A quick chat with the Dreamland’s Stephen Andrews.
N MAGAZINE: What’s one thing people don’t know about the Dreamland?
ANDREWS: This place does more than just the bare minimum of showing movies. Of course, we have movies on the roster every day, but we also do other things. This is a legitimate cultural center of entertainment, discussion, fun and excitement. I say to people when they come in, “Even though we are small, we’re mighty.”
N MAGAZINE: Who’s your favorite person you’ve seen speak or perform at the Dreamland?
ANDREWS: The question is who isn’t my favorite? Joe Biden was awesome. John Kerry was fun. It’s like what I say when I’m at the desk every single day: “The question is not what is good? The question is what isn’t good? Every single time you’re in for something great.” Really, every single event is the event. We don’t treat things as mid-tier; we treat everything as super [high] caliber. You need to make sure that, for every event, people leave feeling that they’ve seen something great.
N MAGAZINE: If you could see anyone come speak at the Dreamland, who would you love to see?
ANDREWS: Oh, the list can just go on for miles. I mean, I’d love to bring in the Dalai Lama, maybe Bono of U2, maybe the Pope, Barack Obama. As much as they are long shots, this place has that potential to bring in these people because there’s a name recognition to both the Dreamland and the island as this incredible global center.
N MAGAZINE: We hear you have a master’s degree in fine arts, right?
ANDREWS: I got my graduate degree in creative writing. [While I was] getting my master’s, I did a screenplay thesis. So, once more, the art imitated the life. The screenplay let me get the job at a place where basically we bring screenplays to life every day. I always like going to Mr. Gray’s book festival and seeing all the authors and seeing all these incredible, creative people out there and saying, “Hey, maybe I could one day be sitting at that table signing the book.” But [we’ll have] to see how that goes.
N MAGAZINE: Do you have a favorite character from a book or a movie that sticks out in your mind?
ANDREWS: Superman. That’s what I really consider to be my all-time favorite classic film. I mean, back in my parents’ house, I had scores of the comics. I used to run around with the red cape on much to my parents’ [dismay].
N MAGAZINE: What do you think makes a really great story?
ANDREWS: A story has to be able to inspire.
N MAGAZINE: If you could put three things from Nantucket in a time capsule to be discovered a hundred years from now, what would you put?
ANDREWS: The whole thing. I would literally levitate the island, put it in a massive ship, hold it there and say please open. There would be no three things. Everything goes in, because like I say, “It’s the whole, not the sum of the parts.”
