Morristown's Community Theater Since 1937

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[Applause]

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until i hit the stage

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[Music]

00:34
what's up everybody welcome back to

00:36
another episode of greetings from the

00:37
garden state i'm mike gamer here at the

00:39
mayo performing arts center uh with

00:40
general manager ed kirchdoffer ed did i

00:43
do your name justice right out of the

00:44
gate you did i crushed you

00:47
so we're here in morristown new jersey

00:48
like i said we're at the mayo performing

00:50
arts center this is part of our launch

00:52
group of episodes so we have the mayo

00:53
performing arts center we have the right

00:55
cut and we have kalanja's bakery as part

00:57
of our first three that we're posting um

00:59
i'm really excited to be here i've been

01:02
to shows here i've seen steve martin and

01:04
martin short here once i've been to a

01:06
couple of the manhattan comedy nights

01:07
which are always a good time and i live

01:09
right here in town so obviously this is

01:10
like a pillar of the community

01:13
so tell us a little bit about the mayo

01:15
performing arts center

01:16
sure well first of all thanks for having

01:18
me on we appreciate it uh mayo

01:20
performing arts center is a 1300 seat

01:22
performing arts center located here in

01:23
the heart of marstown we've been around

01:26
since 1994

01:28
as a performing arts center it's

01:29
actually built as a movie theater back

01:31
in 1937 as a single screen theater

01:35
and we have about a normal year i say a

01:37
normal year because obviously the last

01:39
year and a half has been less than

01:41
normal at normal

01:43
but in the typical year we would have

01:45
about 150 to 200 events on our stage

01:48
with artists

01:49
ranging from all types of performing

01:51
arts so like you said you saw steve

01:53
martin and martin short great great show

01:55
two of my all-time favorites yeah uh

01:58
legends yeah

01:59
rock artist pop

02:01
classical dance children's shows pretty

02:04
much the entire gamut of performing arts

02:07
right you know it's very interesting and

02:08
you know like you said i mean there's so

02:10
many different types of things that are

02:12
going on but what i found interesting

02:13
because i was doing some research last

02:14
night and this morning before i knew we

02:16
were going to sit down and do this

02:17
interview

02:18
was that it actually started as a movie

02:20
theater and it was part of like a big

02:22
chain of movie theaters wasn't it it was

02:24
a chain that was created by walter reed

02:27
walter reed right who was out of

02:29
monmouth county and he uh ironically he

02:32
built the theater here in marstown based

02:34
on geography at that time first run it

02:37
was a first run movie theater yeah and

02:39
there were three other theaters movie

02:41
theaters in marstown at the time and

02:43
they were second run back in the 30s

02:47
there had to be a geographical distance

02:49
between first run theaters so it has to

02:51
be i believe 30 or 35 miles from

02:53
manhattan in marstown it's 30 or 35

02:55
miles right in manhattan yeah so he he

02:57
built one here there are sister theaters

03:00
in hudson new york i actually saw that

03:02
while i was on vacation this summer it

03:03
was very run down and sort of looked

03:05
like our theater did in the 80s when

03:07
you're run down there's one in

03:09
saratoga springs and one in thomas river

03:11
okay they're all standing there and none

03:13
of them are theaters except for ours so

03:15
this is the the last one standing as a

03:18
theater as a theater right so yeah so i

03:20
find that interesting because i mean i i

03:22
am only in morristown since well the

03:24
last couple years um so this has kind of

03:26
always been here since i've been around

03:28
you know um but obviously it wasn't like

03:30
you said i mean it was pretty run down

03:32
back in the 80s so kind of go through

03:34
maybe like if you could like that

03:36
history of it yeah it kind of passed

03:37
through the and when it was when it was

03:39
in its heyday as a movie theater in the

03:41
30s late 30s 40s 50s it was kind of the

03:46
to-go place in the area is a very

03:48
elegant movie theater

03:50
and we've heard from a lot of

03:53
of our older patrons many of our

03:55
volunteers used to talk about how they

03:57
had dates and they you know help sneak

03:59
their friends in into the balcony and

04:02
stuff like that this is a place where

04:03
you got dressed up so if you lived in

04:05
the oranges or if you lived out in the

04:07
rockaways or whatever he came to

04:09
marstown to see a theater

04:12
it passed through and he passed away it

04:13
passed through his family and then was

04:15
went through some changes in ownership

04:16
and started getting run down in the 70s

04:19
and at that point he had the rise of the

04:20
multiplex right and a single screen

04:23
theater could not compete against a

04:25
multiplex so it closed in the early 80s

04:27
and

04:28
and was

04:30
very blighted yeah very you know and i

04:32
