MIDDLEBURY — Middlebury’s Town Hall Theater is known for Broadway musicals, Met Opera broadcasts, serious plays and great concerts. What’s next? Cat videos.
The Internet Cat Video Festival, in collaboration with Homeward Bound in Middlebury and the Walker Art Center, will be screened at Town Hall Theater on Saturday, Sept. 13, at 2 and 7 p.m.
In 2012, the Walker Art Center, a leading contemporary art museum in Minneapolis, tried a small experiment. It collected an 80-minute long selection of the best cat videos on the Internet and showed it on a big screen. The result was massive: Ten thousand cat lovers showed up to participate in an activity usually enjoyed alone.
After its success in 2012, the festival was repeated in 2013 with a new reel of cat videos shown to an even larger audience. “The Internet Cat Video Festival made an act of isolation (sitting alone in front of your computer screen) into a celebration of togetherness,” says a reporter for the online magazine Jezebel. “I was sad to leave the small utopia that the Walker had created.”
Due to the international popularity of the Internet Cat Video Festival, the Walker now allows the collection to be shown across the globe. “Believe it or not, this is one of the most highly anticipated events by the staff here at Town Hall Theater,” says executive director Doug Anderson. “Who doesn’t love cat videos!?”
Tickets are $10 general admission and $5 for students. Fifty percent of the proceeds will benefit Homeward Bound, Addison County’s Humane Society. Tickets may be purchased at www.townhalltheater.org, 802-382-9222, at the THT box office, or at the door.