At Home at the Movies

Adrian and Georgiana Havill's home screening room evolved slowly.

Years ago, they liked to attend movies at Reston Town Center with friends, but they wanted more choices in what was showing.

So they started showing movies on the 42-inch TV on the lower-level of their townhouse on Lake Thoreau. In short order, they acquired a 120-inch projection screen and more seating.

And that's how the Turtle Pond Cinema was born about five years ago.

Havill, author of 11 books, is proud of what he has put together. His biggest find? a row of seats from an old movie theatre. He paid $30 each for them.

"The seats were sitting in back of an old school bus in Marshall, VA," says Havill. "They came from a theatre in the Shenandoah. So we got six seats, scrubbed them up, and now we have seating for 30."

Havill also build a carpeted riser for the seats and also added additional seating in "balcony" in the back of the room.

Havill says a wide variety of movies are shown in his home theatre: classics, independent films, comedies, pretty much everything "except teen movies," he says. There are theme nights (he dressed as Juan Peron for the screening of Evita). and, of course, an Oscars contest.

Movies at the Turtle Pond Cinema are usually shown twice a month, on Wednesdays. However the Havills sometimes organize a "flash-mob Sunday" when they invite people over on a three-hour notice. Movies are free.

The screenings are open to anyone who is on Havill's mailing list. Want to get on the list? Email him at a@havill.org. Meanwhile, check out Havill's blog, Turtle Pond Cinema, here.