March 14, 2007

Yogurt Maker Gives to Theater Project
Stonyfield Farm Gets Naming Rights for it

By Chelsea Conaboy
Monitor staff

Red River Theatres is $160,000 closer to its fundraising goal, and its second theater has a name: the Stonyfield Farm Culture Center.

The nation's third-largest yogurt maker, based in Londonderry, donated $150,000 to the film group, which hopes to open a three-screen theater in the Capital Commons building on South Main Street by late summer. Stonyfield Farm co-founder Gary Hirshberg and his wife, Meg, longtime Concord residents, donated $10,000.

The donations put the group about $454,000 shy of the $1.83 million needed for construction and startup. Red River has been working since 2000 to create the place for independent, international and local films in Concord that was lost when the Cinema 93 theater closed more than eight years ago.
"The goal is now in sight," said Harold Janeway, chairman of the capital campaign committee.

Hirshberg toured the facility with Janeway, fundraising consultant Betsy McNamara and Red River Theatres's new director, Robbi Farschman, yesterday afternoon. So far, the inside is just an expanse of boxy concrete walls divided into three theater spaces. But yesterday, the city issued a construction permit for the inside of the theaters, Assistant City Planner Stephen Henninger said.

The group stood in the hollow of the theater that will be named for Stonyfield, at the level from which the stadium seating will rise. Farschman said the seats have been picked out, but the color hasn't.

"Cow print," she suggested in jest to Hirshberg, whose company often plays off the dairy product theme. His title, for example, is officially Stonyfield's CE-YO.
"Hey, why not?" he said.

The 113-seat theater will be the second largest. A 164-seat theater will be named for the Lincoln Financial Group, which donated $250,000 in September. The Stonyfield theater has a small stage on which Farschman said post-movie presentations or even musical performances could be held.

Hirshberg recounted the excitement of going to the Orson Welles Cinema in Cambridge, Mass., when he was growing up in Manchester. "This was the only way I could see the rest of the world," he said. "The thought that this could be here is a dream."

Even as the organic yogurt company has expanded to be the fastest growing in the country, with subsidiaries in four countries, Hirshberg said he's been committed to community in New Hampshire.

The company has donated money in recent years to arts and conservation groups around the state, including the Concord Community Music School, the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests and the University of New Hampshire's organic dairy farm. It has given $100,000 to build a seven-field soccer facility at the New Hampshire Technical Institute for the Express Soccer Club, of which Hirshberg is president.

Hirshberg said he had talked with Capital Commons developer Michael Simchik about possibly renting the first-floor restaurant space for the Hirshbergs' O'Naturals natural and organic fast food chain. But Hirshberg said the restaurant changed directions and contracted with a food supplier for corporate cafeterias in businesses such as Timberland and Goldman Sachs, though other investors are considering bringing a franchise to central New Hampshire, he said.
Hirshberg said one of the biggest challenges his company has is attracting employees to New Hampshire. Improving the social and cultural quality of life here will help.

"This is economic development, too," he said. "This isn't just feel-good for the film lover." McNamara said Red River is talking to a few more potential donors. It will do a mass mailing to Concord residents and hold one-on-one and group meetings in its final push to raise money.

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