About

Our Theaters

This past Fall 2022 semester, as part of the celebrations for Homecoming, the Department of Humanities & Politics hosted Story Booth: Theater Experiences, in partnership with The Reel screening of the iconic film, Jaws. We asked about your first, last, and scariest theater experiences, and heard from over 20 participants!

We asked twenty-two NSU faculty and students:

Have you ever seen Jaws?
What was your first theater experience?
What is your favorite part of going to the theater?
What was the most frightening experience you ever had in theaters?

Through stories like these, we learn how connected we all are.

In this Story Booth, we discovered:

Story Booth is a series hosted by the Department of Humanities and Politics (DHP) at Nova Southeastern University that fosters community and diverse cultural and social expressions through an understanding and appreciation of global literatures and languages. Stories are universal and they help us to make sense of the world by sharing our experiences. From remembering our first stories to conversations about the power, good and bad, of fiction, Story Booth connects us.

Thank you to all who contributed to this project!

Explore our stories below!

On average, most participants’ earliest memories of the theater came from when they were around 9.25 years old.

The most popular films reported were James Cameron’s Avatar (2009) and Marvel’s Avengers: Endgame (2019).

On average 1 of 3 students have seen Steven Spielberg’s Jaws.

On average 5 of 7 viewers found Jaws terrifying; 1 found it funny; and 1 found it unmemorable.

The Conjuring series was mentioned more than once as participants’ scariest theater experiences.

At least one person’s scariest theater experience was being forced to watch Barbara Streisand in Funny Girls instead of 101 Dalmatians.

Most participants’ favorite experiences at movie theaters revolved around one of four things
- the people (friends, family, and crowd reactions);
- the setting (surround sound, reclining chairs, darkness);
- the food (popcorn, ICEEs, and candy); and
- the ability of film to broaden our imaginations and deepen our emotions.