Located in the heart of Pilar, a district in the northern area of Greater Buenos Aires, the Great Pillar Theater It is one of the greatest cultural icons of that municipality. Idols of the Argentine show passed through there, such as Sandro y Enrique Pintiand in the ’60s, films by Leopoldo Torre Nilson and Susana Giménez, among other figures of national cinema, were released.
After its last functions in the 1990s and until a failed reopening as an evangelical church, the rooms on San Martín Street, between Lorenzo López and Bolívar, stopped receiving public. The Great Pillar was left in ruins and was at risk of being demolished. Today, after four years of work, a group of friends will manage to reopen it to restore its former splendor.
The confirmed date is Wednesday, August 10, when they will make the grand reopening. And on the 12th, two days later, the curtain will open again to welcome Soledad Silveyra and Verónica Llinás with the play “Two crazy girls”.
The Gran Pilar Cinema Theater in the sixties.
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“We are a group of friends of Pilar and we all come from different backgrounds,” says Santiago Olleac, one of the promoters of the reconstruction of this historic cultural site, which began in 2018. “I am a landscaper. We were always in the city, going around, seeing what could be done and we noticed how this room was deteriorating day by day. We started to get together and throw ideas. One day we contacted the direct owner, we made an offer, she agreed and we bought it”, he comments about the project that brought together six businessmen and neighbors.
The building was inaugurated in 1960 as Gran Pilar Theater Cinema. The first screening was the film “End of Party”, by Leopoldo Torres Nilson. The corner soon became one of the district’s biggest attractions. Premieres such as “A handsome man from the 900s”, “The Hand in the Trap”, “The Truce”, “The Bride”, “Pájaro loco”, “Juan Moreyra” and “La Mary” were added.
Although the cinema closed in the ’90s, artists such as Midachi, María Marta Serra Lima, Sergio Denis, Sandro and Pinti, among others, circulated on the stage. But with the arrival of the large shopping centers and gastronomic options on the outskirts of Pilar, the center of the town lost its appeal.
The San Martín street theater, before the reconstruction.
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“The theater was in ruins and little by little we began to improve it from top to bottom, because it was raining inside. ANDWe find the original parquet, the original seats and the projectors of its time. We are working with upholsterer of the Maipo Theatera very old man, who is finishing the curtains for us, original parts of the doors, the curtains and the backstage”, explains Olleac.
On August 10 will be the inauguration of the theater that has more than 700 people invited. “Artists, producers, authorities, friends and neighbors are going to come. What interests us most is that they are shocked to see how the theater they came to when they were kids turned out,” says Santiago. On August 12 the room will be inaugurated with the function of Solita Silveyra and Llinás. Later, Pepe Cibrián will arrive, with “dracula”.
The original seats of the Gran Pilar Theater room.
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“The theater has very large rooms with a spectacular view of the square. We want to continue taking advantage of those spaces during the week. The room has more than 700 seats and is suitable for graduation celebrations, school concert-type shows, conferences for the Industrial Park… our idea is to be able to ‘exploit’ the room with other types of proposals”, details Santiago.
“In this first stage we are going to inaugurate the theater and the confectionery. And in a second one, on the ground floor next to the reception, a gastronomic place where we are also going to offer a large delivery service. It will be an open space in which people will be able to be as in the square: a place completely connected with the outside and the street, right in the town”, explains Olleac.
The pullman hall on the top floor.
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The news was received with great joy and enthusiasm by the neighbors. “Many times I am working on the play, people start arriving and tell me ‘I came here with my children to the movies for the first time’ or ‘I came here to see Sandro’. In the sixties, a lot of artists passed by who, for Pilar, were unthinkable. People have a spectacular memory and we wanted to keep the name. It is called Teatro Gran Pilar in honor of that”, says Santiago.
“If you don’t give people proposals, people aren’t going to come to the city. Someone had to start and, in this case, we wanted to be the spearhead. That is why behind the theater there is going to be a gastronomic proposal for the corner and for the lower part”.
In the area, people already glimpse the impact that the opening will have in the Plaza de Pilar area. And they imagine that the novelty will boost trade and attract people to the Mall. “We need support from the authorities with security and organization,” says Olleac. “We have to start retaking and recovering the urban centers,” he adds.
