Center Players Theater Company Is Losing Lease On Freehold Home

FREEHOLD, NJ — An offstage drama is unfolding for the Center Players, Freehold's much-respected community theater group, as it faces the loss of its longtime lease.

Sheldon Fallon, president of Center Players, is looking for leads on a new theater space, now that a different owner has purchased the building at 35 South St. building.

The owner of the building is 29 South Street LLC, which already owns adjacent buildings, Fallon said.

The landlord told the theater its run there is over when the lease is up next March. A local grocery store is planned for the site, Fallon said.

This is all in the midst of preparing for the group's next production of "Deathtrap," as well as a full schedule of other programming coming up at the theater.

"We've been renting there since 2001," Fallon said.

As unreal as it seems to have to leave, the theater must find a new locale. "This is our fourth landlord," he observed.

But finding a new location, especially one right in a vibrant downtown such as Freehold, hasn't been easy, Fallon said.

He's made an inquiry at a firehouse in another town, and is following up on another lead at a facility on Route 33 in Howell. He's put out calls to the Freehold Raceway Mall for a space, but so far hasn't heard back.

Fallon said he also hopes Freehold Borough might have some ideas. Center Players is, after all, called "Freehold's Resident Theater Company."

"People come to the restaurants here after a show," he said. And he said the theater is also involved with the schools and community.

Fallon is hoping as word gets out about the theater company's dilemma that property owners come forward to suggest places to rent.

And the theater company is prepared to pay a fair price to be able to re-establish itself. It's also prepared to re-make a potential space suitable for its productions, with stage and lighting equipment and an audience space, he said.

Monmouth Arts in Red Bank, one of the major nonprofits that supports local arts with grants, has already designated Center Players for a $3,000 grant for 2023, Teresa Staub, executive director of Monmouth Arts, said.

"Theaters pull the community together. I'm very sorry to hear of this," Staub said.

Monmouth Arts provides programs and services that "support the practice, presence and influence" of the arts and of artists throughout Monmouth County, its website says, including supporting education programs and particular art shows and other events, Staub added.

She said Monmouth Arts grants are a maximum of $10,000. Center Players received grants from other sources and has income from ticket sales, Fallon said.

The organization, through the efforts of its volunteer actors and technical crew, brings a variety of drama and comedy and small-scale musicals to a local audience - all in what it calls its "intimate" 49-seat venue.

The New Jersey Association of Community Theaters has cited Center Players for excellence and its artistic director, Bernice Garfield-Szita, received its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019.

The theater, like others, went dark through COVID, but it still offered virtual performances and outdoor events - and paid its rent through that period with a Small Business loan, Fallon said.