This piece originally appeared on KQED on October 13, 2014.
By KQED News Staff
Avery Trufelman knows movies. In high school, she would watch a film at the end of every day. In college, she worked as a projectionist.
So when Avery walked into Oakland’s New Parkway Theater, “I just felt so at home. It feels like you’re going into a friend’s living room.”
That’s because the theater is designed like an actual living room, replete with comfy couches and an adjacent kitchen.
“The food is really good, too,” Trufelman says. “The cool thing is, you can sit in the theater and order something from your seat and they’ll deliver it to you.”
The theater is the successor to the original Parkway Theater on Parkway Boulevard, which closed in 2009.
The New Parkway, located in Oakland’s Uptown neighborhood, opened in 2012. Trufelman says the New Parkway may look like an art house theater, but it has something for everyone.
“They certainly show some independent documentaries, but they also show things that you would see at any other big normal theater,” the Berkeley-based radio producer says. “It’s kind of funny tucked away in this alley, this kind of artsy looking building.”