grew up in this area so i remember this

04:34
i remember passing this building going

04:36
oh an ugly building right and like right

04:37
now

04:38
yeah

04:40
because she had the over headquarters

04:42
yeah

04:44
and uh it really

04:45
a couple couple groups tried to revive

04:48
it for concerts i actually remember

04:50
seeing martin mull here in 19 i actually

04:52
found the ticket stub the other day

04:54
and i brought it in and nobody was

04:56
impressed that i had this ticket stuff

04:57
from 1978 in a program when it was

04:59
called the mars stage uh but martin i

05:02
remember seeing martin mull and george

05:03
carlin here in the 80s but it never it's

05:05
it never could stick yeah uh so those

05:08
things went by the wayside it really

05:09
went to rot and in

05:11
1994

05:13
a gentleman named alexander slovadonic

05:15
he was a ukraine pianist and his wife

05:18
larissa

05:19
and some of their friends took a look at

05:21
the building and they they saw within

05:24
this

05:25
shell that there was something there

05:27
yeah and the story goes that they

05:29
invited valerie gergiev a famous

05:31
conductor from

05:33
russia and i guess it was russia at that

05:35
time i guess they weren't the soviet

05:36
union anymore but they went on stage and

05:38
you know there's

05:39
mushrooms growing from the floor and

05:41
dust everywhere and he either snapped

05:43
his fingers or clapped his hands history

05:44
is unsure of this

05:46
but

05:47
but he said the kirov will play here

05:49
yeah that's my amazing russian accent

05:52
i'm sure everybody's impressed by that

05:53
but uh

05:55
um

05:56
and uh that was kind of the impetus to

05:59
get it going and that summer hundreds of

06:01
volunteers they put up signs outside

06:02
please help us out they said the first

06:04
day they came back dust like up here

06:05
we're we're talking the balcony of the

06:07
theater right now in our art gallery

06:09
they said the dust was knee-high so it

06:11
was just run down yeah and uh and

06:13
volunteers came they scraped and painted

06:16
and made it possible to have it and what

06:18
september 29th

06:20
actually wow we're on its birthday

06:21
yesterday yeah uh september 29th

06:24
september 30th we're talking 1994 uh the

06:27
theater opened with the hero of

06:29
orchestra and you know it wasn't you

06:32
know you could still smell some of the

06:34
mildew and and flakes were coming down

06:36
from the ceiling but that started it

06:38
yeah and you know we're now in our 27th

06:40
year and it's really taken off

06:42
especially over the last two decades

06:44
yeah you know what else is interesting

06:46
and i'm sure you could speak to this as

06:47
well because you're crushing the history

06:48
of this theater right now just as an fyi

06:50
and your russian accent was pretty good

06:52
i thought so um

06:53
the it's um the mayo performing arts

06:56
center and so when i've told a couple

06:57
people that maybe are not from this area

06:59
they're like oh what does mayo stand for

07:00
but it doesn't stand for anything it's

07:02
an actual person yeah that was

07:03
instrumental in kind of the

07:04
rehabilitation of the theater yeah the

07:07
theater was originally named the

07:08
community theater if you are familiar

07:11
with our building and you come and you

07:12
look on the outside it says community

07:14
theater on it so we wanted to retain

07:16
some of the history of the theater right

07:19
the name community theater has an

07:22
implication to it you know we realized

07:24
that uh

07:25
you know when you're talking with

07:27
dealing with agents and artists who are

07:29
from other parts of the country the

07:30
community theater what do you do with

07:31
stage oklahoma or something right uh

07:34
yeah but so we we saw an opportunity

07:37
when we expanded the facility in 2007

07:40
that uh bud mayo who was a former

07:43
chairman of our board and uh benefactor

07:45
of the theater

07:48
came an opportunity to name it for all

07:50
that he has given to the theater both

07:52
not only from a financial point of view

07:54
but also just

07:56
from uh just uh his his advice his his

08:00
his uh leadership to

08:03
have the goal of taking this from one

08:05
level to the level that we're at now and

08:08
really like go further you know he he

08:10
always said

08:11
don't be afraid to go after the bigger

08:13
artists because people will come yeah no

08:15
100 and i think that's great um also one

08:18
of the things that i know about the

08:19
theater and maybe you could speak this

08:20
because i'm not really familiar with

08:21
other theaters

08:23
this is a 501c3 nonprofit is that common

08:26
for like theaters like this or is that

08:29
uh there are

08:30
you know it's it's a mix so

08:33
many of the bigger theaters in new

08:35
jersey are non-profits camp ac state

08:37
theater

08:38
bergen so a lot of times what happens

08:42
with

08:43
uh

08:43
buildings that have been

08:45
uh rehabilitated from movie theaters to

08:48
to uh

08:50
to theater to performing arts centers

08:52
like we have like all those other ones

08:54
as well uh it's usually started by a

08:57
community group of people who see that

08:59
