Toward the end of next month, the Brattle Theatre will go dark for 10 days so the venerable repertory house can complete its latest round of capital improvements. The primary focus of the renovation will be replacing the seats, and it will also put in new carpeting, refurbish the flooring and install new aisle lights.
The seats were last replaced 25 years ago, when Ned Hinkle became the Brattle’s creative director, Ivy Moylan its executive director and the institution was repositioned as a nonprofit, the Brattle Film Foundation. Hinkle said the company that made the current seats went out of business, making it increasingly difficult to get replacement parts.
The new seats will be relatively similar, Hinkle said, though more snug and firmer, with backs that are slightly higher and peaked.
The Brattle will also try to fix one of its foibles: its sight lines. Because its seats are roughly on the same level and aligned one directly behind another, a shorter person could find their view obstructed by a taller person in front of them.
The new seating will be staggered to create better natural sight lines, which will reduce capacity slightly, from 214 seats to 210 seats. Hinkle said some technical tweaks will be made to allow certain films to have subtitles display higher on the screen.
The renovations are expected to cost about $100,000. As with its previous seat replacement process, part of the funding will be raised through seat dedication plaques. For $750, people can have their name — or any name — engraved on a small metal tag affixed to a chair. However, those who currently have dedicated chairs will lose those tags. “It was for the life of the seat,” Hinkle said.
He said the Brattle is actively reaching out to those who dedicated seats in the past to inform them about the replacement and give them the chance to re-up. Notable names on the back of chairs include the late author Andre Dubus, whose novel “Killings” was adapted into Todd Field’s debut film, “In the Bedroom” (2001) and two novellas were turned into “We Don’t Live Here Anymore” (2004), David Lynch and Boston broadcaster David Brudnoy. There’s also a seat in honor of Dungeons & Dragons inventor Gary Gygax and some jokey plaques too, such as “I’m with Stupid –>” and “<— I’m with psycho.”
The Brattle will close July 20 and re-open on July 31 with a 3 p.m. showing of the 1961 version of “West Side Story.”
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