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Two River Theater (Exterior) |
By Linda
McK. Stewart
When can Off
Off (as in Broadway) turn out to be Right On? In Red Bank NJ, just 46
miles from Broadway, perched on the southern bank of the Navesink River,
a great many theater lovers are in a Right On frame of mind. Their rosy
outlook stems from the fact that, after ten years of wandering in the
wilderness, at long last the Two River Theater Company has a home of its
own. And what a home it is!
The original plan called for acquiring an abandoned warehouse
or a turn-of-the century factory that would lend itself to conversion.
When all such efforts failed the selected alternative was a lumberyard,
fortuitously situated only five minutes from the Red Bank's NJ Transit
railroad station. Here on a 10-acre site, Hardy, Holzman and Pfeiffer
Associates, have achieved a small architectural gem, already being favorably
compared to such HHP triumphs, as New York's Joyce Theater, the Brooklyn
Academy of Music Opera House, Boston's Paramount Center and the Minneapolis
Orchestra Hall. At a cost of $15-million, the Two River Theater provides
43,000 square feet of uncluttered, stylish design. The lobby, separated from the street by a glass wall, features
a lofty, undulating ceiling 40 feet high. Wide doorways open from the
lobby into the performance area where a removable thrust stage is surrounded
by 349 comfortably proportioned seats, arranged in a trio of curved tiers,
no seat more than 36 feet from the stage. A smaller secondary area accommodates
readings, workshops, small productions. Generous space is provided for
props, wardrobe, storage, dressing rooms and state-of-the-art sound and
light equipment. All areas
used by performers, technicians and audience are wheelchair accessible,
including even the backstage showers. It's a beautifully designed, self
contained performing arts complex which is making Red Bank, a community
of just under 12,000, the envy of many considerably larger towns. Operating under Actors' Equity Association's standard Small
Professional Theater contract, the Two River Theater Company functions
as a non-profit corporation. As such it is eligible for support from a
host of generously funded foundations.
The New York Times calls it "…one of New Jersey's best new theaters."
Critic Bob Rendell of "Talkin' Broadway", pronounced the new
theater "exceptionally beautiful", adding that it could well
"revitalize…the entire New Jersey theater scene."
Such generous pronouncements must strike Bob Rechnitz, founder,
executive producer and patron saint of the Two River Theater Company,
as too modest by half. Having founded the company in 1994, he has expended
boundless energy to keep it afloat, going, hat (and wallet) in hand to
negotiate appropriate performance space for the more than 40 productions
TRTC has put on since its inception. Its credits run the gamut from Shaw, Pinter
and Ibsen to Wasserstein, Mamet and Orton. For the Two River Theater Company
to finally drop anchor in a theater of its very own, must seem to Bob
Rechnitz like the proverbial dream come true. Standing in the light-flooded theater lobby, he speaks of what
lies ahead with infectious exuberance. "We want to develop a society in which everybody is as
interested in what's going on in the theater world as they are in the
sports world."
How tempting to write Rechnitz off as a hopeless visionary,
a man quite out of touch with the budgetary woes by which so many American
towns and cities are beset. As recently as mid-July, Michael Gennaro,
president and executive producer of the Paper Mill Playhouse in Millburn,
NJ, a mere 40 miles from Red Bank, said of attendance in the Playhouse,
"…at the end of day, not enough people are coming."
Rechnitz is unfazed. In assessing his boundless optimism a
listener does well to keep in mind that this is a man who devoted more
than three decades to teaching American literature to college students
in Colorado and on the east coast. His is a track record that he believes has endowed
him with a powerful sense of what the public, and especially the public
under 45, are seeking in the world of the arts.
Fortunately Rechnitz can look to some hefty local support. His
wife, Joan, Associate Producer, is unstinting in her support of her husband's
plans for the future. Singer and songwriter Jon Bon Jovi, a near
neighbor of Joan and Bob Rechnitz, has, with his wife, Dorothea, been
a vocal and generous supporter of the Two River Theater. This summer he
gave a sold-out, two-hour, fund-raising performance at the Two River Theater,
not the first nor the last of his efforts on behalf of the theater, which
is all but in his back yard. His newest album, "Have a Nice Day"
will go on sale September 20.
Bon Jovi's loyal support of TRT is shared by yet another local
resident. Bruce Springsteen, whose roots are planted deep in New Jersey's
sandy soil, signaled his support for TRT by contributing an autographed
electric guitar, which was auctioned off during a TRT fund-raiser. And
when he was shown the completed facility, he promptly opted to make use
of its superb electronics. Before an Invitation Only audience, in April
"The Boss" gave a two-hour performance that was taped for Columbia
Music Video. Entitled VH1 Storytellers, it features Springsteen accompanying
himself on piano, guitar and harmonica. Advance
word of the occasion brought a welcome horde of TV, radio and print reporters
to the brand new Red Bank site.
Surveying the future of the Two River Theater Company, Bob
Rechnitz positively brims with energy. High on his Will-Do List is his
determination to double the list of annual subscribers to 2400 and to
expand the company's already vigorous instructional programs for students
at all levels from elementary up through college. The Autumn-2005 season
kicks off September 22 with an American adaptation of the 1964 French
film Umbrellas of Cherbourg. The production will feature a haunting
jazz score offered by an 8-piece orchestra, the lead role being sung by
Maureen Silliman, a veteran of Broadway and a member of the Two River
Theater Company. It's an ambitious undertaking, scheduled to run for 16
performances through October 9. The rest of the season's slate includes
Visiting Mr. Green which was an off-Broadway hit, All My Sons by Arthur Miller and a Joe Orton farce What the
Butler Saw.
Of special interest to local…and (it is hoped) not-so-local
theater enthusiasts is the upcoming Samuel Beckett Festival March 16 -
April 8, 2006. This theatrical plum was originally scheduled to take place
at Lincoln Center in celebration of the Nobel Prize Laureate's centennial.
When complications caused a reluctant withdrawal by Lincoln Center, Bob
Rechnitz was on the doorstep to snag the event for TRTC. The Festival
opens with the classic Waiting for Godot, which Rechnitz sums up as "high
wit, poetic feats and heartbreaking poignancy."
Taking the artistic pulse of the surrounding area from which
the Two River Theater draws its audience is, at best, a tricky undertaking.
Its cultural antecedents stretch from the acerbic author and literary
critic Edmund Wilson to Count Basie, legendary Jazz musician, both born
in Red Bank. Once a seriously industrialized area with commercial river
traffic to and from the New York waterfront, the town has in the last
several decades, taken on a more genteel hue with distinct aspirations
of "cool". Good schools, several colleges and universities, a thriving
retail-and-restaurant sector, some impressive residential expanses all
combined with a rapidly expanding minority population make for a heady
intellectual mix. Some might say "daunting". Bob Rechnitz would
say, "inspirational".
Certainly when the opening curtain rises September 22 at the
brand new Two River Theater, it will be to the thunderous applause of
a host of theater lovers who are fully convinced that Bob Rechnitz is
indeed, Right On.