there's value to have something like

09:02
that in

09:03
in their town and then it kind of grows

09:05
into a non-profit organization and there

09:07
are other ones like believe the welmont

09:08
is not a nonprofit that's owned by i

09:10
think that's owned by lab nation or

09:11
something but uh yeah so it goes both

09:14
ways uh

09:16
yeah okay great um and then you know

09:18
what we didn't do at the very beginning

09:19
which you probably should have done was

09:21
talk about what you do here so you're

09:22
the general manager of the male

09:23
performing arts center so what is

09:25
generally your job as a general manager

09:28
well i'd say i manage generally but

09:32
as a general manager

09:34
i am involved in

09:37
most aspects of the theaters operations

09:40
uh

09:41
a little more on the marketing and

09:43
education and messaging and pr side of

09:46
things

09:48
but really uh whatever

09:51
whatever needs to be done you get it

09:52
done like you're doing a podcast you can

09:54
yes doing a podcast you can currently

09:56
see me in front of the theater on most

09:58
nights checking vaccination cards these

10:00
days yeah that's that's my job on a show

10:02
night these days um so is it i mean

10:06
you can full disclosure perk of the job

10:07
is that you do get to see a lot of these

10:09
cool

10:10
events i would imagine do yeah i mean

10:12
does it ever get like too much i got

10:14
another show tonight

10:16
no we want to have shows every night if

10:18
we could right

10:20
that said you know it was a lot easier

10:22
when i lived a mile away from the

10:23
theater than 20 miles away from the

10:25
theater so uh yeah i could

10:27
i could see most i try to i try for the

10:30
events that i am here at i tried to

10:33
see

10:34
some portions so i'm aware of what

10:36
happens in case you know there's some

10:38
questions about the event right and the

10:39
ones you know the ones you really want

10:41
to see

10:42
it's a bit of a perk to be able to yeah

10:44
see to see the shows we don't do

10:46
anything like like

10:48
like oh i'm the general manager i'm

10:50
going to go backstage

10:52
we don't we don't do that it's not what

10:53
we're about right yeah

10:55
it's an organizational philosophy that

10:57
it's not

10:58
it's not here for us it's here for the

11:00
people and the community we are not

11:02
there to take advantage of of it but we

11:05
certainly

11:06
uh

11:07
encourage

11:08
our staff to also you know you work all

11:10
day in an office and realize that the

11:12
business happens at night yeah and

11:14
sometimes

11:16
there's a uh

11:17
we want to surround our some of our oh

11:19
yeah you know you have shows so yeah

11:22
enjoy the audience come out and meet the

11:24
audience yeah it's kind of a fun thing

11:26
to do exactly yeah so i always say at

11:28
the end of an evening when people like

11:29
come out of those doors open and they're

11:31
like buzzing out because they just had a

11:32
great time yeah they're just like

11:33
thrilled and everything like that it's

11:35
it's it's a great feeling to know 100 to

11:37
that service yeah do you have like if

11:39
you could pick maybe one that you've

11:41
seen

11:42
that you're just like that was epic

11:45
is there one oh are there a couple such

11:47
a hard because i've been here 19 years

11:49
old

11:51
so you know there are there are shows

11:53
that that

11:55
like big like oh my god this is somebody

11:57
that i follow as a kid or something

11:59
right jackson the first time we had

12:01
jackson brown okay jackson brown when i

12:03
was in high school you know i would

12:05
listen to jackson brown albums in the in

12:07
the dark in my room oh you see he's

12:09
pouring out my heart and song

12:12
right and like

12:14
i saw him and ironically the seat that i

12:16
had i was behind somebody who was about

12:18
eight feet tall i couldn't see he was

12:21
like i'm looking i'm looking down the

12:22
aisle he's moving the aisle yeah yeah

12:24
and somebody behind me is taking a

12:26
picture with a flash and one of their

12:27
security people starts yelling at me

12:28
saying don't use flash i go i work here

12:30
i know the rules

12:33
uh the steve we have we've had steve

12:35
martin here three times okay and so

12:38
and i had

12:39
the opportunity to to meet him uh

12:42
because we were doing a meet and greet

12:44
with some of our donors and so that was

12:46
that was a thrill because i was always a

12:47
big steve martin guy when i was a kid

12:49
yeah i think sometimes it's the shows

12:51
that you don't expect yeah it's like oh

12:54
here's some

12:55
irish step dancing show and then you

12:58
watch the show and it's like wow this

12:59
was really good it just like blows you

13:01
away i remember seeing jose feliciano

13:03
i'm going to stay for a song and i'm

13:04
going to leave and he was like really

13:06
good you know and so so i was like being

13:08
surprised by stuff that that

13:11
we put on stage yeah that i would not

13:13
expect to like it it's it's expanded my

13:17
my uh tastes a lot that's very cool to

13:19
be able to experience like some jazz and

13:21
some classical things that i would

13:23
normally wouldn't have exposed myself to

