New and original productions thrive at The New Jersey Repertory Theater in Long Branch

By:  | August 15, 2024 |  Features |  Monmouth County

Photo by Andrea Phox

By LiliAnn Paras

“There’s always magic in the air, on Broadway,” proclaims the famous song about making it in New York. How fitting it is that 179 Broadway, in Long Branch, is home to the New Jersey Repertory Theater (NJ Rep). Established by SuZanne and Gabor Barabas, it has been working its magic there for more than 27 years. Even their own story is somewhat magical. Gabor was born in Hungary and escaped with his parents to America at the age of eight during the Hungarian Revolution against the Soviet Union. The couple later met during junior high school at a Halloween party. Gabor enjoyed a long career as a local pediatric neurologist and SuZanne is an accomplished actor, writer, and director. Together they became a catalyst for the revitalization of Long Branch and the surrounding areas.

Just what is the magic of NJ Rep? For a start, it is an intimate venue, where there is not a bad seat among the 60 choices. There is no hassle with secondary ticket handlers, no tacked-on charges, and, no idea where you are sitting until you check in! (Note: companions are seated together.) The magic continues to manifest through Gabor’s legendary introductions before each show. His warmth, humor, and deep appreciation for the story about to unfold enhance the experience, leaving the audience with a sense of anticipation for what is about to transpire on stage.

Audiences will soon discover that at this non-profit “Broadway theater”, the shows are unique, and often twice as good and a third of the cost of shows in New York. The New York Times described NJ Rep as “a godsend to audiences and, especially, playwrights – a skillful, professional ensemble dedicated solely to performing new works. It is nearly impossible to overpraise the importance of its mission at a time when play-it-safe productions are the norm.” 

The dedicated founders recently shared with CM their diverse backgrounds, how the theater came to be, and what’s in store.

Community Magazine: What sparked your interest in theater?

SuzAnne: My love for theater began when I was very young. All the arts were encouraged in our home. In junior high school I had an English teacher whose weekly assignment was for her students to read the theater section of the New York Times every Sunday. We had to find the Ninas hidden in the Hirschfeld drawings, and we also had to read and report on an article. It was then that I started to go into New York City to see live theater.

Gabor: I had no real involvement with theater until SuzAnne took me to see my first play.

CM: What was your early involvement in the theater world, before establishing NJ Rep?

S: Gabor and I married while I was attending Brooklyn College and majoring in Theater and he was at NYU in the pre-med program. We moved to Cincinnati where he entered medical school and I started the Cincinnati Repertory Company and the Cincinnati Children’s Repertory Company. From there we moved to Philadelphia where he trained in Pediatric Neurology and I graduated from Villanova with a major in Theater. I also formed ART of Philadelphia that produced plays for adults and Peanut Butter Theater, a luncheon theater for children that produced new musicals.

CM: What inspired you to start NJ Rep?

G: We started our theater 27 years ago when we became aware that a young couple, Margaret and David Lumia, were planning to donate their old abandoned industrial building to a nonprofit that could do the most to revitalize the community. The building was surrounded by boarded up buildings and very few ventured into the area at nighttime. The Lumias had entertained various possibilities and were interviewing candidates ranging from social agencies, community health programs, and religious organizations seeking a home.

CM: What convinced the Lumias to choose your theater concept?

G: We proposed that a theater would have the best chance of attracting visitors and patrons from outside the community into an area that had very few businesses, hardly any foot traffic, and was struggling economically.

CM: Once chosen for the space, what were the next steps?

G: In the first 18 months we raised $300,000 to renovate the building from a boarded up industrial building to an intimate 60-seat art deco theater. It was very challenging in the beginning and we were the only ones open after dark on lower Broadway, but gradually over three years we started to light up the neighborhood, attracting audiences from throughout not only Monmouth County but the entire state.  Our first play, Ends, by David Alex, opened two years from the time of acquisition and we have been producing new works twelve months a year ever since. Our intimate little boutique theater is now recognized nationally as a leading theater in producing and introducing new plays.

CM:  How do you choose which plays to produce?

S: I look for plays that are well written, that surprise me, and that are challenging.

G: We receive submissions from throughout the U.S. and to date we have produced more than 150 world premieres. In our Monday Night Developmental Reading Series, we also present new works. Those performances are not fully staged. Instead, they are performed “script-in-hand” and afterwards audiences discuss the plays with the playwright, director, and actors.

