{"id":23342,"date":"2023-12-18T06:05:52","date_gmt":"2023-12-18T11:05:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/?p=23342"},"modified":"2023-12-18T06:11:08","modified_gmt":"2023-12-18T11:11:08","slug":"brick-family-gets-ok-to-build-towns-first-live-theater-arts-studio-take-a-look","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/2023\/12\/brick-family-gets-ok-to-build-towns-first-live-theater-arts-studio-take-a-look\/","title":{"rendered":"Brick Family Gets OK to Build Town’s First Live Theater, Arts Studio: Take a Look"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A rendering of the future Mantoloking Road Playhouse. (Planning Document)<\/p><\/div>\n

There are quite a few ways one might have gotten to know the Zarrilli family of Brick Township over the years.<\/p>\n

For starters, Anthony and Kendra Zarrilli may have built your home<\/a>. You may have heard they purchased and transformed the Mantoloking Ale House<\/a> into the popular family restaurant and bar it is today. Or, if your children participate in live theater, Kendra Zarrilli is likely the person who introduced you to the Brick Children\u2019s Community Theater (BCCT) group, known for years for its masterful presentation of youth stage productions.<\/p>\n

From a family where entrepreneurship and community involvement have often intertwined will soon come a new venture: Brick Township\u2019s first dedicated playhouse and arts studio. What has long been a non-descript, spartan-looking building on Mantoloking Road that has served as a boat yard and a few similar businesses will, like the restaurant nearly across the street, be transformed into something new \u2013 Brick\u2019s first live theater and arts venue. The township\u2019s planning board, last week, memorialized its unanimous approval of the Zarrillis\u2019 application to renovate and expand the building at 266 Mantoloking Road in order to realize their dream.<\/p>\n

The idea for what will eventually become a 120-seat theater for live stage productions as well as musical performances and similar events was conceived as many new ventures over the last few years have: overcoming challenges presented by the pandemic. The BCCT group had long held their productions, which drew thousands of attendees over the course of a run of shows, at the Strand Theater in Lakewood. Suddenly, the group found themselves without a home.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A rendering of the future Mantoloking Road Playhouse. (Planning Document)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cLong story short, we were two weeks out from a show and a day away from one of our major fundraisers when everything closed up,\u201d said Kendra Zarrilli. \u201cDuring that lockdown time, we\u2019d sit around and ask ourselves, \u2018what are we going to do?\u2019 knowing that theater would probably not make it back until a lot of other things did first.\u201d<\/p>\n

A news segment on a park in New York designating outdoor socially-distant spaces for theatergoers sparked an idea to do the same in Brick, and after New Jersey eased some restrictions and allowed events with up to 500 people outdoors, township officials were more than happy to allow the group to put on an outdoor show at Windward Beach.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing was, when we were ready to go back into the Strand theater, they weren\u2019t ready for us,\u201d Zarrilli said. \u201cThere was another, \u2018what do we do now?\u2019 moment since nobody was going to perform or come out to an outdoor theater production in the middle of the winter.\u201d<\/p>\n

BCCT sought help from the Grunin Center<\/a>, which was able to squeeze in some performances, as well as the Stafford Township Arts Center<\/a>, but the Grunin Center\u2019s schedule was already steadily booked and Stafford\u2019s facility was a bit of a distance away, 45 minutes down the Parkway.<\/p>\n

It was time for a place BCCT could call home \u2013 and also serve as a shot in the arm for the arts community in Brick as a whole, which has always been relegated to venues in other towns.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe looked at a few pieces of property in town, and we went to town hall just for a fact-finding meeting, asking if this was something that might work in Brick, and the reception was wonderful,\u201d said Zarrilli.<\/p>\n

The reality, however, was that building a theater from scratch was going to be a heavy lift \u2013 perhaps one just a bit too heavy.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething like that could take years of work and a few hundred thousand dollars just to get the paperwork done before we could even put a shovel in the ground, and that was just too much,\u201d she said. \u201cSo we started seeing if there was a building we could convert.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it turned out, the building was practically across the street.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe passed it every day, and one time it just dawned on me, \u2018what about that building?\u201d Zarrilli recalled. \u201cIt was a good piece of property, in a good zone and had plenty of parking. It was someplace where we could hold both classes and performances.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A rendering of the future Mantoloking Road Playhouse. (Planning Document)<\/p><\/div>\n

Well-experienced in building, renovating and obtaining permits and zoning plans, the family went to work plotting out the opportunities such a venue could produce.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe primary reason for buying the building was always going to be a home for Brick Children\u2019s Community Theater, but outside of that, we started thinking about what we could do to fill in the rest of the time,\u201d Zarrilli said. \u201cEverybody has come with new and fresh ideas, whether it\u2019s from nonprofits, the old Strand staff, movie nights, comedians, maybe dinner-and-a-show since the Mantoloking Ale House is across the street.\u201d<\/p>\n

Music will also play a significant role in the playhouse\u2019s future.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were also thinking of some of the local music teachers who teach piano and guitar \u2013 they\u2019re always looking for a space where they can have a recital without breaking the bank,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing like that around here, so in addition to BCCT, there are a lot of others things we\u2019ll be able to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once plans began to come together, Anthony Zarrilli quickly tapped into his own creative side and thought up an interesting renovation plan to capture the experience of much larger theaters in the more intimate space the Mantoloking Road building could provide. The theater would already have nine-foot ceilings since the building had been used as a business, but what could be done with the unused basement portion?<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018What if we take out the floor so we have the whole area from the basement already up?'\u201d Anthony said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe realized we could have 20-foot ceilings, a drop down and great acoustics,\u201d said Kendra.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A rendering of the future Mantoloking Road Playhouse. (Planning Document)<\/p><\/div>\n

Indeed, work on that portion of the project has already begun. But naturally, it will take some time to obtain permits, complete larger renovation projects and expand the building with new entrances and accessible restrooms. It is, however, a labor of love.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband and I are very passionate about what we do and about theater, our girls both participated, and our one daughter is currently studying musical theater in college,\u201d Kendra Zarrilli said. \u201cIt\u2019s just something very near and dear to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to allowing the BCCT organization to plot its own destiny, Zarrilli hopes the playhouse will give a home to productions and performances that otherwise may never have had the space to come to fruition.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A rendering of the future Mantoloking Road Playhouse. (Planning Document)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be small, compared to what we were used to, but it gives us so much flexibility,\u201d she said. \u201cWe can do things that won\u2019t have to attract 5,000 people, but the kids and directors have really wanted to do. We can do a show with little kids \u2013 one or two performances with just the parents and grandparents. We think we can have a lot of fun, and do a lot of community outreach that we\u2019ve thought about for so long but just never had a place to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The venue will represent new life in Brick\u2019s arts community, but most importantly, it will be built on the love of having fun and opening up new opportunities for residents to enjoy themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thought of everything this place can be has made it that much more exciting,\u201d Zarrilli said.<\/p>\n

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There are quite a few ways one might have gotten to know the Zarrilli family of Brick Township over the years. For starters, Anthony and Kendra Zarrilli may have built your home. You may have heard they purchased and transformed the Mantoloking Ale House into the popular family restaurant and bar it is today. Or, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,1649],"tags":[24,4484,5105,5070,1933,5106],"class_list":["post-23342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-in-brick","category-local-business","tag-brick-nj-news","tag-featured","tag-live-theater","tag-mantoloking-playhouse","tag-mantoloking-road","tag-venue"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/mantoloking_playhouse_1-scaled.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pgt2Ft-64u","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shorebeat.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}