13:25
and and one other one was being able to

13:26
i have a

13:28
seven year old so being able to take him

13:30
to like his first show at school see

13:33
things through his eyes

13:34
uh

13:35
was kind of cool yeah after working here

13:37
all this time right yeah yeah no that's

13:39
awesome that's fantastic so that's we're

13:41
going to take a quick break um then

13:43
we're going to come back we're here at

13:44
the mayo performing arts center we're

13:45
here here we're here with ed kirchhoffer

13:48
i'm mike ham this is the greetings from

13:49
the garden state podcast we'll be right

13:50
back

13:53
it is time for today in new jersey

13:55
history on october 18 1753 joseph

13:58
bloomfield was born in woodbridge new

14:00
jersey bloomfield would become the

14:02
fourth governor of new jersey and would

14:03
serve two terms in the u.s house of

14:05
representatives from 1817 to 1821 and

14:08
you guessed it the township of

14:10
bloomfield is named after him and that

14:12
is today in new jersey history

14:17
what's up everybody we're back we're

14:18
here at the mayo performing arts center

14:19
i'm mike ham this is the greetings from

14:21
the garden the garden state podcast

14:22
we're here with ed kirchdoffer the

14:24
general manager of the mayo performing

14:26
arts center uh so in the first segment

14:27
we did a great kind of look back at the

14:30
history of the theater how it started

14:32
how it got to where it is today some of

14:34
your favorite shows that you've seen

14:35
which is which was cool

14:37
but let's get into kind of maybe some

14:38
current events that are going on right

14:39
now so i know education is a big piece

14:41
of what you guys do here at the mayo

14:43
performing arts center can you so can

14:44
you talk about that like what are some

14:45
things that you do with the community

14:47
sure we have a

14:49
pretty broad-based education program and

14:51
performing arts school

14:53
so on the edu so we kind of look at it

14:56
they're all underneath education but

14:58
they're kind of two separate buckets so

15:00
we work with a lot of schools

15:03
in the marsh county area and some a few

15:05
outside of mars county where we provide

15:07
residency programs we'll send the

15:09
teaching artists into the school and

15:10
we'll work with them on a specific

15:12
program

15:14
like

15:15
reading or

15:17
history or something like that and use

15:18
theater arts as a means to create a

15:21
program through that

15:23
we do programs

15:25
with the boys and girls club of

15:27
patterson

15:28
with children on the green in in

15:31
marstown

15:32
many of these programs are often we

15:35
offer free to these organizations who

15:37
are working with

15:39
children from many times families or

15:42
children who don't even never even had a

15:44
performing arts experience we bus

15:47
school well when we we used to be able

15:50
to right and we hoped to do later in

15:52
2022 or maybe next season uh typically

15:56
in a year we would have about 15 to 20

15:59
performances for schools and we would

16:01
bust if you're in marstown when that

16:02
happens to the buses line up south

16:04
street and we bust in about 11 000 kids

16:07
over the course of the year for

16:08
education type programs and they're

16:09
coming from all over the state again for

16:12
a lot of them it's the first time

16:13
they've experienced something in a live

16:15
in in the theater and then on our

16:17
performing arts school side this is a

16:19
tuition-based program that we've done

16:22
since i believe about 2005 it's a very

16:24
comprehensive

16:26
program that deals with musical theater

16:28
acting

16:30
improv

16:32
classes typically sell out it's it's a

16:35
great program and it's really structured

16:38
in a unique way where it's really about

16:40
the teamwork uh and being part of a

16:44
group as opposed to look at me i'm a

16:46
star i'm acting or i'm singing something

16:48
like that it's very it's a very

16:49
collaborative

16:51
dynamic and i think the kids really like

16:53
that dynamic because

16:55
you know one day you might be doing more

16:57
than the other but the next day you

16:58
might just have a small you might just

17:01
be doing something small and within that

17:03
program we have two

17:04
two sub programs out of that one's

17:06
called the miracle project which we

17:08
started about four or five years ago the

17:10
miracle project is a program for

17:12
children on the autism spectrum and with

17:14
other special needs and again it uses

17:17
it teaches some performing arts to

17:19
express their creativity it's a it's a

17:21
program that's unique to new jersey

17:23
there's only three

17:25
miracle projects

17:26
in the country it came out of la

17:31
they adopted us and there's one i think

17:33
brown university so it's a really

17:36
amazing program to see these kids who

17:38
often have no friends and they're kind

17:41
of off to the side that this is a place

17:43
where they can come once a week and just

17:45
be part of something amazing and they're

17:47
and you know to see their final

17:48
performance and not really performance

17:50
but what they do at the end of this

