First a building, then a bar...now a theater. Jerry Belanger, proprietor of
The Park Bar and owner of the building that also houses
Cliff Bells and the Bucharest Grill, continues to bring more life to Park Avenue with the launch of his second-floor performing arts venue, the Gryphon Theatre.
A performance space was Belanger's "driving force" for initially acquiring the building, but he realized that it would be difficult to make it self-supporting -- so he opened other enterprises first. "I could sustain the theater entity off of a stable business environment," he says. "That way, if the the theater fails, the entire building doesn't fail."
He hopes it doesn't though, and calls a lack of theater venues for young professional actors "a crisis in the city." Belanger hopes that the Gryphon's location -- near the Fillmore, Fox and Gem Theaters, along with the Opera House -- will make it more likely for suburban patrons to visit the theater. "We're right in the little safe zone," he says.
Named for the creatures carved into the building's stone cornices, the Gryphon is already home to a weekly comedy showcase, The Improv Brovas, on Wednesday nights and just wrapped an
Abreact Performance Space production of
Tongues and
Savage/Love. Belanger's goal for 2009 is a full season of art, music and theater scheduled in advance and published in a playbill.
Source: Jerry Belanger, Park Bar
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh
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