In collaboration with the 2018 UNDER THE ELMS concert series, the Athena Cinema presents a FREE community screening of the 1925 silent film classic “The Phantom of the Opera”. 

At 7:00 UNDER THE ELMS presents “Music of the Night”: Music from stage and screen with John Schlabach and Joshua Nightingale, trumpet. College Green (Memorial Auditorium if inclement weather).

At 8:00 The Athena Cinema Presents Lon Chaney’s 1925 “Phantom of the Opera” with live musical accompaniment. Free admission, tickets are required and may be secured in advance or day of show.

In this silent horror classic, aspiring young opera singer Christine Daaé (Mary Philbin) discovers that she has a mysterious admirer intent on helping her become a lead performer. This enigmatic masked presence is Erik, also known as the Phantom (Lon Chaney), a horribly disfigured recluse who lives underneath the Paris Opera House. When the Phantom takes Christine prisoner and demands her devotion and affection, her suitor, Vicomte Raoul de Chagny (Norman Kerry), sets out to rescue her.

ABOUT THE MUSICIAN

Sean Parsons is a jazz pianist, composer, arranger and educator. Originally from Illinois, Sean holds a Bachelor’s degree in music composition from Illinois Wesleyan University, a Master’s degree in jazz studies from DePaul University, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Illinois. Prior to his appointment at Ohio University, Sean has held faculty positions at Marshall University and Illinois Wesleyan University. He is in demand as a performer and clinician nationwide. Sean has been invited to direct several All-State and district big bands, combos, and vocal jazz ensembles and has shared the stage with many of the most notable musicians in jazz including Clark Terry, James Moody, Jon Faddis, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Steve Turre, and Randy Brecker. Additionally, he has regularly performed with and arranged for Landau Eugene Murphy, Jr., winner of the 2011 America’s Got Talent competition.

Sean serves on the Athens City School Board and as the organist for St. Paul Episcopal Church in Parkersburg, WV. He lives with his wife Jen who is the Director of the Ohio Valley Museum of Discovery and his twin 9 year old children Coltrane and Emily. While too young to have careers, Coltrane aspires to be a computer scientist and Emily a scientist with her specilization to be determined. As of the time of writing this bio, she is making her case to study chameleons and hopes to convince her parents to allow her to have her own in the near future.

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93 MIN

Elephant rescues in Thailand are rare, unpredictable and often life threatening. After waiting 2.5 years, actor/director Ashley Bell and a team of elephant rescuers led by world renowned Asian elephant conservationist and TIME Magazine’s Hero of Asia, Lek Chailert, embark on a daring mission 480 miles across Thailand to rescue Noi Na, a 70-year old partially blind trekking elephant and bring her to freedom.

African elephants are slaughtered for their ivory, but sadly the plight of the Asian Elephant has been completely overlooked even though they are the elephant we are most familiar with in zoos, circuses and elephant rides. L&B exposes the cruel secret that every Asian elephant has had to endure to become a service animal; a process knows as Pajan, aka The Crush Box. LOVE & BANANAS aims to ignite a new way of thinking about this species and shows what can be done to prevent the extinction of Asian elephants.

One night only! The Athena is the only theater in Ohio showing Love & Bananas on Earth Day. Admission $7.

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75 MIN

Set in a small town in Southeast Ohio, Departure tells the story of a day in the lives of four disillusioned members of a family as they’re forced to face what they have taken for granted. After Loretta, a late-thirties wife, mother, daughter and sister, goes missing, Robert, Anne, and Emily are left to deal with its ramifications. Will they get another chance at saving their family?

Showing two nights only! Admission $5

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82 MIN