17:52
final

17:53
class where they

17:54
these kids are singing and whatnot and

17:56
see how their parents are just like

17:58
thrilled that their children are smiling

18:00
and having fun and making friends which

18:02
is very

18:04
tough i understand for

18:06
families with children with autism right

18:08
and and one other program that we have

18:10
is the performing arts company

18:12
which is by audition and this is a group

18:14
of kids typically 13 to 18

18:18
they are our ambassadors into the

18:20
community they're a performing troop and

18:22
they perform for nonprofits and other

18:24
events sometimes are on stage with

18:25
artists they uh

18:27
their great group of kids they are

18:29
they come

18:31
they don't have to pay for any of their

18:34
rehearsals or anything like that but

18:35
they are dedicated and come to rehearse

18:37
every week and then perform again maybe

18:39
a couple dozen times throughout the

18:41
county at fundraising events at senior

18:44
centers and and whatnot and

18:46
again

18:47
just terrific and very talented

18:48
amazingly talented it's just scary how

18:51
talented they are

18:52
like you're jealous

18:54
yeah i mean

18:55
my talent i'm lucky if i can button my

18:57
shirt in the morning so right i always

18:59
miss like the top one and then i'm like

19:00
uneven by the time i get to the bottom

19:02
yeah so uh yeah so i think that's

19:04
tremendous so like what was the um

19:07
the impetus i guess behind the theater

19:10
going beyond just being a theater and

19:12
doing stuff like this was it just trying

19:13
to connect with the community is that

19:15
part of the 501c3

19:17
been part of our mission

19:19
to to educate enter and entertain

19:22
the surrounding region and to engage

19:24
people in the arts

19:26
and i think it was just that time in our

19:28
evolution where we sort of got the

19:32
the uh

19:33
concert part down yeah right so it's

19:36
like what's our next step in evolution

19:38
let's start

19:39
engaging children in and our education

19:42
director kathy roy was someone that our

19:44
president and and i myself had worked

19:46
with at another venue

19:48
she's terrifically talented and

19:50
innovative and brought her in to create

19:53
this program from scratch and

19:56
and there's a lot of other

19:58
wheels to uh

20:01
or spokes rather i knew it was something

20:02
that to do with the wheel

20:04
there are a lot of spokes of this

20:06
education program including student

20:08
recognition where we honor

20:10
music students on stage and

20:13
again typically these kids never you

20:15
know they sports first and yeah music

20:18
and arts kind of get shunted to the side

20:20
so we do things like that we have a

20:22
program for visual arts as well and and

20:24
and uh you know it's we're

20:27
we're uh

20:28
it's a very comprehensive and engaging

20:30
program that we just continually yeah

20:32
need to expand and will expand in the

20:34
future right awesome so one of the other

20:36
things that i was that i told you were

20:37
going to talk about was i did not know

20:39
that this was up here this art gallery

20:42
so when did this kind of start what was

20:43
the importance of making sure that you

20:45
tried to get a lot of different kinds of

20:46
art whether it's you know on stage or

20:48
this kind of stuff

20:49
and that

20:50
again back around that same time frame

20:52
one of our board members

20:54
had the idea to marry the visual with

20:56
the performing arts and we had this

20:58
space so it was it was different looking

21:00
at the time we renovated this in 2011

21:04
but

21:05
she believed that there was an

21:08
opportunity here and we started the

21:10
gallery at that time we have rotating

21:12
exhibits that's about every

21:14
four to eight weeks we switched the

21:16
shows we feature about 200 to 300

21:20
artists

21:21
a year up here they're usually group

21:23
shows right

21:24
and it just gives a chance for a lot of

21:26
people who may never step foot or think

21:29
about stepping foot in a gallery space

21:31
to be exposed to that and expose some

21:34
very talented people to

21:36
them as well we actually added a second

21:38
gallery in our starlight

21:41
uh hallway which is on the other side of

21:44
the theater and it's the hallway to our

21:46
starlight room which is a lounge for our

21:48
donors and that's that's usually we have

21:51
uh shows by single uh

21:53
individual artists i don't know if

21:55
they're single or married

21:59
right now we have one for a woman who

22:01
who did uh

22:02
uh some really interesting work that

22:05
spike lee actually purchased the work

22:07
and the stuff that's there that's cool

22:09
symbolic of that but again it's usually

22:11
an individual artist and also that we've

22:13
done things like had an autistic artist

22:15
there and and

22:16
it allows us a little more

22:18
experimentation yeah

22:20
in that area awesome yeah so one of the

22:22
other questions that i did have was as

22:24
we're talking about you know kind of uh

22:26
evolutions and changes and stuff that

22:28
the theater has gone through from when

22:29
it you know first got renovated to all

22:31
