Live in Concert: Electronic synth musician John Scott Shepherd brings the cosmos to The Platform at the Elk Rapids Cinema with live visuals by Traverse City’s Super Nuclear — Proceeds Benefit Roof Capital Campaign.

ELK RAPIDS, MI — culturematters.org presents John Scott Shepherd live in concert , a one-night-only convergence of story, sound, and light, taking place Thursday, October 1, 2026 on The Platform at the Chalfonte Theatre — home also to Elk Rapids Cinema and Village Radio. The show starts at 7pm and doors will open at 6pm with drinks and concessions available. All proceeds are committed back to the Chalfonte Foundation's Roof Capital Campaign. Tickets are $20 in advance / $25 at the door. The Roof Capital Campaign is a multi-year effort to repair and restore the roof of the historic Chalfonte Theatre — ensuring the building that has hosted this community's stories for generations can keep doing so for generations to come.

"There's something fitting about this lineup landing at the Cinema," said Aaron Timlin, President & CEO of the Chalfonte Foundation. "Phil Sgriccia got his start as a teenage projectionist right here at our own Elk Rapids Cinema. John Shepherd spent thirty years turning a barn into a transmitter aimed at the stars. Between them, and with Super Nuclear's visuals and Will Thomas holding the rhythm, this night is really about what it takes to keep reaching — toward an audience, toward the unknown, toward each other. That's exactly what this campaign is about too: keeping the roof over our heads so the reaching can continue."

The Lineup

John Shepherd is the founder of Project S.T.R.A.T. (Special Telemetry Research And Tracking), a self-built, decades-spanning effort to broadcast music and signals into deep space in search of extraterrestrial contact. Beginning in 1972 at age 21, Shepherd hand-built radio transmitters and electronic equipment that eventually filled over 100 square meters of his family's rural Michigan property. His story is the subject of the Netflix documentary short John Was Trying to Contact Aliens, directed by Matthew Killip, which follows Shepherd's search and its unexpected turn toward a different kind of connection — one made here on Earth. At Heaven & Earth, Shepherd brings his ambient, electronic compositions to the stage.

Super Nuclear (Matthew Stafford) creates bold, colorful, real-time projection and video art rooted in psychedelic liquid light shows and analog video synth traditions. Since debuting at California's Desert Daze festival in 2018, Stafford — also a tattoo artist and painter — has built a distinctive visual language that has accompanied acts ranging from longtime collaborator Billy Strings to intimate northern Michigan venues, which remain among his most rewarding stages.

Will Thomas is a Traverse City-based drummer currently performing with Sosohifi, Slow Spell, and Metal Bubble Trio. He’s had the pleasure of performing on some of the area’s most storied stages including the City Opera House, Milliken Auditorium, and The Garden Theatre. After decades of spending time in Elk Rapids,Thomas is excited to play the Elk Rapids Cinema for the first time. He is also a DJ on 90.7 WNMC.

Presented By 

Phil Sgriccia is a director, producer, and editor whose credits include Amazon Prime's The Boys and Gen V, Peacock's Twisted Metal, and fourteen seasons of The CW's Supernatural. Long before Hollywood, Sgriccia ran the cable television station out of his own Elk Rapids High School and worked as a projectionist right here at Elk Rapids Cinema — an early apprenticeship in the craft of holding a room's attention that carried him from Central Michigan University into a decades-long career shaping some of television's most enduring genre storytelling.  

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Event Details

• What: John Scott Shepherd live w/ visuals by Super Nuclear — a night of story, sound, and live visual art

• When: Thursday, October 1, 2026. Show: 7pm  Doors: 6pm

• Where: The Platform at the Elk Rapids Cinema (Chalfonte Theatre), Elk Rapids, Michigan

• Tickets: $20 in advance / $25 at the door

• Seating: Seated General Admission

• Benefits: The Chalfonte Foundation's Roof Capital Campaign for the Elk Rapids Cinema

• About the Roof Capital Campaign

The Chalfonte Foundation's multi-year Roof Capital Campaign is raising funds to repair and restore the roof of the historic Elk Rapids Cinema, preserving the building as a year-round home for film, radio, music, and community gathering in downtown Elk Rapids.