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from December 15, 2022

by New Buffalo Times

Bees sting Bison to snap winning streak

Zach Hackett stands outside the iconic Vickers Theatre Judy Scully introduces Zach Hackett at the Vickers Theatre

Zach Hackett becomes new ‘caretaker’ of Vickers Theatre

PASSING THE BATON

Seeing as how he’s now the owner – or caretaker, as he puts it – of a theatre, it makes sense that Zach Hackett would compare his experience of taking the plunge and purchasing it to a popular movie.

“If you’ve ever seen that movie ‘We Bought a Zoo’ - I was joking with my wife the other day, it’s like that movie only it’s a theater instead of a zoo…We’re totally unprepared, we have no background in it, it was one of those things we knew – like the first time I walked into that building, I knew it was something special,” Hackett said.

That building houses Three Oaks’ Vickers Theatre, which Hackett officially became the new owner of the afternoon of Friday, Dec. 9.

A physicist by trade who runs a manufacturing company down in Vero Beach, Florida, Hackett said that he has “no background in theater whatsoever.”

A few years ago, he visited a friend who moved to Three Oaks and decided to look for a home in the area for when he and his wife eventually retired.

One day, he was sitting on his back porch with his dog and a cup of coffee while scrolling through Zillow.

That’s when an image of the Vickers Theatre popped up. “The pictures were so extraordinary - I sort of fell in love with it from afar,” Hackett said.

Soon, Hackett found himself in Three Oaks, where he got a realtor and checked the theatre out in person. “The second I walked in the building, I knew this was what I was sort of hoping for or maybe searching for,” he said.

At the time, Hackett was unaware that there was a desire for the building to continue to be a local theatre.

This changed, though, after chatting with the residents.

“The first thing everyone asks is, ‘Are you going to keep it a movie theatre?’…I very quickly learned the extreme support for the theatre locally,” he said.

For that reason, Hackett said he plans to keep it 100% as a theatre – which, he said, is probably the main reason why he was able to acquire it from the previous owner, Judith Scully.

“I think that was a big part of why she accepted me as the one to be the next caretaker of the theatre and that I was worthy because I had the right goals - my desire to keep it a theatre is probably one of the reasons why I’m even here and the deal went through,” he said.

According to its website, the Vickers Theatre is currently in its 22nd season. This year marks the 110th anniversary of the theatre itself, having showed its first movies back in 1911.

In 2010, Judy and her husband, Joe, purchased Vickers.

“If you were to ask my family, they’d say, ‘Oh my God, that was the best thing you ever did, Mom,’” Judy said of her decision to purchase it.

Judy said she feels more than secure in handing the baton to Hackett.

“His happiness is infectious because he’s so excited…I think he’ll be a great steward of this theatre,” she said.

Hackett thanks Judy for making the transition smooth.

He also thanks his family: his wife, who’s been running the other business (“We’re a good team,” he said) and his two teenage children (both of whom are looking froward to working in the theatre).

The theatre will be closed in January and February, which will give Hackett some time to “figure out the plans going forward.”

Hackett said he hopes for the “nice and intimate” theatre to be thought of as a “destination.” Live music, which is a passion of his, and maybe some stand-up comedy may take place there.

He’s thinking of possibly doing a film festival, and has talked to Mark Strauss, a Sawyer resident whose short film, “A Funeral Photographer,” premiered at the theatre in October.

“I want to keep the same spirt of the theatre together - but I want to add just more opportunity for people to come with more events like that,” Hackett said.

If the theatre had been somewhere else, Hackett said, he might have had second thoughts about his decision to buy it.

“It feels like Three Oaks is a little bit of a special place – I’ve been to a lot of small towns, and very rarely do you find a small town with a distillery, a move theatre and a live theatre for the performing arts like The Acorn… The per capita artistic support here has got to be through the roof compared to other small towns,” he said.

Hackett said he’s felt overwhelmed by the outpouring of support he’s already received from the community. Just this past November, he said he got nine invites to Thanksgiving dinner.

“I’ve often thought since I’ve been here about how very, very quickly this place stopped feeling like somewhere I was just visiting and very quickly became some place like home…People here have quickly made this feel like home already even before I closed on the theatre,” he said.

BY FRANCESCA SAGALA