the way to where we are today and

22:32
different things that are happening are

22:34
there things maybe on the horizon that

22:36
are some goals of the theater to try to

22:37
make happen to kind of keep the

22:39
evolution moving forward

22:41
yeah i mean i

22:42
quite honestly the most immediate goal

22:44
is just getting back to a kind of a

22:47
normal situation it's still difficult

22:49
right now we've been

22:51
doing full capacity events since

22:53
september first the night of the

22:54
hurricane that was a

22:56
fun night it was actually

22:57
it was actually a lot of fun it was

22:58
crazy it was rain and everything

23:00
the ride home was a different story

23:04
but uh

23:05
so we've been doing it for a month we've

23:06
gotten a month under our belt and we're

23:08
making adjustments we are obviously

23:11
dealing with a lot of things and a

23:13
changing landscape almost on a weekly if

23:16
not daily basis in regards to protocols

23:19
and guidelines and restrictions not only

23:21
for the artists but for the backstage

23:23
for the front of house workers for

23:24
everybody yeah you know uh so

23:28
this this upcoming year is going to be a

23:30
year of

23:32
just

23:33
kind of hopefully getting back to in

23:36
an environment that

23:39
that is kind of normal again but that

23:41
said you know we're we've we've done

23:43
some innovation some innovative stuff

23:45
over the last 20 months including some

23:47
drive-in concerts over at foster fields

23:50
park in the marsh county park system i

23:52
don't know if we'll continue with that

23:54
next summer or not we did it for two

23:55
summers uh we're looking at some

23:57
technological upgrades to

24:00
how people buy concessions possibly an

24:03
app

24:04
you know we're always looking for

24:06
ways to make

24:08
people's experience

24:10
better there

24:12
is some discussion of uh finding a way

24:14
to expand the school

24:16
nothing i can really get into at this

24:17
point but uh

24:19
we uh we did a choir property behind the

24:22
theater the house is behind the theater

24:24
so we're hoping for some sort of

24:26
expansion down the line it was

24:29
any talk of it was kind of put on hold

24:31
for the last year and a half but i think

24:33
maybe in the next six months we're gonna

24:35
start looking at that again very cool

24:36
very cool well i'm excited about that

24:38
because i mean i i think this place is

24:39
great and so far this episode has been

24:41
great um so we're gonna take our second

24:43
break our last break of this episode uh

24:45
this is the greetings from the garden

24:46
state podcast i'm mike ham we're here at

24:48
the mayo performing arts center with its

24:49
general manager ed kirchdoffer uh we'll

24:51
be right back

24:54
it is time for your new jersey fun fact

24:55
of the day did you know the town of

24:57
beemerville new jersey is home to a

24:59
volcano don't worry though it's no

25:01
longer active and that is your new

25:03
jersey fun fact of the day

25:10
and we're back this is the greens from

25:11
the garden state podcast we are here

25:13
with ed kirchdoffer the general manager

25:15
of the mayo performing arts center here

25:16
in morristown new jersey

25:18
so so far we've learned a lot about the

25:20
history of the theater we kind of

25:22
learned about what's going on now with

25:23
the theater the educational programs and

25:25
now we're going to kind of get into some

25:26
stuff that um we talked about it and

25:28
touched on it quite a bit throughout the

25:29
episode so far but kind of the

25:31
relationship between the mayo performing

25:32
arts center and the community here in

25:34
morristown and the surrounding areas so

25:36
um talk to me about you know this is the

25:38
community theater um there are i mean i

25:41
know what show nights i know there are a

25:43
lot of volunteers that that come in and

25:45
you know maybe check tickets or serve

25:47
drinks i don't know if that that's what

25:48
they do but i would imagine that's what

25:50
they're doing so talk to me about the

25:51
importance of the the community being a

25:53
part of what goes on here at the at the

25:55
maya performing arts center well the

25:56
building was saved by the community

25:58
and community has within our original

26:01
name so community has always been

26:03
part of our dna right

26:05
even though we're now mayo performing

26:06
arts center we have about

26:08
120-100 volunteers who do that they scan

26:13
people in they

26:14
work concessions they are ushers and

26:17
whatnot

26:18
and we can operate without them and

26:20
that's there's a lot to putting on a

26:22
show and there's a lot

26:24
of people that

26:26
need to make it work and they're

26:28
they're great people they are very

26:30
invested in the theater they're very

26:32
happy to tell you and you've done

26:33
something wrong

26:34
there's a typo in the marquis

26:38
and it's great that they have that that

26:40
passion yeah and and for them for many

26:41
of them it's also their their kind of

26:44
social network so

26:46
they make friends and

26:48
and they

26:49
see each other every year they look

26:51
forward to

26:52
