By Pinky Shannon
Envisioned in 1986, with then-Governor Thomas H. Kean as a grand champion, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center opened its doors at 1 Center Street in Newark on October 18, 1997. The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and Savion Glover, among many others, participated in the celebration, which later aired on PBS’s Great Performances.
“The New Jersey Performing Arts Center is a theater that comes with an attitude, a personality that resonates as if it’s been here forever,” says the legendary Judith Jamison, artistic director emerita, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, via email. “The diversity of its audience and variety of events are assets that make the place so accessible.”
In 2011, executive producer David Rodriguez, who has helmed the Apollo Theater and Aaron Davis Hall in comparable capacities, was happy to return to Newark, where he was born, and build on the institution’s growing legacy. And, as Jamison notes, diversity is the key to NJPAC, as it is more affectionately known.
“It’s a performing arts center that is committed to the urban aesthetic. Having come from a place like the Apollo in Harlem, to a place like this in Newark, was like coming home. The aesthetic, the diversity, the passion that exists and that can be shown on a stage like this is really like no other,” Rodriguez beams. Comprised of the 2,800-seat Prudential Hall, the 511-seat Victoria Theater, the 88-seat Horizon Theater and cabaret-friendly The Chase Room, NJPAC puts on 450 events a year.
“We really try to have distinctive programming that can span from a local level, working with Trilogy Opera on a new opera based on Paul Robeson, to having a new series with the best new voices from the worldrenowned Metropolitan Opera,” he explains. “We are bringing Lula Washington here next season specifically related to her doing two new pieces, one with McCoy Tyner and the other with Terence Blanchard.”
Celebrating past greats is important too, especially those with Newark ties. Through the James Moody Democracy of Jazz Festival, featuring the Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition, NJPAC salutes two of its best. Contemporary greats aren’t missed either. “We were so, so honored this past year, before he left us, to commission a special program for Amiri Baraka with Craig Harris and poets giving tribute to him,” Rodriguez says.
Investing in the future, NJPAC works closely with New Jersey schools to provide arts programming and regularly hosts free performances for children. Recently, it’s made a conscious effort to put itself out there more, primarily through television, with great success.
Last year, Black Girls Rock!, which airs on BET, taped at NJPAC. Kevin Hart hasn’t taped anything there yet, but he is so fond of the venue that, even when he was headlining much-larger Madison Square Garden, he showed up at NJPAC for a performance. There’s something special about NJPAC, insists Rodriguez.
“To see Misty Copeland dancing alongside Patti LaBelle, who is doing a program here next year, [during Black Girls Rock!] is a special, special moment. And to see Marian Wright Edelman and Venus Williams in the audience, people really making a difference, these are the times when NJPAC really shines.”
And, going forward, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center is primed and ready for even more starring roles.
For more info on NJPAC and upcoming events, visit njpac.org