The true beginning of The Prospector was actually a moment of time travel. Back in 2012, Val Jensen found herself at a stoplight on Prospect Street looking at a derelict old building. It had been the original Playhouse. It had been a bank. And soon enough, it would be knocked down. “I was sitting there and just had a vision of this place as it is today, totally working, just the essence of all of it … like I saw us sitting here.” Her eyes are wide as she remembers this fully formed idea while also sitting inside it, The Prospector having since come to vivid, electric pink life.
In a town filled with beloved institutions and cultural centers, The Prospector may just be the most iconic, with its signature pink sparkle showing up everywhere from the theater’s signage to Jensen’s hair. The theater itself manages to capture the very essence of movie-going, while also reinventing the space, the vibe, and the experience itself. Going against design advice, Jensen insisted on giant glass walls to let the light in. There is beautiful art, gourmet popcorn made in-house, comfortable seats, and - oh wait, we’re burying the lede.
The Prospector has also reached icon status for reasons that have nothing to do with the building. This local non-profit is on a mission - to provide competitive employment for adults with disabilities. Jensen had a wealth of knowledge and experience to draw from, having been 4 years old when her parents had a daughter with Down syndrome. This was back in the eighties, before the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law, and resources were few and far between.
“It was a very challenging time,” she says. “As a young child, I remember going to a Special Olympics picnic where I saw families and people with and without disabilities playing together. And it was just such a magical snapshot, and through that I saw a vision of a world that I wanted to live in. I wanted to create a version of that.”
On the eve of their 10th Anniversary, The Prospector has sold 900,000 tickets, employed 125 people, and caught the attention of everyone from NBC Nightly News to Ryan Reynolds, who popped by for a visit this past summer to watch his movie Deadpool & Wolverine. What Ryan Wenke, The Prospector’s Executive Director, found fascinating about that was how many people commented that he (Reynolds) was so fortunate to meet them (the Prospects). “We're thankful here for the community, for our jobs, for opportunity, and I think the community is thankful [for us],” Wenke says. “And so, you know, he's the star on the screen. We're the stars behind the scenes.”
Jensen’s time traveling vision did not include people with disabilities working in any kind of ornamental capacity. “I wanted something that would be uplifting, and also fulfill a need the community had,” she says. Employees are known as Prospects, with about 75 percent of the staff self-identifying with a disability. Prospects hold a massively wide array of jobs taking tickets, making gourmet popcorn, writing, producing, and starring in videos, working on the clean team, introducing movies … a lot happens at this theater. And Jensen not only likes it that way - she wants it to spread.
“While this theater itself might not be replicable,” she tells us, “the principles we have here are. There's a huge talent pool of people with disabilities and employers just need to know where to look. [They'll find] the most dedicated employees, enthusiastic, just [lifting] everybody up. It’s full-on Sparkle here.”
Jensen and her team are already pushing the boundaries of how to create such meaningful employment. Did you know Jensen has a working farm? Prospects come every week to work on things completely different than they would within the walls of the theater. “Being out in the woods, working with animals and working in the garden is so therapeutic. We make maple syrup, and then use the maple syrup to make our gourmet popcorn here. So it's just a nice whole circle, and people wouldn't really think about the complementary value of a farm and a theater, but everything is interconnected.”
Ten years in, The Prospector is thriving in ways not even Jensen could have foreseen. And likewise, the town thrives in its presence. While the theater gives adults with disabilities real hope and real work, an entire generation of children are being raised with its positive message of kindness and inclusivity. Prospects are like celebrities in town, regardless of whether or not they are wearing their signature black and pink shirts. Recently at Prime Burger, Vall tells us how The Prospector’s star rapper, MC Dan, was spotted by some kids. “They were looking over at [the] table and kind of whispering, and then came up and said, Are you MC Daniel? Can I have an autograph?” She laughs, “I could kiss those kids!”
Things are so successful, in fact, that it can be easy to forget that this sparkling gem of a nonprofit is really only sustainable with donations. Even with all the growth and the popcorn and various parts of the business, seventy percent of all ticket sales go to the movie studios. So for this big milestone, the theater is opening up their annual birthday party to more people as the first-ever Prospector Gala celebrates 10 years of sparkle! On Wednesday, November 20th, 6pm - 10pm, guests are invited to wear their sparkle and support this incredible mission, which they make look easy, but …
“It was very difficult to build this building and to do what we did to get here,” says Jensen. “But since I had seen the vision, there was no ‘it's not happening.’ I saw it. It had to happen.”
And for that, Ridgefield is thankful.
“We're thankful here for the community, for our jobs, for our paychecks, for opportunity, and I think the community is thankful also for what we do.”
“While this theater itself might not be replicable, the principles of which we have here are."