getting back together with them and have

26:55
a great relationship with our

26:56
professional staff as well and really

26:59
feel invested in the theater and other

27:01
investors into the community as well

27:03
yeah 100

27:04
um and then also maybe kind of looking

27:06
the other way so i know we did touch on

27:08
a couple but i know that the

27:10
events and things that the theater does

27:12
it goes beyond what happens here under

27:15
this roof correct

27:16
stuff do stuff on the green maybe out

27:18
front in front of jackie ha i don't know

27:19
so we do we have

27:21
an initiative called arts in the

27:23
community

27:24
and

27:25
it's

27:26
really looking at a chance to find

27:30
diverse artists

27:32
mostly new jersey artists uh and give

27:35
them an opportunity to perform

27:37
uh for free

27:39
within the community so we have done

27:42
events next door at vail we've been at

27:44
granby park

27:46
the senior center in marstown at the

27:48
green and we typically try to

27:52
again showcase artists who they

27:54
may not

27:55
be ready to be on our stage yet but uh

27:58
they certainly deserve an audience and

28:00
we

28:01
want to be able to present

28:03
these sorts of events throughout the

28:05
year mostly in the summer but we're

28:07
looking to

28:09
expand this program and come up with

28:12
some some different aspects of it

28:14
throughout the year that might be indoor

28:16
here either on our main stage or in our

28:18
starlight room space which can hold

28:20
about 75 people in it very cool very

28:23
cool um and then the other thing that i

28:24
know that we wanted to talk about uh was

28:26
you know as we're talking about you know

28:27
you have volunteers here helping out

28:29
night at the show nights then you're

28:31
reaching back out into the community if

28:33
people are listening to this episode

28:34
they're like man i really want to you

28:35
know learn more about the mayo

28:37
performing arts center first off where

28:39
can they go to learn more what's the

28:40
website now the website's

28:42
mayoarts.org and it's pretty

28:44
comprehensive website on there's

28:46
everything we think you need to know but

28:50
we always find that somebody comes up

28:51
the question that we didn't think about

28:53
and we adjust

28:56
but yeah it has information about

28:58
upcoming shows the education programs

29:00
supporting the theater

29:02
uh just kind of everything that goes on

29:05
here yeah and then as far as you know i

29:07
know there's a membership opportunity so

29:09
talk about what the membership you know

29:11
program might look like sure we

29:13
we encourage people if they believe in

29:16
what we do to support the theater

29:18
membership levels start at 150 dollars

29:21
for a year they go up to whatever your

29:23
heart desires

29:25
but we do have a kind of a a level

29:28
called the starlight society which is i

29:30
believe these days 1500 and above and

29:33
there are benefits that come with each

29:35
level right the higher the level the

29:37
more the benefits come them sure the the

29:40
i think the the main

29:42
attraction uh for many people is that

29:44
they get to purchase tickets before they

29:46
go on sale to the public so

29:48
our higher end donors get to purchase

29:50
before anybody and then

29:53
our regular member donors can purchase

29:55
the day before which

29:57
is important when you have a big show

29:59
come in when

30:00
when a

30:01
steely dan is added or a major artist

30:05
that people want to get the better seats

30:07
and sometimes these shows come close to

30:10
selling out in the pre-sale so

30:13
so we do encourage people to

30:15
to join many join specifically because

30:18
of that but we also hope that they join

30:19
because they see that supporting our

30:21
mission is important it's important to

30:23
the community we hope that you know

30:25
people see

30:26
the theater as a pillar of the community

30:29
and that having the theater is is good

30:31
for the businesses in town you know when

30:34
we have a show the restaurants are full

30:36
yep especially on like an off night like

30:38
a tuesday in the future you know that

30:40
brings business into the area and

30:43
it

30:44
is nice to be able to say you're from a

30:45
town that has a theater that draws

30:49
major talents yeah right down the street

30:50
from you right you can walk home yeah i

30:53
can walk it's a 10-minute walk for me to

30:54
get from where i live to here and that's

30:56
always a great thing and then you know

30:58
you go to one frequent one of the

31:00
restaurants around here one of the bars

31:01
and then it's easy to get back home yeah

31:04
we always like you know on a show night

31:06
when there's a lot of buzziness going on

31:07
so you can feel it's a nice night out

31:10
the restaurants are full everybody's

31:11
excited about the show

31:13
and uh

31:14
and you just you can feel that energy in

31:17
town yeah no 100 and it's that's 100

31:20
true and i would you know definitely

31:22
agree with that so if you look i'm sorry

31:24
this one yeah i mean if you look at

31:26
where marshtown was in 1994 when we

31:28
reopened to where it is now i mean it's

31:31
