By RYAN ANGLIM
Contributing Writer
A typical Saturday evening at Regal Cinemas in Colonie Center is filled with people of all ages, butter saturated popcorn, and the rants and raves about some new blockbuster hit everybody must see. Behind the scenes of all the mass hysteria that takes place throughout Regal Cinemas is a Saint Rose student named Christina Coogan, who has been working there since the theatre opened five years ago.
Being such a versatile employee makes it difficult to put a label on what Coogan does at Regal Cinemas. When she is not working in the concession stand or the box office, she is ushering the theaters, ripping tickets at the door or catering to a child’s birthday party. While the school semester is in session she works 15 hours a week predominantly on the weekends.
Coogan’s provocative work environment is only intensified by how busy the theater gets on weekends. While cleaning the theaters after a film showing has cleared out, Coogan has found things as strange as keys, socks and underwear left behind by audience members. This can only bring up the lingering question; what exactly are people doing during the viewing of these films? Every so often, Coogan is forced to deal with a rude customer or perhaps a mess that needs to be cleaned up, but the job’s pros seem to outweigh the cons.
According to Coogan, working with the theater comes with free movies and popcorn at any given time of the day. Her favorite film that came out recently was Quentin Tarentino’s Django Unchained.
“I loved it, I’ve seen it three times” Coogan said. Most of the employees at the theater are young college kids, so Coogan gets to relax and hang out with coworkers after a long shift. Over the years working at Regal Cinemas, Coogan has worked with one of her great friends named Meghan Adrian. “Christina is a very loyal friend and coworker. She always has your back when you need her and Christina’s an immensely hard worker, and to top off she’s an amazing and very talented artist,” Adrian said.
Coogan finds her job to be very gratifying. Her work gives her the ability to be fully independent in life. She pays her rent, car payments, cell phone bills, and is working up to pay off her student debts through her job at the theater. “It’s rewarding to know that I’m able to support myself and be an independent contributor to society,” said Coogan.
To heavy the workload a little more, Coogan is also a full time Art Education major at The College of Saint Rose. The reason she chose Saint Rose to pursue her goal of becoming an art teacher was because her father went to school there and it is close to home. Coogan is currently in her junior year at the college and only a few semesters away from getting her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in photography and painting. She graduated high school in 2010 from Colonie Central High School.
Saint Rose was a great fit for Coogan because of its small size and great interactions with her professors. Ever since high school, Coogan noticed that she had a knack for the visual arts. She was inspired by her tenth grade art teacher to go out and pursue art education.
As if being a full time art student and working at a movie theater wasn’t enough to fill a schedule, Coogan also works at the art gallery in Massry as a work study. The job entails overlooking the art gallery during its opening hours and working during the gallery openings.
Although she stays quite busy, Coogan keeps a positive attitude throughout her work and social life. She has many friends through work and school. “Christina is a very nice, kind hearted, and intelligent person from what I know of her. She’s a very hard worker too.” said Chris, one of her coworkers at Regal Cinemas.
