Nose for what's new brings 'em to square
Festivals, free and fun, plot surprises for city
Imagine a warm summer night, an outdoor movie, a soft breeze.
Up on the screen, Gene Wilder's character, Willy Wonka, cocks an eyebrow as portly Augustus Gloop stumbles into a chocolate river and bobbles out of the picture. Cue the scent machines: a whiff of chocolate fills the air, floats tantalizingly through the audience, and fades.
Next Saturday at 8:30 p.m., this melange of sight, sound, and smell will come together at Union Square Plaza as part of the Somerville Arts Council's ArtsUnion programming.
This screening of "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" (with Spanish subtitles) is the brainchild of Megan Dickerson, 27, one of the nine artist/producers chosen to stage a festival in Union Square this summer.
"I've always been obsessed with Smell-O-Vision," said Dickerson, referring to a process that movie theaters offered with limited success in the early 1960s, "and as far as I know, no one's tried to project a movie with Smell-O-Vision outdoors."
Dickerson, a self-described itinerant experimenter, will be using a centrifuge-like, computerized "scent dome" loaded with vials of smells that are blown at the audience with an oscillating fan. "My back up will be more low-tech: I'll have house fans blowing colorful strips of fabric soaked with chocolate oil."
Dickerson is planning olfactory explosions -- blueberry, hay, banana taffy -- to coincide with the demise of each of the children in the film, or for key scenes, such as the one in which Charlie and his grandfather sneak a "fizzy lifting drink." As the characters giggle and float onscreen, Dickerson's fans will blast the scent of cola, and she'll cue the audience to blow bubbles.
"It's along the same lines as 'Sing-A-Long Sound of Music,' but quirkier and weirder," she said.
Dickerson, a Jamaica Plain resident whose day job is managing community programs at the Boston Children's Museum, said she proposed this 'Wonka' for the nose to the Somerville Arts Council because "they do such cool things over there. They're so open to experimentation."
ArtsUnion coordinator Melissa Hale Woodman concurred: "The Arts Council is good at figuring out how an event is really going to work and what are the fun and engaging activities that people can do that are accessible. The idea is to draw people in and bring together people who might not ordinarily be together."
The free-spirited festivals are part of a much larger effort to transform a gritty span of cement in the heart of Union Square into a vital, cultural crossroads that draws in shoppers, fun-seekers, businesses, and residents to boost economic development. Using a national neighborhood preservation model called Main Streets, organizations from the federal government and city to non profits and residents have joined to re energize the square.
"You gather resources," says Mimi Graney, director of Union Square Main Streets, "look at what's unique about the neighborhood."
Initiatives include historical and cultural walking tours (such as the popular ethnic market tour that highlights international food stores), a Saturday morning farmers market, permanent public art in the form of benches and barrels, and zoning proposals that could free up more space for culture.
It's festivals, however, that bring the sizzle. They're out-of-the-box creative, free, and fun. What's more, they're working.
Graney reports that last year's festivals brought $350,000 into local businesses, and the state renewed a two-year arts grant to keep them going.
Next up will be a screening of the 1922 silent western "Big Stakes, " with a live country-and-western soundtrack by Devil Music Ensemble (Aug. 10); "Sounds of Silents," featuring 10 original short films shot by local artists and scored by local musicians (Aug. 24); and "Hawaiian Nights," with music, Tahitian dance, lit-up palm trees, and vintage surf films (Sept. 14).
Further information on programs is available at somervilleartscouncil.org , or 617-625-6600, ext. 2985. 