by converting old offices into rooms for receptions and children’s birthday parties.  They also updated the theater’s projection system with BlueRay, DVD and HDTV capabilities to allow for presentations and webcasts. 

The upgraded projection system allows the Varsity to be rented out for private events and screenings, in addition to its nightly showings.  Melanie Williams, a junior biology major at UNC, said she organized a movie viewing for her sorority at the Varsity.

“We played Bridesmaids on their DVD player and had an event,” Williams said.  “It was nice that we could rent out the whole theater and play a movie of our choice.”

But even with the new technological improvements, Shareshian said the Varsity Theatre is still very much the same “Mom and Pop” theater it has been for the last 50 years.  The Varsity has only one ticket counter, one concession stand, two theaters — one seating up to 230 and the other seating 138 — and tickets are cheap.  A single ticket costs only $4.

“It’s a no pressure kind of place and it’s kind of homey in that sense,” Shareshian said.

The Varsity is located inside the Sorrell building.  Since the Sorrell building was built in 1927, it has always housed a movie theater, starting with the original Carolina Theater.  In 1928 the Carolina Theater moved across the street to where the Walgreens on Franklin is now located, and the Sorrell building’s theater was renamed the Village Theater.  It was renamed the Varsity Theatre in the 1950s.  The Carolina Theater closed in July 2005, and the Varsity also closed for a few months in 2009.  For the first time since 1927, there was no movie theater in operation on Franklin Street. 

The Varsity’s previous owner, Bruce Stone, who has also owned the Chelsea Theater for the past 22 years, said he closed down the Varsity because of a decrease in demand for arts films, which were the primary type of film he showed at the Varsity. 

“There were fewer art film distributors and they were all sort of shutting down,” Stone said.  “There were fewer films and it was becoming more difficult to get people to go downtown.”

Shareshian said he and his wife have made a lot of changes to the Varsity in the past two years they’ve owned it — the biggest being that they don’t show arts films.  Shareshian said he wouldn’t consider his theater an art house theater at all.  Instead, his theater runs a combination of classic and recent movies to appeal to a diverse audience of both students and residents of Chapel Hill.

“We feel the audience out and release what they want,” Shareshian said. “We only have two screens, so we’ve got to be selective.”

Shareshian said they typically run recent releases and run a classic once a month.  When the summer hits, they tend to show more classics because there aren't as many students around. Shareshian said their system works, but is far from perfect. 

 “It’s trial by fire,” Shareshian said.  “We learn from it and we build from that.”

Greene said he’s just glad the Varsity is still around. Because of its location and history, it is a center point for students and residents. Greene said the Chapel Hill community needs the Varsity.

“It would be really sad if they didn’t have a theater on Franklin Street,” Greene said.  “I hope that never happens.”

The Shareshians said they do not plan on closing down the theater anytime soon.

Greene said he plans on bringing his 13-year-old son, who is already set on coming to UNC, to the “Easy Street” screening at the Varsity on April 1.  Greene said he expects it to be a very special occasion.

“He’ll get to watch his dad’s film at the Varsity,” Greene said.  “And that will give him some memories.”