Bristol Riverside Theatre reopens with the help of $2M from the commonwealth

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The Bristol Riverside Theatre reopens this week after being closed for six months for renovations. On Tuesday, it launched a three-week run of the Anna Deavere Smith play “Fires in the Mirror,” about the 1991 race riot in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.

The play is a series of monologues by Black and Jewish people involved in the riot sparked by a traffic accident that killed a Black child. The script is composed of excerpts from interviews Smith conducted with people immediately after the incident, making it a pioneering piece of verbatim — or documentary — theater.

Despite the closure, the Bristol Riverside Theatre typically produces five shows a year and hosts additional productions by outside companies. While renovations were underway, it maintained its schedule by staging plays in a nearby wedding reception venue.

Now that the first phase of renovations is complete, the theater’s appearance remains largely unchanged aside from new carpet and paint. However, the comfort level has improved substantially thanks to a replaced 38-year-old roof, a new HVAC system and 306 new seats.

A second phase of renovations is in the planning stages, which would give the balcony seats their own second-floor lobby overlooking the Delaware River.

The old HVAC system died last summer, and co-producing director Ken Kaissar suspects the old seats were original to the 95-year-old building.

“The HVAC backstage was leaking so bad that it looked like the set had a shower on it. I mean, just dripping with water,” he said. “These seats, we’re pretty sure, were here in 1930. Everything was on borrowed time.”

The state of Pennsylvania recognized the need for an upgrade and provided. Two million of the $2.4 million cost was paid by a Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant from the commonwealth. Additional funding came from the private foundation led by John Martinson, for whom the newly renovated theater is now named.

“This is an investment that was easy to make because of what it means for the theater, but also for our greater community,” said Rose Winchell, chief of staff to State Sen. Steve Santarsiero, who helped secure the RACP grant.

The Bristol Riverside opened in 1987 to revitalize a borough in its doldrum. Previously known as the Bristol Art Theatre, it had operated as an adult movie theater on a prime riverfront location until it closed in 1984. At that time, a local philanthropy — the Grundy Foundation — snapped it up for $1.7 million.

“Honestly, without the adult movie house we may not exist,” Kaissar said. “The Grundy Foundation really wanted that gone. They took the step to buy the theater to put an end to the pornography and the smut.”

Since then, Bristol has experienced a slow but steady recovery. Now the quaint 344-year-old waterfront town boasts over a dozen eateries; the most recent additions include a steak and seafood restaurant and bar, Drift on Mill, and a 1920s-style speakeasy called Daddy Tom’s.

The proprietor of Daddy Tom’s is serial restaurateur and East Ward Councilmember Greg Pezza, whose father, Bill Pezza, has been a force behind Bristol’s revival. The elder Pezza is the author of several Bristol-based novels and serves as president of the community fundraising and promotion nonprofit Raising the Bar.

The elder Pezza once had his own downfall in the Riverside Theatre.

“Bill came to see a show once and the seat broke on him. He ended up on his back on the floor,” Kaissar said. “That was a sure sign we needed new seats.”

Bristol’s revival has attracted the attention of Harrisburg, too. Last summer, Secretary of Community and Economic Development Rick Siger visited Mill Street to promote Gov. Shapiro’s $20 million Main Street Matters program, designed to bolster small-town business districts.

At the ribbon cutting flanked by elected officials and their representatives, Kaissar suggested the theater of politics and the theater of make-believe may not be so far apart.

“People come together. We cry together. We laugh together. I’m sure you guys do a fair amount of that in Congress,” he said. “It’s for everybody to come together and examine the issues of the day.”