Which do you think you’d be more likely to attend? A lecture on evolutionary history with an emphasis on dinosaurs or the same lecture preceded by, and perhaps interpolating, the film “Jurassic Park”?
Chances are good you’d choose the latter. That’s one of the main reasons Wilmette Theatre Executive Director Wendy Sharon applied for a Science on Screen grant from Boston’s Coolidge Corner Theatre and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation — one that will fund a Feb. 4 screening of “Jurassic Park” and a post-screening lecture by Dr. Peter Makovicky, chair of the Department of Geology at The Field Museum, specializing in “dinosaurian evolutionary history.” The Wilmette will also pair two more screenings — “Anaconda” on March 28 and “The Birder’s Guide to Everything” on April 22 — with two more discussions with Field Museum experts during its first season as a Science on Screen presenter.
“It’s hard to find really good, high-quality programs for kids,” said Sharon. “There aren’t a lot of great movies for them out there, so we thought linking some appealing films with a science component as part of a program would appeal to our community.”
That’s what the Sloan Foundation has been about since 1934, enhancing the public’s understanding of science and technology by funding projects in print, radio, film, television, theater and the internet. In 2005, it became involved when the independent Coolidge Corner Theatre created the first Science on Screen series. The series is now in its 12th season, with 34 more independent theaters across the country offering the concept.
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The Wilmette Theatre is the only Illinois theatre taking part.
“The main idea is to make science more accessible — and more interesting, I think — to more people in the general public, especially kids,” Sharon said. “It’s kept growing every year, it’s well-received by audiences and it gives scientists an opportunity to get out into the community and develop enthusiasm for the work they’re doing.”
Each theater is allowed to develop its own programs and choose its own scientific experts, as long as one of the films in each series was funded by the Sloan Foundation.
That turned out to be a simple requirement for the Wilmette, since the foundation was involved in the 2013 production of “A Birder’s Guide to Everything,” featuring Katie Chang — an alum of the theater’s Actors Training Center. “A Birder’s Guide” will be screened April 22 with guest speaker Mary Hennen, director of the Chicago Peregrine Program and Birds Assistant Collections Manager at the Field Museum. Hennen will bring a live falcon (rescued due to a disability) to the program.
Hennen’s affiliation with the Field Museum led to a partnership between the theater and the museum for all of this season’s Science on Screen presentations. In addition to Dr. Makovicky’s Feb. 4 discussion, Field Museum Conservation Biologist Dr. Lesley de Souza will share her expertise in the biology of the tropics after the March 28 film “Anaconda,” set in the Amazon jungle.
“It’s a fun film, kind of campy, I think, but it matches well with the very interesting work Dr. de Souza has done in the Amazon,” Sharon said.
Science on Screen series
When: 2 p.m. Feb. 4, 7 p.m. March 28 and 2 p.m. April 22
Where: 1122 Central Ave., Wilmette.
Tickets: $10 for adults, $8.50 for students and seniors.
Information: 847-251-7424; www.wilmettetheatre.com