Coffman Theater
Movies, film festivals, speakers, debates, and concerts - the Coffman Theater has hosted them all. Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the Coffman Theater shows newly released films, brought to you by MPAC free of charge. During the 2003 Coffman renovation, the Theater was expanded from 259 to 402 seats and the roof of the Theater was raised 10 feet to allow for unobstructed views and a larger screen.
Overview
The University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus supports a wide variety of film, theatrical and musical performances. In particular, Coffman Union and the St. Paul Student Center offer hundreds of events each year, including free film screenings. Since Coffman's opening in January 2003, both the Coffman Theater and the St. Paul Student Center Theater offer free screenings of recently released films every Thursday-Saturday during the academic and summer terms. Films are selected by the Minnesota Programs & Activities Council (MPAC), the student-run programming board of the Student Unions and Student Activities Office.
While we acknowledge that the Coffman Theater is frequently reserved, it is to consistently serve thousands of students with free entertainment. 2005 fall attendance at films averaged 1900 per week, totaling 27,750 attendees per semester.
Regardless of the film shown, thousands of students fill the theater to watch free movies. To accommodate more students, we now offer Noon screenings of films each Thursday, in partnership with the Commuter Connection.
Background
As part of the feasibility assessment for the renovation of Coffman Union in 1998, students said that seven of the ten services they wanted most weren't provided in Coffman, including a movie theater.
To meet this demand, the renovation included the construction of a 400-seat theater. It is worth noting that the student union administration chose to revise the renovation plans in order to meet student demand. Construction included adding an ADA-accessible lift and physically raising the roof height to insure that all 400 seats had unobstructed views and were ADA accessible.
Alternate Theaters
Should you wish to host an event that requires a theater space, the student unions proudly offer two alternative spaces.
West Bank Auditorium
- affordable
- 140-seat venue
- state-of-the-art sound and video capabilities
St. Paul Student Center Theater
- affordable
- 327-seat venue
- staging and technical requirements for film screenings and theatrical/dance performances
- convenient and affordable parking options.
To help out with films screenings, volunteer with MPAC.
Check out the films schedule on the Student Unions Events Calendar.
What you can do
In short, Coffman was built and renovated to serve the needs of students. We feel that the films series are a successful example of how we're able to efficiently and effectively serve the needs of students.
