Behind the Scenes at the Crandell: New Look, New Leadership, and a new FilmColumbia
The theater's new executive director gives an inside look at the renovations, her life and all that's to come.
“It’s looking amazing,” says new Crandell Theatre Executive Director Mirissa Neff. “This is the moment when everything is kind of going into hyper speed. Our seat installation, our marquee installation, the tech installation. It’s going to be a complete transformation.”
Neff is describing the final push of a nearly year-long, $4.1 million renovation that has overhauled Chatham’s historic single-screen theater, built in 1926. After closing last November, the Crandell will reopen October 15 with a ribbon-cutting and public tours, followed just two days later by the FilmColumbia film festival’s opening screening.
The theater after the old seats were removed earlier this year.
A Landmark Rebuilt
The idea of renovating the Crandell dates back to 2019. “It was decided that the theater needed a renovation at some point, not just to be technologically up to date, but also just to remain functional,” Neff says. The pandemic delayed progress and shuttered operations. By spring 2024, the board voted to move forward, even as costs nearly doubled from the original $2.5 million estimate. “Because of the pandemic and the cost of materials going up, in the end it did cost about $4.1 million,” Neff says. “But because of the incredible support that the theater has received, both from our local community and various local benefactors, as well as state support in terms of grants, we have been able to raise that money. So that’s been really heartening.”
The renovation includes new seats (449 in total) and refurbished originals in the balcony that date back nearly a century. Accessibility improvements added an elevator and expanded restrooms, most visible is the brand-new marquee, which was installed late last week.
Crandell Executive Director Mirissa Neff.
From Regular to Executive Director
Neff’s path to the role of executive director was almost as quick as the renovations. She grew up in New York City, but her family’s connection to Chatham goes back decades. “My family’s had ties to the area for a long time. Honestly, it goes back to ‘Sesame Street,’” she says. Her mother, who worked on the program for many years, was encouraged by a colleague to buy property in Chatham when Neff was young. It was a pretty off-grid cabin. Neff now lives with her husband and young son there, in a new home they built over the past few years.
Neff built her career on the West Coast. “I lived in San Francisco for 15 years,” she says. “My background is in filmmaking. I worked as an art director and as a journalist for a PBS program called “Sound Tracks: Music Without Borders.” Then I became a documentary filmmaker and that’s part of what led me on this path.”
By 2020, San Francisco had lost its charm and Neff was looking to settle back East. The old weekend cabin was a starting place that became a home over the years that followed.
It was that first pandemic winter that pushed Neff to engage more locally. “I was like,’Ooh my God, I need to find something to do with my son when there’s nothing else to do,’” Neff remembers.
Her son was already a cinephile, she says. “He always loved films and always had an amazing attention span for them.”
So she began advocating for a children’s film series at the Crandell. In 2023, with Neff organizing, the Kid Flicks program launched at the theater, drawing good crowds each month. “The community really embraced it, and I just became more and more immersed with the Crandell,” she says. That led to a board seat in 2024, then vice president of programming, and finally executive director this summer. “I always felt very aligned with the Crandell,” she says. “It became this kind of obsession. I wanted to work with the staff more and more. That became a formal position on July 1.”
FilmColumbia's Peter Biskind and actor Walton Goggins at last year's festival.
FilmColumbia at 25
The newly renovated Crandell’s first public screenings will arrive with FilmColumbia, October 17–26. The festival, programmed by Peter Biskind, Larry Kardish, and director Calliope Nicholas, marks its 25th year in Chatham.
Neff recently attended the Toronto International Film Festival to see the premiere of Glenrothan, the directorial debut of Emmy-winner and Columbia County resident Brian Cox. “He’s actually going to be doing a Q and A at the festival as well,” she says. “That’ll be a highlight, for sure.”
The opening night party on October 17 will honor actor Stephen Lang. Another local supporter of the theater, Lang is best known for playing bad guy Colonel Miles Quaritch in the Avatar films.
For Neff, the timing of the festival is ideal. “We’re going to go right from the ribbon cutting into FilmColumbia,” she says. “No soft opening. It’s all happening now.”
Regular programming continues immediately after the festival, with Halloween screenings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, complete with a local shadow cast, and a live-scored silent “Phantom of the Opera.”
Neff sees it all as just the beginning. “You never know where life will lead and why you’ll end up in any place,” she says. “Sometimes it’s happenstance. But I feel so grateful to be here now, to help write the next chapter of the Crandell’s story.”
