New Brunswick PAC opens Sept. 4
September 3, 2019
Bob Makin
Courier News
To New Brunswick Development Corp. President Christopher J. Paladino, the city’s arts-driven cultural rebirth and economic growth was like an unfinished symphony.
On Sept. 5 when the $64-million New Brunswick Performing Arts Center (NBPAC) opens to the public to the first time with a 4 p.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony and then Crossroads Theatre Co.’s production of “Paul Robeson,” that masterpiece will be completed, he said.
“The arts always have been central to the revitalization of New Brunswick going back to the purchase and renovation of the State Theatre,” Paladino said. “If you follow the history, George Street (Playhouse) started off in a grocery store on George Street and moved into a renovated YMCA. Crossroads was in the King Block building on what was then Memorial Parkway and now is Route 18 and moved to a new building in the 1980s. This was the next logical step.”
Like George Street and Crossroads, DEVCO, the city’s nonprofit redevelopment agency, was founded in the mid-1970s. Paladino has led the organization for half that time, overseeing $1.6 billion in redevelopment.
He said he expects the arts center to pay for itself in less than three seasons by bringing more than $25 million into the city annually. The state-of-the-art venue already has grown the four resident companies’ performance schedules and will grow their audiences, Paladino said. In addition to George Street Playhouse and Crossroads, the resident companies are American Repertory Ballet and Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts.
Stage technology in the 463-seat Elizabeth Ross Johnson Theater and 259-seat Arthur Laurents Theater, as well as three massive rehearsal spaces, will allow for more productions, Paladino said. While resident companies rehearse in stage-size, well-equipped spaces, the venue can present non-company productions.
“What we tried to do is to create more performances for our resident companies and grow and diversify their audiences and let that be a part of the New Brunswick revitalization story,” he said. “We were determined to do that by creating state-of-the-art facilities for the resident companies — which we are so fortunate to have in the city — and let them help grow the economy by bringing larger audiences to the city. We had to bring Mason Gross downtown to have Rutgers be part of the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center community and not isolated on the Douglass Campus, allowing not only to grow their audience, but for us to help Rutgers give more opportunity to their students, faculty and staff to work in a professional environment.”
“In the first season, we’re going to go from 210 performances that George Street and Crossroads did to nearly 340, and that possibly may grow to 360,” Paladino continued. “We have an 80-foot fly in the Johnson Theater so that if there’s no George Street performance on a Monday night, we can fly the scenery and use the 38 traps to move them to do a jazz or comedy performance or a classical quartet or a lecture series. We made the facilities so that they are more versatile. We have the Chinese Symphony coming in and an Indian dance company. We have popular music, such as The Best of The Eagles.”
The theaters will share a lobby to encourage word-of-mouth between audiences about productions, Paladino said.
He said was one of his favorite aspects of the venue is that it purposely was designed with large windows that overlook Livingston Avenue in a transparent way that will “energize the street.”
He explained, “If you’re coming out of the Heldrich (Hotel) or are pulling up to the valet parking or sitting in Monument Park looking at the building, you’ll know it’s a performing arts center because you’ll see two floors of people rehearsing. They will be able to see ballet dancers or someone rehearsing a piano part or people doing a table reading.”
“We hired first-class designers and top-line theater consultants,” Paladino continued. “I remember a four-hour argument about the sound system we purchased. I tried to get a cheaper one, but the artists and professionals always carried the day in this project. I learned not to be pennywise and pound foolish. When we made decisions, it was always erring to the side of the arts.”
‘Crossroads’ Act III’
Paladino’s excitement is matched by those of the resident companies, all of which will have offices at the new venue.
For Crossroads, NBPAC is the third of three acts, Artistic Director Marshall Jones said.
“Act I of Crossroads Theatre Co. began in 1978 in a sewing factory on Memorial Parkway in New Brunswick that was retrofitted with a stage and about 120 seats,” Jones said. “Act II was our second home on Livingston Avenue along Theatre Row, a new building we moved into in 1985 that accommodated our growing audience, needs and repertoire. When the opening of NBPAC is celebrated, the curtain will rise for Crossroads’ Act III.”
Tony-winning Crossroads will kick things off with “Paul Robeson,” Phillip Hayes Dean’s look at the life of the legendary Rutgers-educated activist, athlete, actor and singer. Starring veteran Broadway performer Nathaniel Stampley (“Lion King,” “The Color Purple”) in the title role, “Paul Robeson” will run Sept. 5 to 15 in the Arthur Laurents Theater.
