THREE OAKS — Jon Vickers sits at a bistro table in the back of his art-house theater as the March 3 crowd begins to meander to their seats for a special screening of “Pirate Radio.”

“Good luck, Jon,” one of them says. “We’ll miss you,” adds another, patting him on the back. A few feet away, his wife, Jennifer, is juggling popcorn, ticket sales and a few hugs of her own.

It’s been nearly 15 years since the couple opened the Vickers Theatre in the heart of this tiny Michigan village, and soon they’ll be leaving it.

“We’ve gotten such an amazing response,” Jennifer Vickers says. “We knew (the theater) meant a lot to some people, but we didn’t know how much it meant to so many people.”

Jon Vickers, in addition to owning the theater, has been the cinema manager and managing director of the University of Notre Dame’s DeBartolo Center for the Performing Arts. Recently he accepted a job to become the first director of the Indiana University cinema in Bloomington, Ind. Monday was his last day at Notre Dame. He’ll start at IU on March 22. Jennifer and their three children – Ava, 10, Frankie, 13 and Max 14 – will follow at the end of the school year. The couple, however, insists that their impending move doesn’t mean the Vickers Theatre will be going dark anytime soon.

“We’ve had a few people say, ‘So, you’re closing?’ and we don’t want people to think that,” Jennifer Vickers says. “We’re committed to keeping the theater open. I’m staying at least through the school year and if we don’t find a buyer by then we’ve even talked about staying through the summer. It might have to go from five nights to three nights, but we could even run it from afar if we have to.”

That’s good news for moviegoers who say that the Vickers Theatre not only helped spark the village’s cultural resurgence, but has become a social and cinematic haven for all of Southwest Michigan.

“When I saw that they were leaving, I was seriously bummed out,” Three Oaks resident Elizabeth Meister says.

“I was really concerned that we were going to lose the theater. I really feel like the Vickers is one of the reasons why we moved here. It’s a symbol of the community’s creative spirit. I feel like it’s critical that it continues. To lose it would be a real significant blow.”

The building was built as a livery in the 1890s, and in 1911 it was converted by Frank Lee into a movie theater. Two generations of his family ran the business until the 1970s, when it was alternately used as a theater, office space and storage facility.

Jon and Jennifer Vickers, who met at Michigan State University, had moved to Three Oaks after graduation.

Jon began working in the family business, Vickers Engineering, and in 1993, when the building came up for sale, the couple, on impulse, decided to take a chance.

“The week we saw the sign we put in an offer,” Jon Vickers says. “It was pretty much a rectangular shell but we pictured this Bohemian lifestyle where we’d live in the studio apartment, and Jennifer could sell her artwork.”

It took two-and-a-half years to refurbish the theater. The couple put in oak floors, built the balcony and catwalks, brought in bistro tables and purchased a used projector from a supply store in Chicago that they eventually figured out how to put it together and run.

“We knew nothing about the business or the industry,” Jennifer Vickers says. “And this was pre-Internet. So to learn about film we had to read books and magazines and make phone calls. We just opened our arms to studios and talked to as many people as we could who handled film.”

Once the building was completed, they booked their own films, created brochures and a Web site. Because both had full-time jobs, they only operated on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. When they opened, Jon took tickets, then ran the movie projector and Jennifer ran the concession booth. After each show they cleaned the house for the next screening, a setup Jon calls “very mom and pop.”

Their penchant for film, however, was anything but. They opened in 1996 with a print of “Citizen Kane.” The second night they showed the Korean film “Why has Bodhi-Dharma left for the East?” It set the benchmark of what was to follow.

“They have a habit of sniffing out the most interesting films, whether it’s an independent film or something from Finland,” says Long Beach, Ind., resident Hal Higdon, who along with wife Rose has frequented the theater almost weekly. “‘The Hurt Locker’ is a perfect example. We saw that at the Vickers last summer when hardly anyone had seen it and now it just won the Academy Award.”

The Vickers has been lauded both locally and nationally for showcasing independent films, foreign films and films that make you think. The couple has screened silent films, documentaries, foreign language films, classics as well as the works of contemporary directors such as Gus Van Sant, John Sayles, Patrice LeConte and the Dardenne Brothers. It’s a formula that not only filled a cinematic void, but has cultivated a very dedicated following.

“If we’re showing ‘Avatar’ and someone lives in South Bend, they’re going to see it in South Bend,” Jennifer Vickers says. “But if you open something different that they can’t see anywhere else, they’re going to drive to Three Oaks. There are people who come here every Thursday who don’t even know what’s showing. They ask, ‘So what are we seeing tonight?’ when they get here.”

The decision to leave what they call “a labor of love” wasn’t an easy one. When Indiana University first approached Jon Vickers about the position he agreed to interview, simply to go through the experience.

“Because I had worked in my family’s business and we opened the theater on our own, I had only really had two interviews in my life, so I thought it would be a good experience for me to go through,” Jon Vickers says. “When it came down to a final four, we knew it was more serious than that.”

Jon Vickers says his new position will include transforming the school’s 1930s-era University Theatre into a THX-certified cinema. Only three college campuses in the United States have the elite designation, which was developed by legendary filmmaker George Lucas, including Notre Dame’s Browning Cinema. Jon Vickers also will be able to build the cinema program from scratch.

“(Indiana University) wants to have the best screening room in the Midwest, and THX certification is just part of that,” Jon Vickers says. “The priority they’ve given to building a cinema program made it feel like they wanted to be something special. It seemed like something new, exciting and a little scary. It was absolutely the most difficult decision I’ve ever made in my life. What it really came down to is the kids just fell in love with Bloomington. They really wanted to go on this adventure.”

Although Jon and Jennifer Vickers have not yet listed the theater for sale, they have already gotten inquiries from a number of potential owners.

“We’ve had people inquire about (buying) the theater almost every other day,” Jennifer Vickers says. “We have people looking, but nothing is concrete yet. It will take somebody who loves film and who likes being around people. It’s a niche, but we hope there are people out there who would love taking over something like this.”

While the theater may, in fact, continue, many people in the community are just beginning to mourn the loss of the Vickers family.

“They created an art-house cinema in an area where you wouldn’t expect it, and curate the space to bring some of the best cinema in the world to a small town,” Acorn Theater owner David Fink says. “Not only do they have great vision, they have the ability to bring their dreams to life, and we all benefit from that talent.”

“Jon and Jennifer’s presence in the community has been much more than the theater,” Meister adds. “The theater may go on, but it’s still a significant loss.”

Leaving that kind of loyalty behind isn’t lost on Jon and Jennifer Vickers, but the opportunity at IU, Jon says, “was once in a lifetime.”

“The greatest gift that people have given us is the friendships we’ve made here,” Jon Vickers says. “Most of, no, all of our closest and dearest friends we’ve met in this theater. That’s something we just can’t replace.”

jbonfiglio@TheH-P