Before Baby Yoda (or even the original Yoda), before Coach Dean Smith earned his first gray hair, before clothier Alexander Julian opened his store on Franklin Street, the area now known as Carolina Square was Chapel Hill High School’s campus.
Next on the scene, University Plaza fronted Granville Towers for decades. The West Franklin Street site recently changed to include retail and a natural area called the Carolina Square Lawn.
It was a fitting place for Chapel Hill Community Arts & Culture to stage the original “reel deal,” “Star Wars: A New Hope” on the occasion of Sunday, “May the Fourth (be with you)”—the popular mantra of the entire “Star Wars” series and related stories. After all, like the movie itself, the square has seen change, lean years (remember Jar-Jar?), and improvements, yet it still stands as a point of reference.
Chapel Hill reaped the benefits of a shared love for both the square and the film franchise that has spanned generations. However, many younger fans attending weren’t as familiar with the first three movies, which were actually episodes four, five, and six of the Skywalker saga. The first film introduced filmgoers in 1977 to Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Han Solo, and a fully realized Darth Vader.
A Town of Chapel Hill release stated that the event was presented by Chapel Hill Community Arts & Culture, Chapel Hill Public Library, Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, and Chelsea Theater. Chapel Hill Community Arts & Culture is a town division with a mission to inspire creativity and celebrate community for a better Chapel Hill.
The Movies Under the Stars event reprised film presentations that Chapel Hill originally staged as a summer series atop the Wallace Parking Deck. The series evolved into film presentations around seasonal themes at its Carolina Square location.
“We did this on the Wallace Parking Deck for a little bit, and then I believe we moved it over for a time to UNC’s Forest Theater,” Special Events Coordinator for Chapel Hill Community Arts & Culture Xavi Vallejo explained. “That happened for about a year or two, but when I came on board, we tried to figure out how to make better use of the Movies Under the Stars series.
“We also wanted to find a more central location that was accessible to UNC students but also accessible to the downtown area with a lot of parking. This serves as a great central location.”
“People are still trying to get familiar with the Carolina Square lawn,” Vallejo said. “It’s not as well-known as a location, but if we continue to have it here, through memories and word-of-mouth, folks will become more familiar with it.”
Attendees began arriving on Sunday shortly after 7 p.m., and pre-show activities for all ages began around 7:30 p.m. with “Star Wars” trivia with prizes. Guests were encouraged to dress up in the “Star Wars” theme. The movie started shortly after sundown, and free popcorn was available throughout the film, courtesy of the Chelsea Theater.
“The next movie will probably end up being in the fall,” said Vallejo. “One of the things we’ve realized is that, instead of having a bunch of Movies Under the Stars events where we don’t get the best turnout, we’re taking a different approach where we’re tapping into (themes)…The last one we had was last October, where we were Hocus Pocus-themed.”
Vallejo said the Halloween-themed staging of the film Hocus Pocus drew around 250 attendees, and he estimated that around 150-200 “Star Wars” fans were in attendance on Sunday.
“A couple hundred is ideal,” he said. “Plus, we’ve been investing more into the prizes for trivia. Then we have a couple folks…dressed as characters from “Star Wars” for people to take pictures with.”
“We found out about it on Facebook,” said Nayla Rose, 18, who came to the show with her sister Yani, 15, and her mother Diedre. “I’m a big ‘Star Wars’ fan, but I actually like the older stuff.”
“I’ve raised them right,” Diedre Rose said, laughing.
“We heard about this because we saw the posters around town,” said Simone Rosenthal, accompanied by Oliver Powell.
“He is actually showing me ‘Star Wars,’” Rosenthal said of Powell. “Technically, I saw this movie a long time ago, but I don’t remember anything.”
Likewise, Anna O’Grady said she’d seen the movie, but never on television.
“I’ve never seen it on a big screen before,” O’Grady said. “It’s really exciting.”
While the Movies Under the Stars presentation on May 4 is the only major event scheduled by the Chapel Hill Community Arts & Culture Division for May, June promises to be a busy month for Vallejo and Chapel Hill.
“This is the only event in May, but June is our busy month,” Vallejo said. “On Saturday, June 7, we’re having our (LGBTQ++) Pride Promenade. We’ll congregate for around 30 minutes at the Peace and Justice Plaza, then we’ll parade (westward) down Franklin Street and end up at 140 West Plaza, right across the street from Target.”
Vallejo said Chapel Hill will join with Carrboro to recognize “Juneteenth.”
“We’ve got a collaborative Juneteenth celebration on the actual holiday, so that’s Thursday, June 19,” he said, “and we’re working with Carrboro Recreation, Parks, and Cultural Resources Department on that. That’s an equal partnership with them. Last year, we had it at Chapel Hill, but this year we’ll have it at the Carrboro Town Commons.”
Looking ahead, Vallejo said his division will also work on Chapel Hill’s Fourth of July celebration at Southern Community Park, near the Southern Village community.
“We’ll be working on the Fourth of July too,” he said, “and then there’ll be a break for the rest of the summer so that we can collect ourselves.”
As autumn approaches, Chapel Hill will try for another Movies Under the Stars program in the fall, possibly based on another Halloween-themed film.
Then again, as Master Yoda stressed, “Do or do not—there is no try.”