WARNING: Character histories may contain spoilers!
Kurt BollingerPosition: Shift Manager
Birthdate: October 26, 1986
First Appearance: Multiplex #1
SHOW HISTORY
Kurt has worked at the Multiplex 10 since he was 16. He can swing a mean broomstick, and he has a bit of a competetive streak. One of Kurt's chief interests is special effects — particularly practical and make-up effects for horror movies. Kurt does the make-up and splatter for the gang's practical jokes. Although he has a juvenile sense of humor which rubs off on those around him, Kurt takes his job seriously and was often seen filling in for the largely absent management, when he was a shift supervisor.
He is Melissa’s boyfriend and perhaps the only person who likes Jason because of, not in spite of, his often difficult personality. After Jason quit in the fall of 2007, Kurt was sad, but he got by with a little help from his friends.
Six months later, one of the assistant manager positions opened up, and both Neil and Kurt were bumped up, with Kurt taking Neil's old shift manager slot and Jason being rehired to fill Kurt's shift supervisor position.
More recently, Kurt and Melissa seemed to start arguing a lot, apparently stemming from Kurt saying that he didn't feel Jay working at the Multiplex was a good idea, because of his relationship with Becky — but it all, or most of it, at least, turned out to be a plot to convince Gretchen that Melissa and Jason were having an affair. (Gretchen took the bait and, as they hoped, printed the false story in The Multiplex Examiner, getting her fired as a result.)
Recently, Kurt has coerced Jason into helping him make a zombie movie set at the Multiplex 10 Cinemas.
Kurt studied Business Management at Columbia College part-time for a few years, but he dropped out without finishing his degree.
Diary of the Dead has replaced Land of the Dead on Kurt's Top Five Films list.
Jason AtwoodPosition: Shift Manager
Birthdate: November 7, 1986
First Appearance: Multiplex #3
Perpetually crabby Jason is half Filipino, half white, but proudly indentifies as Filipino when convenient, such as when he's cracking racist jokes — ironically, he claims, because of his mixed race and leftist politics.
In Summer 2006, Jason started dating fellow Multiplex 10 employee, Devina Trivedi. When Devi returned to school in the fall, they continued seeing each other long distance. Devi returned to the Multiplex 10 again, in the summer of 2007, but Devi and Jason had a rocky transition back to a same-city couple and soon broke up.
Shortly after, Jason confessed to Becky that he was in love with her and had been for some time. But when Becky didn't leave her boyfriend Jay, he quit. He worked several jobs, including a sub-par pizza joint called Pizzeria Paradiso after leaving the Multiplex, but seemed to get fired from each in quick succession. After a few weeks, he started hanging around the theater again to see free movies, but avoided running into Becky until Melissa confronted him about it.
Once Jason had started talking to Becky again, his resistance to coming back to the Multiplex 10 disappeared, and he asked for his old job back, but a shuffle-up in the Multiplex 10 management ended up with Jason taking over Kurt's shift supervisor position instead, with Kurt getting promoted to shift manager.
In the spring of 2008, Jason and Angie started dating, and despite a rocky beginning, she seemed to have somewhat of a calming effect on him. But after Jason dragged Angie into a second major argument about religion, the two broke up amicably.
Since then, Jason started dating Lydia, a fellow film snob and hair stylist at the neighboring Dye Another Day salon, but started hanging out with Devi again… not entirely platonically. Jason seemed to have some difficulty deciding what to do about Lydia, but eventually decided to call things off with Devi in order to see where things went with Lydia. "Fate" intervened in the form of Keith, however, when he shared with Lydia some… less than gentlemanly comments of Jason's he'd made early on in their relationship, and she dumped him.
Devi and Jason have remained close friends, however, occasionally hanging out or visiting classic movie theaters so she can photograph them. She gave Jason her old camera for Pancha Ganapati in 2009, in order to help foster his burgeoning interest in old theaters.
More recently, Jason struggled with a short-lived bout with caffeine addiction, but managed to kick the habit after a soul-baring conversation with Lizzie Stoner. Since then, he's been seen occasionally partaking of a much more benign substance, marijuana.
Shortly after Jillian (Jailbait) started at the Multiplex 10, she started gravitating towards Jason and eventually more or less told him that she had a crush on him, but Jason rebuffed her sort-of-advances because she was still only seventeen and his subordinate — but no sooner did she turn 18 and quit working at the theater in order to leave for school than she found her way onto his couch for a (PG-13) make-out session. After starting film school in California, though, Jillian found a steady boyfriend, and the two made an easy transition into a more platonic relationship.
In the last year or so, Jason begrudgingly helped Kurt develop his screenplay for a zombie movie that they are now filming. After Angie quit the production, Jason took the opportunity to replace her with Becky and do a major rewrite (largely of the last half of the film). The resulting film drew a mixed reaction from its audience, but the Multiplex gang (and even Norma!) seemed to enjoy it.
Upon seeing the completed film, Norma seemed to be convinced that Jason's handling of its production hinted at some newfound maturity and promoted him to shift manager — perhaps with a bit of lobbying from her daughter Monica, with whom Jason has become friends.
Jason had remained single for a long time, though he did try his hand at internet dating with little luck, but when a thinly veiled line in the zombie movie about his never-totally-forgotten love for Becky made her realize Jason's real feelings for her, she took action, and they've been together since.