it's night and day and

31:33
the theater has been important and i

31:35
gotta say it's the only reason it's one

31:37
but it's a key reason

31:39
that that happened you have a theater

31:40
then the restaurants are gonna sprout up

31:42
because people are gonna want to eat

31:43
before the theater and then people kind

31:45
of like what else is going on in this

31:46
town so

31:48
so you know we bring in over 240 000

31:51
patrons annually on a normal year and

31:54
they're spending money in restaurants

31:56
and parking and maybe shopping and

31:57
whatnot it's the economic impact of over

31:59
15 million in the community yeah yeah

32:02
which i think is crazy too and i think

32:03
that like you know like you said you

32:05
could almost look at the performing arts

32:06
center here as kind of like the

32:08
heartbeat of what goes on in the

32:10
surrounding community yeah we do say

32:12
it's at the heart of arts and

32:13
entertainment in morristown and and it's

32:15
a reason why a lot of other towns do the

32:17
same they see the value of a performing

32:20
arts center or the arts in their

32:22
community and people want to be in arts

32:23
communities important to them as a

32:25
lifestyle choice

32:27
so that's why towns montclair red bank

32:30
vineland

32:32
new brunswick they all have art centers

32:35
uh because they see what it's doing for

32:38
their towns yeah 100 and and it's been

32:41
phenomenal and i you know this episode

32:43
has been like i said before just off the

32:45
charts so um

32:47
i know the website's another one place

32:49
to go um are there any other ways that

32:51
people can kind of learn more about the

32:53
theater is there an instagram account

32:54
i'm pretty sure there are yes yes and

32:57
now you're going to put me on the spot

32:57
to know what the instagram account is we

32:59
can look it up as you're going

33:01
i know that's how we should i should

33:03
know but i don't i mean we're

33:06
on all those places facebook and

33:08
instagram and uh twitter and youtube and

33:12
all that stuff so yeah uh

33:14
just find us yeah i'm sure it's that

33:16
either at mayo pack it is mayo pack oh

33:19
yeah look at me

33:21
pretty good yeah you you know you

33:22
undersold it and then you over deliver

33:24
it so that's good so um and then what's

33:26
the address here people want to put in

33:27
the gps and come down and check it out

33:29
sure it's 100 south street we are right

33:32
next to the vale lawn that's a big lawn

33:34
in the libraries across the street the

33:36
two churches saint peter's and the

33:38
presbyterian church so right in the

33:40
center center of town here just look for

33:42
the three columns

33:44
and the four columns

33:45
and uh yeah

33:47
awesome yeah no again this episode has

33:49
been tremendous uh ed thank you so much

33:51
for doing with us this with us today um

33:54
i'll make sure that i put the address

33:56
the website the instagram handle all

33:58
that kind of stuff in the show notes so

34:00
that people do want to learn more about

34:02
what upcoming shows there are or maybe a

34:04
membership opportunity sponsorship

34:05
opportunity all that kind of stuff we'll

34:06
make sure that we put that in there um

34:09
again do we hit on all the stuff do we

34:10
make sure we touch on everything i mean

34:12
people just you know they want to know

34:13
what's going on you know

34:15
there's always events being added on a

34:17
weekly basis so it's usually something

34:19
new to check out on our website

34:21
we have uh

34:22
especially now since tours are starting

34:24
to gear up again

34:26
so i'd say like there's a lot of action

34:28
happening for the first and second

34:30
quarter of 2022 and you know the bigger

34:32
names are starting to get out there so

34:34
you know they can sign up for our e-news

34:35
blast they can right on our website they

34:37
can put their email address in and and

34:39
and uh they'll be informed of the events

34:43
that are coming down the pike and what's

34:44
happening in the interim awesome so

34:46
there are tour you do tours through here

34:47
too

34:48
is that what you said

34:49
no not right now or not ever

34:52
well we do tours when not we don't do

34:54
like a public tour oh okay all right and

34:56
i talked about it we actually put

34:58
together a tour

34:59
during covid it's not nothing

35:07
we've talked about doing that uh just uh

35:10
this because there's a lot of

35:11
interesting history about the theater no

35:13
ghosts

35:15
uh but we do have you know some

35:17
interesting stuff about meatloaf face

35:19
planning on stage and stuff like that so

35:22
yeah so that's something you can you

35:23
have to come and see me folks so hear

35:25
the story

35:27
awesome awesome all right so ed again

35:30
thank you so much for doing with us

35:31
today um

35:32
i'm mike hamm this has been the

35:34
greetings from the garden state podcast

35:35
ed kirchdoffer mayo performing arts

35:37
center you're the general manager here

35:39
great guy great interview fantastic

35:42
everybody else thank you for listening

35:43
and we will catch you next time

35:47
[Music]

35:53
[Music]

35:53
[Applause]

36:01
[Music]

36:19
you