After a very generous donation at the end of the 2014 spring season, planning for a fundraising effort to bring air conditioning to the Strand Theatre are underway. With the goal of having air conditioning units installed by the end of the summer, a series of fundraising events has been planned. The first of these is coming up shortly as “Dinner and a Movie at Roca.”

The Strand Theatre opened in 1934 as a cinema in the historic Adolph Rose building on Clay Street in downtown Vicksburg.

It was closed 30 years later and was not revived until 2011, when the Westside Theatre Foundation began to renovate it with plans to make it better than before. The foundation has since been presenting live theatre, art house films, and music concerts. The building currently has no air conditioning or heating units, limiting performances and programming during the summers in which Mississippi weather makes operating untenable.

Roca will be serving a full dinner , including salad, entrée and dessert, in their Banquet Room Friday at 7:30 p.m.

Following dinner “Mystery Train,” will be shown. The film is a quirky comedy about a young Japanese couple, a recently widowed Italian woman, and a working class Englishman who all end up spending the same night in a seedy motel in downtown Memphis.

The cost for the evening’s activities is $36 per person.

Advance reservations are highly recommended and are available at Highway 61 Coffeehouse, 1101 Washington St.. For more details, call 601-529-7252.