Crossroads’ season will continue with a multi-cultural musical version of “A Christmas Carol,” Dec. 5 to 15; Genesis Festival of Plays in February, and the world premiere of the civil rights saga “Freedom Rider,” co-written and directed by the company’s co-founder Ricardo Khan, April 9 to 19. On Oct. 19, “A Night with Crossroads” gala will honor Tony- and Oscar-winner Denzel Washington with a reception at NBPAC, as well as across the street at The Heldrich hotel, plus performances next door to the arts center at the State Theatre.
“Crossroads has been a part of the fabric of New Brunswick’s arts, entertainment, cultural and business communities for over 40 years,” said Anthony P. Carter, president of the company’s board of trustees. “When we came on the scene, the city’s backdrop and landscape were very different, and the city was becoming more diverse. Crossroads was a beacon, lighting the way illuminating stories of the African diaspora.”
“It was truly a stroke of genius to design a state-of-the art performance space to be the home of four member companies,” Carter continued. “It’s the hardware and software together. The trajectory of arts and culture with economic and housing development is positioning New Brunswick to soar to new heights and be a model for urban development throughout our country… NBPAC is the culmination of many dreams, a convergence of cultural, social and business imperatives of the city Crossroads Theatre Co. calls home and the burgeoning diversity of New Brunswick, our region, state and country.”
‘Having a home’
American Repertory Ballet’s season will commence with “New Heights” from Sept. 20 to 22. The program will open with former American Repertory Ballet Artistic Director Septime Webre’s “Fluctuating Hemlines,” set to a percussion score by Robert “Tigger” Benford that explores the animalistic side of human nature. Webre now is artistic director of Hong Kong Ballet. His work will be staged alongside
Ethan Stiefel’s “Overture,” set to music by Beethoven; the world premiere of Riccardo De Nigris’ latest work, created specifically for the ballet company’s opening performance, and the late modern-dance giant Paul Taylor’s masterpiece “Airs.”
American Repertory Ballet Executive Director Julie Diana Hench said, “Having a home theater at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center enables us to provide dancers and audiences with more performances while increasing the diversity of the programming and community engagement. We are proud to be a founding resident company alongside our fellow arts organizations that will make this incredible new facility our home.”
Hench said American Repertory Ballet’s season reflects a breadth of our programming. From classical to contemporary to modern dance, there’s something for everyone, she said. At NBPAC, that will include the romantic classic “Giselle,” just in time for Valentine’s Day on Feb. 14 to 16; “Summer Series,” featuring three works, including Trey McIntyre’s Blue Until June set to the music of R&B great Etta James, June 5 to 7 and “New Voices: Works by Emerging Choreographers, June 12 and 13. American Repertory Ballet also will dance at the State Theatre, Newark Performing Arts Center, McCarter Theatre, Princeton, and more.
The first Mason Gross production at NBPAC will be Palissimo Co.’s “Custodians of Beauty, Sept. 13 and 14. The evening-length work by the company’s Bessie and Guggenheim award-winning founding artistic director, Pavel Zuštiak, examines beauty’s intrinsic relationship with art through minimalist movement, sensuous abstraction, and potent stage imagery.
“We are thrilled to welcome the community to our inaugural events at the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, which offers state-of-the-art performance space for our student-artists,” said Gerry Beegan, interim dean of Mason Gross School of the Arts. “We have hundreds of events on campus — and even a Rutgers in New York program — but now we can showcase our talented theater artists, musicians, dancers, and production designers in downtown New Brunswick. This inaugural season will feature jazz, classical, dance, film, opera, and theater. Rutgers’ investment in this landmark initiative emphasizes the importance of a thriving arts scene to New Brunswick’s sense of community and sense of pride.”
Other Mason Gross season highlights include Rutgers Symphony Orchestra, Sept. 28; Rutgers Theater Co. performing Kate Hamill’s adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility,” Oct. 4 to 12; Rutgers Jazz Ensemble, Oct. 18, and DancePlus featuring Rutgers faculty, Nov. 21 to 23.
‘Broadway Journey’
George Street Playhouse Artistic Director David Saint said, “This theater has been a dream long felt and held, and it’s finally happening because of a great public, private partnership between the city of New Brunswick, Mayor (James) Cahill, the county, the Middlesex County Freeholders, the state, Chris Paladino and DEVCO, and many others to make this finally happen. I can’t tell you how thrilling it is for me… For the past three or four years, I’ve worked with the architects in designing this space. I’m so proud that the architects and I realized that you need to have a theater practitioner helping you to design a space that is a theater… If you don’t have that input, you don’t know what’s important and what’s not.”
