The hottest ‘new’ movie theater this summer is a two hours’ drive from Philly

In a Northampton County town of fewer than 3,000 people — about two hours’ drive from Center City — a newly restored movie theater is drawing crowds with an ambitious programming schedule that rivals many urban repertory cinemas.

The Gap Theatre, in the town of Wind Gap, first opened in 1949. After operating as a first-run theater for a time, it closed its doors in January 2020, shortly before the pandemic. Revived in March, it now shows all kinds of older films, from acclaimed classics to genre films to rarities, six days a week, with more than 50 films a month. And that includes plenty of double and triple features.

For September alone, the Gap has scheduled Grease, a kung fu triple feature, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, among others.

According to Michael Drumbore, who operates the single-screen theater along with his wife, Kaitlyn, the origins of the revival go back about two years.

Drumbore and Harry Guerro, the South Jersey-based founder of Exhumed Films, were driving to Pittsburgh. Both of them had previously worked at the Mahoning Drive-in Theater, which, like the Gap, is owned by Joseph Farruggio. Their conversation turned to whether there were any theaters where Guerro might be able to program films regularly.

Drumbore, who lives near Wind Gap, mentioned the Gap, which had been closed for three years at that point. They ultimately decided to lease the theater and reopen it.

“So we spent two years refurbishing and restoring the theater back to as close to its original condition as we could get,” Drumbore said.

This, he said, entailed a lot of cleaning, as well as fixing the projection booth, which had become, as he described, “a shell of its former self.” It was also necessary to run new power and to install a 35 mm projector. The majority of the films the theater screens now are on 35 mm film.

“This was a really great thing to be able to have and control our own place, where we can program anything we want, every day, all month long and all year long,” Guerro said in a recent short documentary, posted to YouTube by MONDOdocs.

After two years and “several delays,” the Gap Theatre reopened on March 7, with a double bill of Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, followed by a midnight showing of David Lynch’s Philadelphia-inspired Eraserhead.

“We always get a good crowd for David Lynch,” Kaitlyn Drumbore said, noting that they had shown Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me on Aug. 9.

Farruggio owns the building, and the Drumbores are the theater’s day-to-day operators. Michael handles most of the projection, while Kaitlyn manages the front of the house and oversees most of the social media. Guerro is the business owner and books the films, mostly sourced from Exhumed Films.

In the five months since its launch, the theater already has a strong group of regulars.

“I’d say the majority of our audience is from the greater Lehigh Valley area,” said Michael Drumbore. “A fair amount of people are traveling from Philly and Jersey areas to get here.” That’s not surprising, given that Philadelphia-area cinephiles have long made the trek to the Mahoning Drive-In, about 30 miles west of the Gap.

Kaitlyn Drumbore pointed to a recent showing of SLC Punk as a particularly memorable one, while her husband picked the night they presented an extremely rare big-screen showing of the 1974 French horror film Lorna the Exorcist, which showed as a midnight movie in late March.

In March, they hosted a screening of the Taiwanese film Goodbye, Dragon Inn, set in an old movie house that in some ways resembles the Gap itself. Once a month, the theater hosts a series of screenings and discussions afterward known as Spectral Cinema, presented by programmers Dan Santelli and Adrianna Gober.

“What Harry, Michael, and Kaitlyn have done is not only bring NYC-style repertory programming to a nonurban space, but also revitalize a small-town cinema — giving it a second life when it might easily have sat vacant, eventually sold off to developers eager to turn it into a parking lot or something equally soulless,” said Santelli, who long worked at Ardmore’s Viva Video and now programs at the Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville.

“In doing so, they’ve performed a public service of rare cultural value. And that’s in addition to the Gap’s central mission: presenting an eclectic range of cinema to the Lehigh Valley the way it was meant to be seen — on a big screen … I can’t think of a more meaningful act of cinephilia.”

Michael Drumbore has enjoyed “getting to see more of the local film nerds, finding out there’s a place right in their backyard now that’s showing nothing but retro-programming, classic, obscurity, everything from the art house to the grind house.”

“It’s been nice being able to build our own community here,” Kaitlyn Drumbore said. “Because that’s something that’s so desperately needed right now, for everybody.”

📍 47 S. Broadway, Wind Gap, Pa. 18091, 🌐 thegaptheatre.com