Friday, November 25, 2016
Ritz Theatre
afterthefinalcurtain.nete: The Ritz Theatre in Carteret, New Jersey originally opened on September 1, 1927. According to an article in “The Carteret Press,” which ran the the week before the opening, “it [was] the first modern theater to be erected in the borough and is up-to-date in every respect.” The 1,000 to 1,200 seat Ritz (accounts on the number of seats differ) was designed by local architect John Gliva. It was a vaudeville and silent film house until September 1928, when a Western Electric sound apparatus was installed to allow for the showing of “talkie” films.
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4 comments:
There’s something so cool about old abandoned spaces. For some reason, abandoned theaters always seem a bit creepy. This one is certainly in pretty tough shape – I feel like I’m looking at paint elevations that a scenic designer would give to their paint charge to show them how they want the aging to look on the walls of their set! I think it’s so crazy that they put up walls inside the theater and this caused people to basically forget the theater was there… like, how do you forget about that? Wouldn’t you have still seen the ceiling? I think it also speaks to how resources are utilized depending on the demands of the time. You wouldn’t expect a theater to be converted into a sewing factory, but in retrospect it totally makes sense. I just wonder how they dealt with having a raked floor.
It’s nice to hear that the town wants to build a performing arts center. While it would be nice to renovate the space, I feel like this is sort of a waste of money if the building is in as bad of a shape as they say (and from the pictures, I’d believe it). Modern theaters need to cater to new demands of performance and technological needs, and if this old theater would require a lot of work just to make it structurally sound, I feel like the town may be better off building a new theater from the ground up. It’s definitely a bummer, but if the final product is a performing arts center that better serves the community, then I’d say it’s the right way to go.
While I hope that they are able to retain at least a portion of the original theatre in their new arts center, I’m glad to see that Carteret is taking advantage of the unearthing of this theatre to create a new arts complex. Whether or not that complex incorporates the existing structure of this theatre isn’t the whole point though. Because of this theatre’s existence and exile, the community that once valued it will now again be able to value a theatre. The town could just as easily have torn down the remains of the theatre to build something that has nothing to do with the arts.
I also have to agree with the fact that there’s something both creepy and fascinating about old abandon spaces, especially theatres. I think it has to do with the fact that this was once a place where hundreds of people at a time came to enjoy a piece of art, and the fact that such a place has stood so long after it was abandoned of that purpose has a romantic and nostalgic ring to it. There’s also something extremely satisfying with the restoration of a forgotten place for a similar reason, it’s almost as if it were a person has received redemption after being shamed without having perpetrated any trespass on another.
I like the idea of using at least part of the old theater for a new performing arts building. Building a whole new building that pays tribute to the old theater is fine but reusing the old one lets people still experience the history of the building. Speaking of keeping the history of the building, when they say the new building would honor the Ritz in its design what does that mean? Would they just be rebuilding the Ritz theater with some modifications and modernizations? Would it just be the interior that’s the same? Would nothing be the same and the references to the Ritz only show up in little decorative touches? Would there just be a plaque somewhere? Where whatever they’re planning to do falls on that spectrum could end up being important, depending on how powerful New Jersey’s historical commission is (depending on whether or not New Jersey has a historical commission).
What a cool space. It's looking pretty beat up, but it is almost 100 years old. It's always nice to see old spaces (especially theaters) reused in new construction. I hope that that's what will happen here. I would understand if they had to scrap the whole building, because the Ritz Theatre as it is now is not looking too great. I'm surprised the walls are this damaged given that they were covered up for the majority of the building's existence. I was surprised by how small the stage is. The proscenium looks to be only 10-15 feet wide. I'm wondering how they would make the stage larger without completely gutting the font half of the auditorium. I would have love to have seen pictures of the organ, although it might have been gutted already. The article was unclear about this. If not, that would also be a great thing to restore, given that few modern theaters possess organs.
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