SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — The South Orange Performing Arts Center will celebrate its 10th anniversary with a gala honoring three of its biggest supporters Oct. 29.
The event will pay tribute to South Orange Village President Sheena Collum, SOPAC governor Carolyn Minick Mason and founding contributor Peter Shapiro, all of whom have either donated funds, recruited sponsors or raised awareness for the performing arts venue. It will also feature performances by some successful New Jersey artists, including “Gilmore Girls” star Kelly Bishop, Tony-nominated choreographer Savion Glover, Grammy-winning jazz pianist Bill Charlap and acclaimed singer and actress Suzzanne Douglas.
The fundraiser is a chance to recognize the positive impact that SOPAC has had on the South Orange community during the past decade. Executive Director Mark Packer pointed out that the venue is an “economic driver,” with its most recent study showing that it brings in more than $1,500,000 to the village as patrons visit nearby shops and restaurants. Of course, Packer said simply having a performing arts center allows South Orange to serve its residents in a way most towns cannot.
“There aren’t a lot of towns that have their own performing arts center,” Packer told the News-Record in an Oct. 6 phone interview. “This is a very, very culturally sophisticated community, and (residents) appreciate fine entertainment. They have a passion for live performance. And how cool is it that they have this 439-seat venue in their own backyard?”
SOPAC has come a long way in the past 10 years. For much of that time, the venue struggled under the burden of millions of dollars in debt from the facility’s construction, which in turn affected its chances to obtain outside funding. But matters drastically improved when South Orange agreed to erase its debt in exchange for ownership of the building in 2013, shortly after Packer started with the venue. The executive director said SOPAC was able to garner a $90,000 grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts soon after that happened, and it has since gone on to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional funding. He said the venue now operates at a $3 million budget, which is three times more than when he first came on board.
That is not the only way that SOPAC has improved. Upon taking over the executive director position, Packer said he made it his goal to expand and diversify the arts center’s programming in order to provide the “highest caliber of artistry.” And the venue did just that, varying the genres of performances it offered and bringing in big-name talent. As a result, Packer said SOPAC is now viewed in a different light.
“We’re on the trajectory now where we’ve sort of arrived,” Packer said. “The people in the music industry trust SOPAC. They know that their artists are going to play to full houses. And the space itself of course is so warm and welcoming that artists have a great experience when they come here.”
This perception has enabled SOPAC to continue to attract top-tier stars such as Graham Nash, David Crosby and the Indigo Girls, who all typically perform at much larger venues. Most importantly, Packer said visitors compliment him all the time on the quality of SOPAC’s programming, which he said is tremendously gratifying.
One person who has been particularly impressed with SOPAC’s output is Mason, who has served on the arts center’s board of governors for eight of the last 10 years. The gala honoree said she has too many favorite shows to count, from Phoebe Snow to Stephanie Mills to productions of “The Nutcracker” that rival anything she has seen in New York City. And she hopes to continue attracting large sponsors in order to afford other famous names in the future.
Mason is also proud of the work SOPAC does to promote arts education, which includes offering discounted children’s performances, hosting Poetry Out Loud competitions and displaying a young artists exhibition in its gallery. These efforts are vital, she said, because art is what allows youth to grow through creative expression. As such, she wants the venue to expand its educational outreach through means like offering SOPAC-branded summer camps and opportunities to pair students with community members for cross-cultural learning. Overall, the governor said she wants the arts center to develop a reputation for educational excellence.
“I would like SOPAC to be that place people first think of (for their children’s needs) in art,” Mason told the News-Record in an Oct. 6 phone interview.
Shapiro also hopes SOPAC will continue promoting the arts in general for its benefit to the South Orange community. The successful financier and former New Jersey gubernatorial candidate pointed out that the arts enrich people’s lives, which is why it is important for communities to embrace any local outlet for them. And SOPAC certainly has not let the village down, he said, since the venue has advanced the town’s culture “enormously” while becoming a “destination for the performing arts.”
“I’ve lived in South Orange for more than 50 years, and it’s one of the real breakthroughs that’s occurred in my lifetime,” Shapiro told the News-Record in an Oct. 6 phone interview.
Collum agreed that SOPAC has become a major asset for South Orange during the past 10 years. The village president, who also serves on the venue’s board of governors, told the News-Record that its stellar reputation brings in more than 50,000 people annually to explore what the community has to offer. It was recently named a Favorite Small Performing Arts Center by the ArtPride New Jersey Foundation, gaining valuable publicity for the village as well, she said.
In all, Collum said SOPAC gives potential residents another reason to consider South Orange.
“The arts are one component of what makes a total community, and South Orange prides itself on having something for everyone,” Collum said in an Oct. 10 email. “Having robust arts and cultural programming, I truly believe, is part of what draws so many families to live in our special town.”
Douglas certainly knows the significance of art, being an actress and singer herself. The Maplewood resident, best known for starring in the popular WB sitcom “The Parent ’Hood” and her roles in films such as “How Stella Got Her Groove Back,” said art makes people better by letting them experience perspectives different from their own. It is something that people could not do without, she said.
“One would hope that we don’t live in a world where we don’t self-examine and allow the art to help take us on a journey toward self-examination,” Douglas told the News-Record in an Oct. 6 phone interview.
So it was easy for Douglas to accept SOPAC’s offer of performing at its benefit gala, especially after having attended so many shows there in the past. This time, though, she will be the one on stage singing jazz standards and some original numbers that she hopes to one day release as an album. She is also looking forward to seeing her old friend Glover, whom she first met when he was her teenage costar in the 1989 film “Tap.”
Most importantly, Douglas hopes that SOPAC is substantially helped by the donations collected through the event. The actress and singer explained that arts venues are most effective when they are supported by their home communities. Without the contributions of South Orange and Maplewood residents like herself, she said SOPAC would not be able to provide the benefits that it does.
“The arts function because of the community that helps service it,” Douglas said. “There’s a reciprocity that happens between those who create art and those who’ve been blessed enough to enjoy the art that’s being created. One could not exist without the other.”