Report To The Community 2022

the city of Newark and the
arts community nationally.
“For me, the big question
isn’t: How do we create a
particular show, a product?
The question is: How do we,
here in Newark, create a home
for artists to not just create
new work, but to disseminate
that work through a variety of
platforms?” Rodriguez explains.
“What I see, five years from now,
is that an artist will be able to
come to Newark and create a
project. If they want to tech that
performance on a big stage,
NJPAC can do that. If they want
to tour it, NJPAC can help them
do that. If they want to present
it virtually, NJPAC can help them
do that. If they want to film it?
Well, NJPAC is now partnered
with Lionsgate Newark, a major
film studio with five sound
stages right here in town.”
“Without distribution, a
performance expires once
it’s over. But with distribution,
it resonates for years.”
That vision — of boosting Newark
toward becoming a hub of
creatives who, through NJPAC,
can access all the tools they
need — is not a traditional model
for a performing arts center.
But NJPAC has a mandate to
be distinctly nontraditional.
“Because we are located in
Newark, a great city of the
arts, we have an opportunity
that not all venues have,”
says NJPAC’s President and
CEO John Schreiber.
“We get to be more useful to
Newark by helping it grow into a
city of creativity and opportunity.
We have a lot of runway to do
work that performing arts centers
don’t typically do. Focusing on
that will be transformative — for
the Arts Center and for Newark —
in the years to come.” •
dancing
across the
country
In its 10th anniversary year
the hip hop nutcracker
brought the holiday spirit
to audiences far and wide
“Hey, let’s get this thing in
motion!” raps Rev Run, one of
the founding members of the
hugely influential hip hop group
Run DMC, at the beginning of
the Disney+ all-star streaming
version of NJPAC’s production,
The Hip Hop Nutcracker.
But the Arts Center’s unique
production of the holiday
classic — which pairs Pyotr Ilyich
Tchaikovsky’s beloved score
with DJ scratching and explosive
hip hop dance moves — has
already been in frenetic motion
for a decade now, and shows
no sign of slowing down.
First staged in NJPAC’s
Victoria Theater 10 years ago,
The Hip Hop Nutcracker, created
by hip hop and Broadway
choreographer Jennifer Webber
and fronted by hip hop veteran
Kurtis Blow, quickly leapt to
the larger Prudential Hall stage,
and then took off across the
country on a national tour.
A virtual tour followed during
the pandemic; the filmed
version of the production is still
available to schools today.
This season, the in-person
holiday tour reached 46
cities across the country —
and played two sold-out
shows at home at NJPAC.
But it also became a small-screen
sensation — for the second time.
Already filmed once as a PBS
special (which won NJPAC its
A high-flying moment from The Hip Hop Nutcracker,
at home on Prudential Hall’s Betty Wold Johnson
Stage. Above: Scenes from the show’s streaming
version, available on Disney+.
first Emmy Award last year),
this year Disney+ filmed a new,
all-star version in Los Angeles,
featuring Run, Blow, ballet
superstar Mikhail Baryshnikov,
the hip hop dance crew the
Jabbawockeez, Tiler Peck,
Kida The Great and So You
Think You Can Dance star
Comfort Fedoke as the magical
toymaker Drosselmeyer.
That version began streaming
on the platform November 25,
2022, and was downloaded
more than 7 million times
in less than one month.
“Content creation, in success —
it’s not just taking a project and
having it distributed one way,”
says NJPAC’s David Rodriguez.
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