West Orange’s Luna Stage uses grant to continue reimaging theater

WEST ORANGE, NJ — A year and counting into the COVID-19 pandemic that forced performance venues everywhere to reimagine the way theater works, West Orange’s Luna Stage is on its way to reopening for in-person events. A $20,000 grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, along with grants from the Orange Orphan Society and the Northern New Jersey Community Foundation, will go toward summer programs and personal protective equipment to allow for in-person performances. According to Artistic Director Ari Laura Kreith, the theater company’s size is an advantage.

“It feels like the redesign challenge was a year ago,” she said in a phone interview with the West Orange Chronicle on April 1. “One of the advantages to being a small theater is, we can be nimble, and it’s easier for us to adjust.”

After having to shut down last March, Luna pivoted from regular performances to virtual and livestreamed ones, and incorporated film and technology into its regular operations. The summer programs were all online, allowing students to write and film their own projects from home.

“It was a different version of what was going to happen anyway,” Kreith said. “It’s been a lot of opportunity to connect with the community, and we wouldn’t have been able to work in those formats otherwise.”

These new formats will continue. “#RIFT,” a theater experience that will be in three parts, begins on April 9. The first part of the play is told through text messages: Over the course of two months, those interested will receive texts sent to their phone that tell the story of two brothers, one who is in prison. The second part of the experience is interactive; participants can interact with the creative team to become a part of the story. In the fall, the experience will culminate in a performance, starring writer Gabriel Jason Dean.

An advantage of the technology that Luna has embraced, such as the texting element of “#RIFT,” is that not everyone who participates has to live locally. The student who was the farthest away from the theater’s home base in the valley of West Orange was in Panama, and others were dealing with time differences in California and Colorado.

“We’ve been asking questions of accessibility,” Kreith said. “Who gets to experience theater, and how do we break down those barriers? I think the questions of how to serve the people who can only participate online is something to consider. How do we still include the people who still feel like they’re a part of the community virtually?”

Not everything will be exactly like it was pre-pandemic once in-person performances become common again. The grants have allowed Luna to purchase a green screen that can be used both indoors and outdoors, and projects can be cultivated off-site as well.

“Especially with teenagers, they get to do writing and filmmaking here and at home,” Kreith said. “There’s no reason that shouldn’t continue.”

Luna will be setting up tents in the theater’s parking lot for some performances, and also taking advantage of its outdoor courtyard at the side of the building. But Kreith is still looking forward to the day when Luna Stage can have an audience that fills the space to capacity.

“Being on Zoom is different,” she said, adding that at live performances, “We have a deep personal relationship with our audience. I don’t go to every show, but I go to most of them, and there were so many people I would hug. We’ve all done a heroic job of staying connected, but I miss being in the community.”

Anyone interested in “#RIFT” can register to participate at www.lunastage.org/rift. Information about the theater’s other projects is also on the website at www.lunastage.org.

Writers and performers have been creating with and at Luna throughout the coronavirus crisis, but Kreith doesn’t know what those artistic endeavors will look like in a post-pandemic world.

“We’ll have a lot of diverse human experiences when we’re going to reflect on this time. I don’t know where it will take us. I have a friend who’s convinced there will be renaissance,” she said. “I hope he’s right.”

  FEATURED, Grants, Luna Stage