Sonoma

Iconic Sonoma theater defies time, turns 90

NBC Universal, Inc.

In the small wine country hamlet of Sonoma - the iconic Sebastiani Theater has now stood 90 years, a cultural hub anchoring the town’s quaint town square.

For 38 of those years, Roger Rhoten has been along for the ride — first as a volunteer, the last 32 years as its director.

“For me it’s my second home,” said Rhoten, dressed in a brimmed hat and sand-colored outfit that looked like he’d just returned from safari, “sort of like my church.”

Around the theater Rhoten has worn plenty of other hats as well — he runs the old film projectors, performs maintenance, makes popcorn, and has helped shepherd the theater’s direction for more than three decades.

“To me it’s just a beautiful old theater that has a warmth and a charm to it,” Rhoten said, standing in the Italian Renaissance-style auditorium, its stage illuminated by rows of bulbs. “You can’t describe the magic that happens in this room.”

As a performing magician, Rhoten has brought plenty of his own magic to the theater during his tenure. His greatest passion has been showing films on actual 35mm film. Though the theater now has a digital projector, Rhoten prefers firing up the old projectors, loading the spools of film and watching along through a small rectangle cut in the wall of the booth. He’s spent more time in the booth than he could ever account for.

: Sebastiani Theater Executive Director Roger Rhoten stands in the theater’s projector room where he’s been showing films for 38 years.
NBC Bay Area
: Sebastiani Theater Executive Director Roger Rhoten stands in the theater’s projector room where he’s been showing films for 38 years.

“You just listen to the sounds, you watch the flickering light,” Rhoten said above the rattling din of the projector. “There’s something special about it.”

He laments that people are now far more likely to watch a movie on a tiny computer screen, especially since the pandemic.

“They’re closing theaters all over the place,” he said. “Every day you see another theater closing and that’s because people got used to streaming movies at home.”

The Sebastiani Theater isn’t immune to those forces. Whereas its programming once skewed eighty-five percent films, fifteen percent live shows, those statistics have now flip-flopped. The live shows, which include concerts, children’s plays, community performances, are now the theater’s bread and butter. Every year it hosts a film festival. Unlike the home streamers, the Sebastiani is a place where memories are shared.

“There is nothing that can replace being in a theater with other people especially if it’s a comedy,” said Sonoma Vice Mayor Patricia Farrar-Rivas. “It’s so much better to laugh with a whole group of people in the theater."

The theater bears the name of its founder Samuele Sebastiani, an Italian immigrant who came to the area penniless in 1900 and began hauling cobblestones from the hills of Sonoma to make a living. With his savings he bought a winery just down the hill from where he quarried stones, then opened a hotel and the theater in 1934. Construction on the theater created jobs for the community.

“He came from poverty,” said grandson Sam Sebastiani, “and once he started making money his idea was to give back.”

In its 90-year history, the theater has served as a hub of entertainment in Sonoma — though it’s still trying to find its footing in the modern world. The building’s tiny backstage dressing rooms that have hosted stars like Robbin Williams and Isabella Rossellini are a bit too cozy. And its singular theater means it can host only a movie or a live show at a time.

Curtains and the screen are raised with an antique pulley system that uses sandbags for counterweight.

The Sebastiani Theater Foundation is kicking-off a capital campaign to expand the back of the theater and enlarge dressing rooms and add another screen to show movies when the main theater is occupied.

“We want to add on and we want to renovate,” said Rhoten. “We want to make it so it’ll be here for future generations.”

But up in the projection booth, as he watched a spool of old film spin, its strand of images disappearing into the projector and appearing out the other side, his face bathed in flickering light as he admired the antiquated machinery, you got the feeling Rhoten would prefer it forever remain 1934 within the theater’s threshold.

“I’m sort of a traditionalist,” Rhoten said, “I guess I probably wouldn’t change anything.”

The Sebastiani Theater in Sonoma opened in 1934 and is marking its 90th anniversary.
NBC Bay Area
The Sebastiani Theater in Sonoma opened in 1934 and is marking its 90th anniversary.
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