Smalltown Survivors

A tale of life, love and cultural revival in an old mill town.

By: Hank Kalet

"Gerry

TimeOFF/Hank


Kalet

Gerry


Appel is the driving force behind the success of the Brook Arts Center in
Bound Brook..


   This is a story about Bound Brook, a theater called the Brook
and its production of Thornton Wilder’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Our Town.
   Bound Brook is a 1.6-square-mile borough in Somerset County,
home to nearly 11,000 people. Founded in 1681 along the Raritan River, it has
been an industrial community for much of its history, home to mills and factories.
   Like many American industrial communities, Bound Brook has had
its difficult times, surviving through recessions and floods, the latest of which
— the 1999 flood caused by Hurricane Floyd — did more than $77 million
in damage to businesses and homes.
   "This is a community of survivors," says Gerry Appel, executive
director of the Brook Arts Center on Hamilton Street in Bound Brook.
   Mr. Appel should know. The Brook Arts Center, housed in the
76-year-old Brook Theatre, has not only been surviving but thriving, despite holding
productions in its lobby while the main stage and theater area undergo several
million dollars in renovations.
   Its latest production is Our Town, Thornton Wilder’s
story of life, love and death in the small New Hampshire town of Grover’s Corners
at the dawn of the 20th century. Directed by Randall McCann, it stars Jeff Price
and Allison Ward as childhood sweethearts George and Emily, and features Dennis
Farrelly as the Stage Manager who narrates the play and offers background on the
town and its residents.
   Mr. Appel, who plays George’s father, Dr. Gibbs, says Bound
Brook plays a role in the Brook’s production of Our Town by standing in
for Grover’s Corners. As he walks along a Main Street lined with shops and restaurants,
he discusses the borough’s redevelopment following Hurricane Floyd and talks of
his hope for its revitalization as a cultural district full of performance spaces
and restaurants.
   He points to the red-brick Voorhees Building, built in 1881
on the northern side of Main Street. There is performance space on the upper floors,
while on the street level there is a restaurant, a hair stylist, a nail salon
and video rentals.
   Across the street is the old train station, built at the turn
of the 20th century. It has been converted into a restaurant — George’s Station
Restaurant. Trains still run along the Raritan Valley Line, stopping at what is
now a small depot behind the restaurant.
   The Brook Theatre is visible from the steps of the old station,
about a half-block down Hamilton Street. It was built in 1926 and opened in January
1927 with a bill that featured "Special Vaudeville, the best that can be obtained,"
and The Lunatic at Large, a film featuring Leon Errol, Dorothy Mackaill
and Kenneth MacKenna.
   "Spaces like that are great to revitalize," he says. "I could
see turning this whole area of the community into a cultural district."

"Michael

Michael Jenkins (foreground) and Dennis Farrelly (background) star in Our Town, running through May 24 at the Brook Arts Center in Bound Brook.


   Over the years, the theater offered a mix of entertainment ranging
from movies to music but by the mid-1990s it was primarily a single-screen theater
that was not being used to its full potential, Mr. Appel says.
   "I was managing counseling agencies but I really wanted to create
a theater in Bound Brook," he says. "Someone suggested that I check out the theater
and I fell in love with the place." He created a nonprofit group — the Brook
Arts Center — and began working toward the purchase of the building.
   Then came Hurricane Floyd. The Brook Theatre, like most of the
town, was under water. There is still a line along the wall above the stage in
the theater that shows how high the floodwaters rose — about 10 feet.
   "I figured it was over," he says. "But then I found there was
more of a need for this after the flood. It no longer was an additional benefit
to the community. It was necessary to help bring people back into the community."
   So far, the Brook Arts Center has raised about $3.2 million
toward the purchase and renovation of the building, including a $600,000 low-interest
loan from the state Community Development Loan Fund. "If the theater gods smile
on us," says Mr. Appel, the sale and renovation could be finished by the end of
2004.
   He is hoping to open with a seating capacity of 450 (the theater
has had a 900-seat capacity in the past) with the back half of the theater being
used for café seating during intermission, art exhibits, corporate functions
and other events.
   Once complete, Mr. Appel conceives of the Brook Arts Center
as an "arts incubator" that can be home to an assortment of artistic endeavors
and will bring young artists together with their more experienced colleagues.
The Garden State Theater Organ Society has been working with the Brook Arts Center
to refurbish a Wurlitzer theater organ that will be housed at the theater, and
Mr. Appel expects to show films, offer concerts and other events, as well as continue
to produce live theater.
   In the meantime, the Brook is hosting productions in its lobby.
While that might seem to present some difficulties, Mr. Appel prefers to see them
as challenges that can be overcome.
   "I like looking at the space and asking, ‘How can I turn it
into a performance space?’" he says. The productions keep the Brook Arts Center
going and keep people thinking of the Brook as a theater, he says. And they offer
a chance to build an audience.
   "We get a chance to see what the people will come to see in
this area," he says. "An audience has to find you and be motivated to come."
   For Our Town, the stage is located in front of the entrance
to the main theater with a black curtain hiding the doorway. The audience is seated
across from the curtain and to the sides. During previous productions, the configuration
had been reversed.
   The new configuration offers more options, says Director Randall
McCann.
   "I’ve got 24 people going in and out, and there are six different
ways for them to come in," he says.
   Mr. McCann is a huge fan of the Wilder play.
   "I read it freshman year of high school," he says. "I called
every bookstore in New Jersey and I made my brother drive me to Cranford (from
South Plainfield) to buy a copy."
   He likes that the play — which opened in 1938 at McCarter
Theatre in Princeton — has a lot of smaller parts that, when handled by talented
actors, can turn out to be as memorable as the main roles.
   "It has its own philosophy and theology," he says. "And it also
is vague enough so that if five people see it they will have five different takes
on it."
Our Town plays at the Brook Arts Center, 10 Hamilton St., Bound Brook, through
May 24. Performances: Fri.-Sat 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. Tickets cost $15, $13 seniors
and students. For information, call (732) 469-7700. On the Web: www.brookarts.org