Olympia Dukakis’s Whole Theater Company is long gone and 12 Miles West has gone into hiatus. But Luna Stage, which lost its space just down the block from the Montclair Whole Foods in the summer of 2009, is back. After spending a year in a tiny space that looked more like a clubhouse, the theater company is ready to debut a four-show season in its spanking new space at 555 Valley Road in West Orange, which looks just like the rendering it showed the world 15 months ago.
When I visited Luna last week, the theater was still a work in progress. Mid-interview, artistic director Jane Mandel jumped up on a ladder to screw in a lightbulb so someone painting a mural could see better. She and managing director Mona Hennessy are chief cooks and bottle washers: fielding calls from the New York Times, taking in recycling, making a note to have the staff turn off the bathroom lights when they’re not in use.
Mandel, who started Luna Stage in 1992, is sad that the company could not make it in Montclair. “No theater has been able to really stay there,” she said. “There’s a certain sadness, I will admit it. I don’t want to be bitter. I just don’t understand.”
But she thinks that possibly West Orange and Orange, which are busy promoting an arts district, may actually need Luna in a way that Montclair didn’t. This summer, Luna offered a free month-long program, Hearts for Haiti, for students in grades 6 through 10, to celebrate Orange’s overwhelming Haitian heritage in song, acting and art. Mandel also hopes that Luna will attract people from Maplewood and South Orange because of the new central location.
Luna Stage celebrates its grand opening on Friday Oct. 22 with the performance of “The Old Settler” by John Henry Redwood, which premiered in 1997 and has appeared on PBS. (Rehearsal space shown at right.) “Set in 1940s Harlem, this insightful and humorous drama tells the story of Elizabeth and Quilly, two churchgoing sisters of a certain age,” Luna writes, describing the show. “When a handsome young man from the Deep South rents a room in the apartment they share, all hell breaks loose.”
Previews of “The Old Settler” start Oct. 14 and the show runs through Nov. 14. Tickets are $30 and available online. Or call 973.395.5551.
As for the question of the viability of a local professional theater so close to New York City, Mandel is vehement. “The words local and community are not dirty words,” she says. “We are part of the fabric. We have a world-class cast of actors. They all come from the immediate area.” Adds Hennessy: “It’s like looking into your home base and seeing what you have in your own backyard.”
Not to mention all the reasonably-priced restaurants, many of them ethnic, in Luna’s new neighborhood: including Libretti’s, Hat City Kitchen and a Peruvian restaurant across the street. Luna also hosts a reading series and a music series, offers classes and helps playwrights develop new projects.
Coming from Montclair, you’ll recognize Luna by the colorful mural painted on the back wall of its building, which it shares with a community policing center.
Luna Stage, 555 Valley Road, West Orange. 973.395.5551
