- Location
- Contact Us
- Admission Prices
- Dryden Film Society
- Hours
- Dryden Staff
- Facilities
- Past Guests
- History
Location
The Dryden Theatre is located at George Eastman House in Rochester, New York.
The Dryden Theatre900 East Avenue
Rochester NY, 14607
Public Transportation
RTS Rt 17 : East Ave (pdf)
RTS Rt 18 : University Ave (pdf)
Contact Us
General line – 585.271.3361
Advance ticket information – 585.271.3361 x295
General Film Information – 585.271.4090
General web inquiries – Dryden@geh.org
Admission Prices
Regular Dryden Programs
General admission - $6.00
Students - $5.00
Members - $4.00
Advance tickets are available for select screenings only.
Take-10 Passes
General - $45.00
Members - $35.00
Take-10 passes are good for 10 individual admissions. This pass gives you many options: you can use it to admit yourself 10 times; or yourself and a friend 5 times; or yourself and 9 friends one time; or any other combination you like! It’s easy; just remember it’s the same as having 10 individual tickets.
Dryden Film Society
The Dryden Film Society is for the film enthusiast who demands a little more. Membership grants you an enhanced level of access to the resources of the Motion Picture Department at the George Eastman House, not available to the general public. Film Society Members experience the full spectrum the Dryden has to offer: you are invited to hush-hush private screenings; you can shmooze with visiting artists, and you have privileged access to the knowledge of curatorial staff, which covers just about every facet of film history you ever wanted to know about (and more).
The Society is for patrons who are looking to hone their knowledge of film history; those who are looking to engage with filmmakers and the filmmaking process; or for those who would simply like more interaction with the Dryden Theatre.
The Dryden Film Society at George Eastman House also supports an ongoing effort to support the vision of the Motion Picture Department. Members contribute directly to preservation projects of endangered films and work to promote new technologies in theatrical exhibition.
Private screenings and events with visiting artists are held monthly on average, but vary depending on the Dryden Film Calendar. The Dryden Film society meets formally as a group twice a year. Membership in the Dryden Film Society is open to any member of George Eastman House. The annual dues are $200.00. For more details, please contact Pamela Reed Sanchez, Director of Development, at (585) 271-3361 ext. 384. For more information about membership, please visit the membership page.
Hours
The Dryden Theatre Box Office opens 45 minutes before any given screening. Screening times do vary, so please check our calendar for the most up to date information.
George Eastman House Hours & Information
Dryden Staff
Jim Healy Assistant Curator, Exhibitions, Motion Picture Department
Michael Neault Associate Programmer, Theatre Manager
Charlie Allen Chief Projectionist
Tim Wagner Projection manager
Steve Hryvniak Archival Projectionist
Darryl Jones Archival Projectionist
Robert Ogie Archival Projectionist
Charles Rance Archival Projectionist
Deborah Stoiber Archival Projectionist
Benjamin Tucker Archival Projectionist
Dryden Website
Designed & Coordinated by Michael Neault
Maintained by Ryan Donahue
Facilities
In July of 2007, as part of a technical upgrade, the theatre was outfitted with a new sound system and screen, and new projectors were installed in the booth.
FILM
The projection booth is equipped with two reel-to-reel 35mm/16mm Kinoton projectors, and two 35mm Century projectors. Both sets of projectors have adaptable lenses for the following aspect ratios:
- Silent 1.33: 1
- Academy 1.37: 1
- 1.66: 1
- 1.85: 1
- Anamorphic 2.39: 1
VIDEO
The Dryden Theatre is equipped with an InFocus SP 777 DLP Projector. Video capabilities include: BetacamSP, DVD, Beta U-Matic and VHS.
SOUND
The theatre is outfitted with an up-to-date sound system designed to reproduce soundtracks for both contemporary and archival screenings. Designed and installed by Boston Light & Sound, it features a Dolby 5.1 system, able to reproduce the following stereo formats: Dolby A-Type, Dolby SR, Dolby Digital, and also DTS. The sound system can also reproduce Monaural soundtracks.