The Lives of Others has replaced Fritz Lang's M on Jason's top five favorite films list. Jason graduated from Columbia College in Chicago with a Film Studies degree in Spring, 2011.
Becky BookmanPosition: Co-Lead Projectionist
Birthdate: March 13, 1987
First Appearance: Multiplex #5
Becky found her way to the Multiplex 10 by way of Melissa, her college roommate. She started as general staff before gravitating towards primarily working as a projectionist, because of her rapport with the projectors. Despite her scientific inclinations, Becky has a bit of a romantic streak, and especially loves Jane Austen.
Becky long harbored a crush for Jason before he started dating Devi in 2006. The following winter, she began seeing Jay from Flickhead Video, the video store two storefronts over in the strip mall the Multiplex 10 is in, but he broke up with her because he felt she was still in love with Jason. Soon after Devi and Jason broke up, he attempted to kiss Becky — on the anniversary of his first kiss with Devi, in the same location — infuriating Becky, who immediately went to Flickhead Video and asked Jay to give her another chance. Things seemed to be progressing well, as they became officially boyfriend/girlfriend.
But over time, Becky seemed to be more comfortable than in love. Taken by surprise when Jay proposed to her on Valentine's Day, Becky's reaction was… not what he had hoped, and the two split up.
Becky had a relatively brief, more or less physical relationship with the former lead singer of Whitey's band, Dominic. She stayed single for a long time, but when a thinly veiled line in the gang's zombie movie about Jason's never-totally-forgotten love for Becky finally made her realize his real feelings for her, she took action, and they've been together since.
Becky and Franklin were promoted to Co-Lead Projectionists in April 2010. Becky has a Master's of Education (K–12) degree and has been trying to find a position as a Science teacher. She has been substitute teaching since the fall of 2012, though, and only works at the Multiplex 10 part time now.
Melissa RecarPosition: Shift Manager
Birthdate: January 28, 1987
First Appearance: Multiplex #19
Melissa is Kurt's girlfriend (and as his girlfriend, she puts up with a lot). She is considerably smarter than Jason and has a younger sister. On the radio, Melissa uses the callsign “Racer Aslyum,” a modified version of her name spelled backwards.
Generally patient with the boys, despite their (lack of) maturity, she occasionally has to dole out some tough love. But after Kurt finally succeeded in scaring Melissa with one of his pranks (for the first time in over three years), she finally broke down and embarked on a campaign to get him back…
In early 2009, Kurt and Melissa seemed to start arguing a lot, apparently stemming from Kurt saying that he didn't feel Jay working at the Multiplex was a good idea, because of his relationship with Becky — but it all, or most of it, at least, turned out to be a plot to convince Gretchen that Melissa and Jason were having an affair. (Gretchen took the bait and, as they hoped, printing the false story in The Multiplex Examiner, getting her fired as a result.)
After serving as Lead Concessionist for a year, Melissa was promoted to Shift Manager in Summer, 2011.
Franklin OnassisPosition: Co-Lead Projectionist
Birthdate: December 9, 1988
First Appearance: Multiplex #21
Franklin is a Computer Science major, with a Computer Information Science minor. He is also somewhat of a video game junkie. On the radio, he uses the callsign “Black Panther.” Franklin was very excited to be trained as a projectionist, in the advent of a digital projection system being installed at the Multiplex 10.
Recently, Franklin began organizing video game matches between the Multiplex staff and the Flickhead Video staff, but after Gretchen published a story about their Football 09 tournament against Flickhead Video, Franklin was fired and told that the Multiplex 10 was withholding his final paycheck because they viewed his improper use of the digital projects as "theft" (because the ordinarily Multiplex 10 rents out theaters for video gameplay).
But Allen was lying, and in fact simply wanted to illegally withhold Franklin's last paycheck so that he could pocket it himself. Neil, however, sicced the local projectionist's union on him and managed to secure Franklin his last check after all.
Neil also uncovered that Allen had filed a different termination form with corporate, which stated that Franklin was dismissed for insubordination, not theft, so that they wouldn't scrutinize Franklin's termination. Neil used this to his advantage by requesting a copy of the more benign form and replacing the copy in the Multiplex 10's files. Because no one at corporate was aware that Franklin was supposedly fired for theft, he was considered eligible for rehire — so once Allen was let go, Franklin was safe to come back home to the Multiplex.
Apparently, Franklin played a lot of MMO's while he was unemployed.
Although Franklin is usually quite the ladies' man, his attempts to woo Multiplex 10 newcomer Ariela were remarkably futile. Eventually, we learned that she was involved in some capacity with both Whitey and the assistant manager Max, a situation which blew up in her face and prompted her to quit.
Becky and Franklin were promoted to Co-Lead Projectionists in April 2010.
Letizia (“Tease”) WilliamsPosition: Staff (usher, concessionist, cashier)
First Appearance: Multiplex #517
Jillian and Letizia (a.k.a. Jailbait and Tease) both attended the same local high school until they graduated in the Spring, 2011. They are collectively referred to as The Twins.
Letizia once joked to Rookie that she was called "Tease" because she kids around a lot, and while that's true, it's not why they call her that.
Neil OrtizPosition: Assistant Manager
Birthdate: April 30, 1984
First Appearance: Multiplex #50
Neil is openly gay, Puerto Rican, and wears a red AIDS ribbon lapel pin. He is known to have worked at the Multiplex 10 since before he was 20. Neil was promoted to assistant manager in March, 2008.
