By Gretchen Webster

WESTPORT — The Remarkable Theater, the nonprofit that for three years has been screening drive-in movies in the Imperial Avenue parking lot, has been dark so far this year. 

But after a permit for use of the lot was approved Wednesday by the Board of Selectwomen, theater officials hope to light up the silver screen, probably starting in early September through the start of November.

The theater group, which provides employment opportunities for disabled adults, in May had obtained a permit from the selectwomen to use the Imperial lot for the first part of the summer season from June 26 through Aug. 23. 

However, unlike last year, no films have been shown during the spring and summer months.

But the group does plan to show movies in late summer and fall, Douglas Tirola, the Remarkable Theater’s artistic director, told the board. “Yes, we have some plans to contact all the organizations that have requested doing something” to schedule film screenings, he said, referring to school and civic groups that have expressed interest in sponsoring movie nights at the drive-in.

At both the May and Wednesday meetings of the Board of Selectwomen, a Levitt Pavilion lawyer was present and commented on the Remarkable Theater’s application for the parking lot permit. 

Mary Miller, a lawyer for the Levitt, told the selectwomen that pavilion officials were surprised “no one [from the Remarkable Theater] reached out to us at all over the summer … We are continuing to be totally willing to work with them,” she said. Last year, she added, the groups’ scheduling arrangement appeared to have worked well for the duration of the season.

But the Remarkable management team had no reason to contact the Levitt since screenings were challenging to plan this year, Tirola said. That’s because pavilion officials say they cannot give assurances there will no scheduling conflicts on any given date more than two weeks in advance, he said. “The two weeks [notice] was not working,” he said of the scheduling difficulty.

The two groups previously have skirmished about parking in the Imperial lot and noise interference that results if both organizations were to schedule shows on the same night.

But that has never happened, according to Tirola. “I want to be clear. We have never shown a movie when there is something happening” at the Levitt, he said, despite what he described as some people’s misperception that has been the case.

“We’ve never have done that,” he added, noting that if the Remarkable screened movies on the same night as a Levitt concert it would have broken the agreement the theater has with the town. Overlapping bookings, if they had occurred, also would have been detrimental primarily for Remarkable patrons since the Levitt’s shows are so much louder, Tirola said.

He also addressed what he called “inaccurate” prior representations by Levitt officials that they have supported Remarkable fundraising efforts. “If we were given financial support from the Levitt, nobody told me,” he said. “If they did it secretly or without telling us, thank you.”

In May, the two groups agreed the Remarkable Theater could show films on Wednesdays, the day the Levitt hosts children’s programming. The children’s shows end about 8 p.m. and Remarkable doesn’t screen films until after dark, or about 9 p.m. The May agreement also included screenings for the Remarkable on Mondays when the Levitt generally has no bookings, except for occasional shows rescheduled because of inclement weather.

But this week, the discussion between the two groups focused on how far in advance each could determine its schedule to avoid booking programs on the same night.

Levitt management can give Remarkable officials two weeks’ notice of the pavilion performance schedule, Miller told the board. After the meeting, she added, “We can tell them which day in the next two weeks there will be no interference. Hopefully, they will reach out to us. I hope they will.”

But two weeks’ notice isn’t enough to reliably plan the Remarkable Theater’s events, which are sponsored by other nonprofit organizations, Tirola reiterated. “Would the library or the Levitt or the woman’s club or the playhouse or any other organizations trying to raise money in town … do that with two weeks’ notice?” The nonprofits the Remarkable Theater works with “just don’t plan that quickly,” he told the selectwomen.

“We have never said they will be unable to do a show,” Carleigh Welsh, the Levitt director of development and marketing, said after the meeting. “No business would ask another business to shut down.”

In the end, Assistant Town Attorney Eileen Lavigne Flug said scheduling conflicts between the two groups are not necessarily the town’s problem or a legal issue, but one of cooperation for the benefit of both groups’ patrons.

The Board of Selectwomen then unanimously approved use of the Imperial lot by the Remarkable Theater, but included language in the resolution stating the theater would have an “agreement to coordinate with other organizations who utilize the Imperial Avenue Parking Lot.” 

Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist and journalism teacher for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman newspaper for 10 years and teaches journalism at Southern Connecticut State University.