NITRATE
The Dryden Theatre projection booth is also customized to handle highly volatile Nitrate film. Discontinued around the mid-20th Century due to its highly flammable nature, nitrate film stock - the combination of a silver nitrate base and orthochromatic or panchromatic emulsion – provided a shimmering, luminous motion picture experience for moviegoers during the entire first half of movie history. One of only a handful of venues in the world that is still safely equipped to show 35mm nitrate prints, the Dryden Theatre is occasionally able to re-introduce audiences to this special kind of cinema magic with classic films from our vaults or other leading archives. Because no nitrate film stock is being produced today, these rare screenings of vintage prints may represent your only opportunity to experience this distinctive aesthetic visual pleasure.
UPGRADE & RENOVATION
The 2007 Technical Upgrade is part of an ongoing renovation of the Dryden Theatre. If you would like support our efforts, please consider contributing. You can learn about ways to get involved at our Membership page. For more details on the renovation, please refer to this posting.
CAPACITY
The Dryden Theatre has a capacity of 535 people.
Past Guests: 1999 - 2008
Jim Jarmusch, Meryl Streep, Janet Leigh, Joseph H. Lewis, Walter Murch, Albert Maysles, Nina Davenport, Fay Wray, Norman Jewison, Tony Curtis, James Earl Jones, Peter Bodganovich, David Gordon Green, Danny Peary, John Gianvito, Werner Herzog, Gary Farmer, Steve Buscemi, Richard Widmark, Eli Wallach, Haskell Wexler, Christopher Munch, Robert Forster, Richard Gordon, Joseph Sargent, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Lynne Stopkewich, Michael Fitzgerald, Richard Fleischer, Paul Thomas Anderson, Kathryn Bigelow, Ron Mann, Ross McElwee, Andrew Bujalski, Philip Kaufman, Kim Novak, Verna Bloom, Willem Dafoe, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Charles Burnett, Lee Demarbre, John Landis, Deborah Nadoolman Landis, Ray Harryhausen, Phil Tippett, Jeff Bridges, Carvin Eison, Christine Christopher, Lynne Sachs, Tim Hunter, Robert Culp, Don Hertzfeldt, Andreas Dresen, Jon Davison, Roger Ebert, Kris Kristofferson, Donnie Fritts, Nick Redman, Tab Hunter, Don McKellar, Jim Finn, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor, Tony Huston, Chris Strompolos, Eric Zala, Bob Rafelson, Paul Mazursky, Crispin Glover, Lodge Kerrigan, Joshua Marston, Farley Granger, Jeff Krulik, Ian Ruskin, Pat Healy, Craig Zobel, Bruce Goldstein, Steve Kurtz, Jonathan Lethem, Antonio Ferrera, Lisa Muskat, Immy Humes
James Card Memorial Lecturers:
Kevin Brownlow, Serge Bromberg, Robert Gitt, Neil Brandt, Rusty Casselton, Edith Kramer
Musical Accompanists:
Dreamland Faces, BQE Project, Tin Hat Trio, Wycliffe Gordon, Jen Anderson and the Larrikins, Willem Breuker Kollektief
History
The Dryden Theatre is the Museum’s sole exhibition space for showcasing its unparalleled collection of motion pictures, as well as fine selections from the world’s other great archives, and premieres of new foreign and independent cinema. To date, more than 13,000 film titles have been screened using the original Century projectors installed over fifty years ago. The Dryden Theatre is one of the most vibrant exhibition spaces of the Museum, attracting more than 40,000 visitors each year. With diverse programming featuring more than 450 contemporary and archival film titles, the Dryden remains an integral part of the Museum experience.
The Dryden Theatre was constructed in 1951 after George Eastman House received a generous donation from George and Ellen Dryden. Ellen Dryden was George Eastman’s niece. The first film to be shown at the Dryden was Jean Renoir’s silent film Nana (1924). James Card (1915 – 2000) established the motion picture collection at George Eastman House. Card was a pioneer in the archival world and a close friend and confidante of Henri Langlois of the Cinémathèque Française in Paris. Together, they helped contribute to the appreciation of film as an art form.
