Arts & Culture in North Palm Beach

Mos'Art Theatre, strives to fortify Palm Beach's cultural scene with "film, art, music, and hope," bolstering a sense of community and inspiring creative expression. Before even entering the theater, audiences pass paintings from local artists and the Art Bar, where they can sip a preshow beer or wine. In the intimate, 150-seat auditorium, the silver screen lights up with indie and foreign films, dazzling eyes and ears with stories that spotlight the human condition and let patrons cry in public without fear of banishment. The management duo, J.R. and Erin Coley, rounds out the commitment to elevating artistic discourse with live children's theater, creative classes, and an ongoing series tracking opera and ballet in the movies.

Cardboard cutouts clad with cartoon superheroes and banners featuring beloved Hollywood starlets bedeck the walls of the Movies at Wellington lobby, reminding patrons why film viewing has become such a time-tested American pastime. Buttered popcorn kernels glint through front counters like diamonds in a jewelry-store case, luring those who want a snack while watching the newest releases in digital projection or innovative RealD 3D display. Guests can also question ticket takers about birthday-party packages for 25 guests, which offer unlimited popcorn, soda refills, and a tour of the attic, in which the projectionist stores his hand puppets.

With only 130 seats, Mosaic Theatre can justly claim that there’s not a bad seat in the house. Designed to be a maximally flexible space, the venue changes its seating for every performance to enhance the theatergoing experience for visitors or to clear way for the mid-play goat chorus line.

The aroma of salt and butter fills Alco Capital Theaters in Boynton Beach. Manager Larry Forbes has worked in theaters for three decades, having started out projecting midnight rock flicks at a drive-in in Fort Lauderdale. He therefore balances a sentimental attachment to film with the practical aspects that make it good for business. "If there's a problem and you have a technician—which we do onsite all the time—you can fix it immediately," he points out. Although the majority of work is projected from film, the theater's eight screening rooms are not warehouses for nostalgia. Digital and Dolby 3-D projectors deliver sharp pictures and immersive experiences to stadiums of 1,500 lumbar-supportive seats, as digital speakers and ADA listening devices make eardrums quake.

During the winter, moviegoers prepare for the upcoming awards season with a full slate of Academy Award–nominated films. On some summer days 700–800 kids will flood the theater by 10 a.m. for adventure flicks and romantic comedies, and when things slow down in the fall, Forbes fires off notices of indie premieres and director Q&A sessions to members of the Movi-E Mail Club, who have chatted with director Susan Seidelman and burgeoning stars from The Palm Beach County Film & Television Institute. On federal holidays, the staff host a special matinee for students, and every Tuesday they pile free popcorn into reusable plastic buckets and vacant laps. The theater's dedication to its audience extends to special requests—Forbes remembers slipping a man's wedding-proposal video into the previews one night. Although he doesn't remember the film, Forbes does remember the woman's answer: she said yes.

Through a Glass Darkly is a vibrant adaptation of the 1961 Academy Award–winning film by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. In its United States debut, the Atlantic Theater Company’s production is directed by five-time Tony Award–nominee David Leveaux and stars Academy Award–nominee Carey Mulligan as Karin, the play’s heroine who displays a fragile grip on reality. During an annual vacation to a remote locale, tensions mount between Karin, her brother (Ben Rosenfield), her husband (Jason Butler Harner), and her father (Chris Sarandon). When a culmination of repressed emotions threatens to destroy the entire family, Karin decides to take command of her own destiny.