“This is the first time in 45 years that we are actually going to be performing in a center that was designed from the beginning to be a theater,” Saint continued. “And it makes a huge difference. George Street has always been a proponent of new work that can go on to New York and be produced around the country. We’ve had a great track record that way, and it’s only going to get bigger because now, for the first time, we have this building.”
Saint said that more Broadway producers are looking to New Brunswick Performing Arts Center to incubate and tour shows.
Paladino agreed.
“The hottest set designer in New York City is doing their first show,” he said. “Their two musicals, the first and last shows, are going to Broadway. You’re going to see more of that. Shows that may have been in Seattle or Toronto or Washington are going to come here. New Brunswick is going to be part of that journey to Broadway.”
Broadway bound are the nostalgic baseball-themed “Last Days of Summer,” based on the best–selling novel by Steve Kluger, directed by Tony Award nominee Jeff Calhoun (“Newsies”), starring Teal Wicks, following her lead performance in Broadway’s “The Cher Show” and featuring music by Grammy-winner Jason Howland (“Little Women”). “Last Days of Summer” will run Oct. 15 to Nov. 10 in the Johnson Theater.
Also headed to the Great White Way is the season-closing “A Walk on the Moon,” a new musical with music and lyrics by Paul Scott Goodman and book by Pamela Gray, based on her acclaimed 1999 motion picture starring Diane Lane and Viggo Mortensen. The musical recaptures the affair between a mother and housewife longing for adventure and a free-spirited traveling salesman while she summers in the Catskills with her family. Their whirlwind romance is set in the summer of 1969 to the iconic backdrop of the Woodstock music festival and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s first steps on the moon. The run will be April 21 through May 17 in the Johnson Theater.
In between, George Street will present in the Arthur Laurents Theater the Lucille Lortel Award-nominated “My Life on a Diet,” an autobiographical comedy by Renée Taylor, Oscar nominee and Emmy winner known for her role in “The Nanny,” Nov. 19 through Dec. 15; “Midwives,” a world-premiere thriller based on the book-turned-film of the same name by Chris Bohjalian, Jan. 21 to Feb. 16, and Playhouse mainstay Joe DiPietro’s “Conscience,” a world-premiere historical drama set during the American Red Scare of the 1950s, March 3 to 29. DiPietro’s previous George Street premieres include the Outer Critics’ Circle Best Musical Award-winning “The Toxic Avenger” and the Off Broadway-bound “Clever Little Lies.”
“Each piece has something really special about it … created by award-winning, top-of-the-line American theater artists,” Saint said.
Non-company productions at NBPAC will include New Brunswick Jazz Project’s 125th birthday celebration for city-born stride piano great James P. Johnson, composer of “The Charleston” and other Golden Age of Jazz hits, on Sept. 8; Best of The Eagles, Nov. 14, and Hub City Jazz Festival, Nov. 16.
Michael Tublin of New Brunswick Jazz Project, one of the organizers of Central Jersey Jazz Festival Sept. 13 to 15 in Flemington, New Brunswick and Somerville, said the organization was thrilled to be the first non-company to present at the new state-of-the-art venue.
“We had talks early in the building phase of the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center with DEVCO to discuss ways that NBJP could be involved in presenting there,” Tublin said. “We look forward to a long and jazzy relationship with them.”
Paladino added, “The building is just the next step that makes New Brunswick on par and maybe exceeds any city that we can compare to. I don’t think another small city of 65,000 people in America has this type of performing arts center.”
What you can do
New Brunswick Performing Arts Center, 11 Livingston Ave., will celebrate its opening at 4 p.m. on Sept. 5 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony followed by the season-opening production of “Robeson” by Crossroads Theatre Co. An invitation-only event will precede that from 6 to 9 p.m. on Sept. 4. For more information about NBPAC, call 732-249-2220 or click nbpac.org/.
For more about Crossroads Theatre Co. and “Robeson,” visit crossroadstheatrecompany.org/. Virtually visit George Street Playhouse at georgestreetplayhouse.org. American Repertory Ballet’s online home is arballet.org. And for Mason Gross School of the Arts, check out masongross.rutgers.edu/.
