Bytes from the Bean by Joe Manning: 2-04Joe Manning
12:00AM / Thursday, February 19, 2004
ON WITH THE SHOW
"We used to go to the movies at the Mohawk. What a great place to grow up with. My friend Joanne's uncle, Tony Valotta, ran it. We'd go together on Saturdays, and Tony gave us a super-duper grocery bag of popcorn. The other kids would say, "Where'd you get that big bag of popcorn?" We never thought then about the Mohawk being art deco or that it was stylish and all that stuff. It was just a place to sit up in the balcony and throw things and watch the show."
-Paulette Wein
I lived in Torrington, Connecticut, from 1976 to 1999. Torrington prospered in the 20th century as the brass industry grew along the Naugatuck River. But manufacturing jobs have been disappearing over the past thirty years, and many of the 32,000 residents work out of town or in white collar and service jobs on the sprawling east side of the city. Closer to the malls and industrial parks in Hartford County and the Farmington Valley, the east side has seen an explosion of single-family homes, fast food restaurants, and strip shopping centers, anchored by Wal-Mart and Home Depot.
The beautiful but well-worn central business district has suffered profoundly. Except for an old-fashioned furniture store and a small men's clothing store downtown, and a nondescript shopping center just two blocks south, mainstream retail stores and a lively Main Street exist only in nostalgic conversations at the senior center and in the hopeful plans of business leaders and politicians.
And yet, a revival seems imminent to those who have staked the city's future on the arts, namely the Nutmeg Ballet Company and Conservatory for the Arts, and the fully restored Warner Theater. The magnificent Warner, built in 1931, was one of New England's most decorative and opulent movie theaters. But in the 1970s, deferred maintenance and poor attendance threatened its survival. In 1981, now closed and with a leaking roof, it went on the market, and the city pushed for its demolition.
That's when a concerned group of citizens formed the Northwest Connecticut Association for the Arts, and they attempted to raise awareness of the importance of the theater-and raise the money to buy it. In dramatic last-minute fashion, reminiscent of a governor granting a stay of execution just before midnight, enough cash was raised to make a down payment and secure a mortgage. What followed was an incredible volunteer effort to restore the theater enough to make it usable, and to put together a viable performance schedule necessary to attract crowds and generate income.
At that time, Nutmeg Ballet was already developing a reputation as one of New England's best programs, but they badly needed a better performance venue (the annual Nutcracker was at the high school auditorium). The Warner and Nutmeg were a perfect match.
Twenty years later, in addition to billing dozens of concerts by nationally-known artists every year, and staging an impressive roster of locally produced plays and musicals, the Warner has created the Center for Arts Education in the adjacent building once occupied by the city's oldest department store. And Nutmeg has done an architecturally miraculous conversion of another adjacent building to house its Conservatory for the Arts. For photos and more information, see the following websites: www.warnertheatre.org and www.nutmegconservatory.org
Has this saved Torrington's downtown? Probably, but there is still much to be done. The problem is that there is still the lack of a critical mass of arts and culture in the city.
North Adams and North Berkshire do not suffer that same lack of arts and culture. And it is growing in leaps and bounds. That is why we need to follow the example set by Torrrington, and do everything we can to restore the Mohawk Theater and turn it into a top-notch performing arts venue and movie house.
One of the things that Torrington has done in order to generate big attendance figures is to stage a sizeable number of productions that call for a large cast of children, such an Annie and The Wizard of Oz. In a small New England city such as Torrington, the demographics are well suited to this kind of programming, because there are so many multi-generational extended families still living there. Every kid in the cast is bound to sell at least a dozen tickets to parents, grandparents, cousins, aunt and uncles.
The restoration of the Mohawk is one of the last pieces of the puzzle for reviving the downtown. And it is the key to redeveloping Eagle Street, which could easily become a "theater district," complete with dance studios, night spots, and cafes. Now that the expansion of the North Adams Public Library has been funded and its construction is underway, it is finally time to focus on this project. Let's give our children an opportunity to share with us the joy of going to a first class downtown theater.
The Mohawk
A poem by Joe Manning
I worked at the Mohawk
when I was in high school
Mom always said I smelled like popcorn
when I came home
I saw To Sir With Love twenty-two times
When I was a senior
they tore down the block
on the south side of Main Street
I couldn't understand why my folks got so upset
about a bunch of stupid old buildings
When I got home from college
I landed a job teaching the seventh grade
and I'm still there
They're trying to restore the Mohawk
and fix up Main Street
so I took my class on a field trip downtown
We walked up to the front doors of the theater
and peeked in at the lobby
and I pointed out the old buildings
that are still standing
I could feel their blank stares
Visit Joe's website at: www.sevensteeples.com.
Email Joe at: manningfamily@rcn.com. |
