Wow, Olivia has more to say? The answer will always be yes. As I close in on my time here at Fredonia, I want to open myself up to more things I wouldn’t have otherwise done.
One example of this, that I encourage all Fredonia students and townies alike to try, is going to the Fredonia Opera House. To many, the thought of sitting down and watching an opera might not be the way some would want to spend their time, however there is more to the opera house than opera.
A few weeks ago, I drove to my apartment in town. As an aware driver who is always looking at my surroundings, I couldn’t help but notice the Opera House showing an image of Paul Mescal. I was perplexed.
Was Paul Mescal coming to Fredonia? Surely not. I was so taken by this that as soon as I parked my car, I was googling to see what this could be.
Turns out, as well as putting on local productions, the opera house takes some nights to play movies! This spring alone, they had two showings of Marty Supreme (2025) by Josh Safdie, and Hamlet (2025) by Chloé Zhao. I really wonder how I didn’t notice this was something I could go to.
And the fact that the movies shown are all so new as well? Count me in.
With this information at the forefront of my mind, I cast a wide net of messages to all my friends to not only spread the word, but to see if anyone would like to accompany me to see Hamnet. I wanted to see Hamnet specifically because I had already seen Marty Supreme as it was intended on Christmas Day of 2025. Also, because I did not have access to a movie theatre at home (Rochester), or here in Fredonia that showed Hamnet.
With a group of about 6 other friends, I descended to the opera house. Luckily for me, it is a 3-minute walk at most. For those on campus, it is also walkable with food opportunities all around on the main street. If cars are preferred, there is a lot of parking around.
My advice is to either bring cash night of or go to the ticket office when open to use a card. They do NOT accept cards outside of the ticket office. Tickets for students are $5, which is a STEAL.
Upon entering, there was a ton of seating both on the floor in front of the screen and on the balcony which are both available to movie goers. The theatre itself is gorgeous, velvet seating and the small details of carvings in wood, and the chandelier really set the tone for a perfect movie experience.
Seeing Hamnet, there was so much fun. The movie is Paul Mescal playing the role of Shakespeare while he made all his famous plays like Hamlet, so seeing this in an actual theatre was more fitting than a Regal movie theatre. To circle back, those seats were very comfortable. Not reclining, but that honestly is not necessary in my opinion.
The movie itself was SO sad so be prepared. All my friends and I were crying by the end and that was very worth it. I should also mention that we saw this on Valentines’ Day, so this experience was also a date for some, which I thought was funny. On Letterboxd, I rated this movie 4 stars and seeing it at the opera house was a major plus, so I recommend.
That’s all I have for this; you should keep an eye on the Opera Houses website calendar (https://fredopera.org/event-list/ ) to see if you can go to a movie, or really anything they have to see. The staff were all very nice and welcomed me, you can tell that everyone cares about such a historic building.