CM: SuzAnne, you have acted, directed, and written for theater. Which gives you the most satisfaction and why?

S: At this point it’s directing because I have more control of the production and achieving the vision that I have for the play.

CM: What is one of your favorite projects or productions at NJ Rep and why?

S: One of my most favorite plays that I directed was Broomstick by John Biguenet a one-person show in iambic pentameter about a witch. All the elements came together, the actress, the set, the sound. It was a challenge to break the play into distinct stories. We were able to put such a difficult play together and the audience did not realize until the end that the entire play was in verse and was brilliantly written in elegant and yet entirely accessible language.

CM: Were there any performance moments that stand out, or just gave you joy?

S: In many of our plays I look for a revelatory moment that elevates the play and surprises the audience. To name a few  - Octet by Mark Dunn where at the end we have an actress scream during a penultimate moment in a concert and the entire back wall of the stage splits open; Find Me A Voice when the cast recites the Mourner’s Kaddish and the photos of children killed during the Holocaust are projected across the entire stage and theater; Lily, by Christopher Daftsios, when a seemingly tough tattooed backstage bouncer for a rock star, suddenly launches into song and sings acapella a famous aria from an opera.

CM:  How did your collaboration with Michael Tucker and Jill Eikenberry (well known for LA Law) come about and what is their involvement in NJ Rep?

CM: We first met Jill when she appeared in our production of Jericho by Jack Canfora in NYC. Michael was starting to change his focus from acting to playwriting and we produced his first play, The M Spot, starring both Mike and Jill. We then produced two more of his plays including Fern Hill that was transferred to off-Broadway, and last season’s A Tailor Near Me starring James Pickens Jr. and Richard Kind. We just closed the world premiere of The Two Hander by Julia Blauvelt starring Jill and Ella Dershowitz.

CM: After a world premiere at NJ Rep, do some plays show elsewhere?

G: There have been over 300 subsequent productions of our plays in theaters throughout the U.S., including Chicago, Detroit, Orlando, Phoenix, Denver, Philadelphia, Austin, Sacramento, and New York. Overseas there have been productions in Romania, Estonia, New Zealand, Istanbul, and most recently Paris and Dublin.   

CM: What is your connection to West End Arts Center in Long Branch?

G: In 2015, we purchased our 28,000 square foot West End Arts Center located five minutes from the theater. Our plan is to develop the former school property, located on 2 ½ acres, into a cultural center that will serve the community for generations to come.  We have been partially renovating the school for the past several years presenting short plays, music, poetry, and art exhibits. Our goal is to fully renovate the property into several theaters, an arts education building for children and young adults, and space for visual arts. In addition to theater, there will be programs in music, dance, cinema, poetry, and art, and classes in acting, improvisation, and playwriting.  We are currently seeking support from private donors, foundations, and corporations to fully develop the property.

CM: What were some of the challenges you continue to face?

G: We have encountered many challenges, but we have continued to grow and evolve. Ever since Covid, however, we have been facing the most daunting challenges since we opened, ones that all theaters are confronted with at the present time. Rising operational costs, salaries, supply and equipment costs, utilities and insurance, and a decrease in new audiences and subscribers that confront all theaters are challenging stability and sustainability.

CM: As a non-profit theater, how is NJ Rep funded?

G: Half of our funding is from earned income from ticket sales and space rentals, but this is nowhere near to covering our expenses. The other half is derived from contributed income from various sectors that include foundations, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, corporate sponsors, and private donors, many of whom are also subscribers. In recognition of our contribution to the repertoire of American theater, we have been recognized twice by the American Theatre Wing that sponsors the Tony Awards for Broadway with their National Theater Company Grant. (CM note: Only seven theaters have had this distinction.)

CM: How would you summarize your philosophy on your ongoing projects?

G: We began in 1997 with the quixotic mission of developing and producing new plays and making a lasting contribution to the repertoire of the American stage. This was a highly non-pragmatic business model to embrace as a new theater because in general, the safest and most conservative approach is to produce established plays that are familiar to the public. Over time, however, we have created a niche audience with loyal subscribers that are intrigued by seeing new work and adventurous theater.

CM: What do you do in your "spare" time for enjoyment, unrelated to theater? If there is any spare time!

S: Running a theater requires great commitment and as founders of a nonprofit arts organization we find that we have very little spare time. This is especially true now when professional theaters across the U.S., even well-established ones, are facing tremendous challenges and some are fighting to survive.

Visit njrep.org for more information and ways to donate.