Theater group looking for a permanent home BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer SCOTT PILLING staff Maryann Ridoux, Janet Spahr and Ada Cole, members of the Brick Community Players' board of directors, last week discuss plans for an upcoming production. BRICK TOWNSHIP - They live out of a very large suitcase. After every performance, the devoted members of the Brick Community Players pack up the costumes, take down the scenery, put out the garbage and erase any hint that they might have been there a few hours ago. It's the way it has to be for now, since the all-volunteer theater group has no permanent home. "Give us a stage and an audience, and we perform," said group president Janet Spahr, whose father, John, a former township employee, helped found the theater company back in the early 1990s. The group just finished two performances of "Rehearsal for Death" earlier this month at the Brick Township Civic Plaza, located in a strip mall on Chambers Bridge Road. Maryann Ridoux, the group's public relations director, said she "came in cold" after her husband died. "I lost my husband, this was my therapy," she said. The group shares more than just an appreciation of the arts. They are a family. And both Spahr and Ridoux agree that 85-year-old Ada Cole is the heart and soul of the theater group. "She is the voice and the face of the Brick Community Players," Spahr said. "She's the one who gets us almost anything we need." Ada sets up the schedules and makes arrangements for just about anything connected with the group. She once showcased her tap dancing skills during a group talent show, where she danced with her great-grandchildren. She took up tap dancing after her husband died. The two loved to dance together. "When I lost him, I didn't have a partner," she said. So she enrolled in a tap dancing class. "I danced for 20 years, joyfully," Cole said. "I did that until my knees went. I had to have my knees done, so I hung up my shoes. But I could go out in the kitchen right now and do a little soft shoe." The group makes do with what little money they have. Spahr combs through consignment shops for old clothes for costumes. She customizes all the costumes for each play by herself. They are stored in someone's garage. The group's actual operating budget isn't much, Cole said with a laugh. "Whatever we make on one show goes into the next show," she said. Cole is also the group spokesperson when it comes to soliciting funds. She is a regular at Township Council meetings. "Anytime I see anybody, anytime they have an affair, I'm there," she said. "I say, 'Just remember we need a home.' I've been saying that for the last 10 years." Group members spend between eight and 10 weeks rehearsing for a play, but they only have a few days for performances, because they don't have a permanent facility. "It's a letdown," Cole said. The players need a theater that would seat between 100 to 125 people. That would make it possible to have more performances throughout the year, Spahr said. "Once you get a show up, it doesn't cost you anything," she said. "It makes you some money. Because we are limited, [it's] Friday and Saturday, and it's gone." While they support all the athletic programs in a sports-crazy town like Brick, they don't understand why there is no money or facility for the arts. "There always seems to be money for each of the sports, but nothing for the arts," Cole said. Sports don't meet the needs of all children in the township, Spahr said. "There are children out there who have creative souls," she said. "It's always the arts that get cut." A small, intimate theater would make it possible to do all kinds of shows, Spahr said. "We're not asking for an 800-seat theater," she said. "We just want people to know where we are." For more information about the Brick Community Players, contact Cole at (732) 840-3515, or log on to the Web site at www.brickcommplayers.com.