THE PLAY’S THE THING?
Beacon Charter chief says school plans to establish new theater hub
WOONSOCKET – It’s a new year, and Garrett Mancieri has a new plan for energizing the downtown economy – by investing in community theater.
The newly minted chairman of Beacon Charter High School for the Arts’ governing body says the school is committed to a $3 million conversion of the former United Methodist Church at 1 Federal St. into a hub for Beacon’s drama programs. Combined with the Stadium Theatre in Monument Square – often called an engine of the nightlife economy – and the Rhode Island Stage Ensemble (RISE) in the Mason Building, 142 Clinton St., a third venue for the performing arts in such close proximity will go a long way toward creating a “theater district” in the city, Mancieri says.
“It’ll be very exciting to have another theater in that district,” says Mancieri. “If we have multiple venues it’s really going to help grow the area and the surrounding community.”
Beacon bought the roughly 10,500-square foot church for $165,000 in 2020, according to Mancieri. Built in 1908, the stucco building is basically “a shell” and requires extensive renovations, but an announcement about seed revenue for the job is expected shortly.
“Chairman of the Beacon board” – it has about a dozen members – is the latest in a string of titles for Mancieri, who expects to step down as chairman of another organization, the Downtown Woonsocket Collaborative, in about a week. He’ll remain on the board of the nonprofit organization, whose mission is basically to promote a positive economic climate for small business in the city’s traditional downtown.
Mancieri also shook off another title he’d held for several years last fall – chairman of the Autumnfest Steering Committee. Mancieri is also a former member of the City Council, serving one term that ended in 2016.
Though he’s shedding some responsibilities, Mancieri continues to serve not only as chairman of Beacon, but in a similar capacity on the governing board of Woonsocket Head Start. And he also serves as a member of the board that runs Sojourner House, the organization that runs emergency shelters and other supportive programs for victims of domestic violence.
A common theme that runs through much of Mancieri’s service is bolstering the downtown economy. Mancieri is 37 years old – too young to recall the glory days of the old mercantile district before the center of retail gravity shifted to the plazas of East Woonsocket and the independent, family-owned businesses were largely eclipsed by the big box stores.
But Mancieri credits his late grandmother with instilling in him a love for the past – and a longing to preserve the old downtown as a vibrant center of the city’s retail and cultural life.
“I really fell in love with Main Street when my grandmother told me stories about it,” said Mancieri. “It was a way for me to reconnect with her before I lost her in 2001. I really feel like she would be very proud of where we are today so that makes me feel very good.”
As a member of the council, Mancieri says his signature accomplishment was the creation of something called the Downtown Overlay District – basically a zone of relaxed zoning regulations for investors that spans the traditional downtown – and beyond. One business that’s often cited as a trophy of the effort is Lop’s Brewing, the city’s only brewpub, which took up residence in a remodeled, mixed-used building at 122 North Main St. about two years ago.
The overlay district was the result of research he and others had done as members of the DWC, an organization he says is desperately in need of more resources to continue – and professionalize – its mission. Though he’ll no longer be the director after Jan. 13, when his successor will be appointed, Mancieri says he’s hopeful that whoever replaces him will be able to transform the agency into a more institutionalized linchpin of the city’s efforts to lift the fortunes of Main Street.
One way of doing that, Mancieri says, is by offering the director a bona fide salary instead of the token stipend the position now carries. Mancieri says GrowSmart RI, a non-profit think tank that promotes ideas about urban planning, is pushing the General Assembly to create a funding source for “Main Street associations” like the DWC – a potential source of revenue to build the organization.
“I’ve worked very hard to bring a lot of businesses to Woonsocket,” said Mancieri. “I don’t know why that’s not more valued in the community. Even if I’m not the director I feel somebody could generate a lot of tax revenue for the city by having a great relationship with businesses...it’s just convincing people to fund it.”
Though he remains active with various non-profits, Mancieri says his newly lightened workload may free him up to run for public office again, though his “dream job” would not be an elective position – it would be on the staff at City Hall, in a position that doesn’t even exist: economic development director. Though Mayor Lisa Baldelli-Hunt has proposed such a position in the past, it’s never survived the budget deliberation process.
The last time the city had an economic development director was around 2012 – when Matthew Wojcik, an aide to former Mayor Leo T. Fontaine, held the position. A Cumberland native, Wojcik later went on to serve as town administrator in Tiverton and now holds the same position in neighboring Douglas, Mass.
But Mancieri says he’s contemplating a return to politics within the next couple of years.
He says he may attempt to reprise his role as councilman or shoot for a seat in the state legislature. He hasn’t decided yet which he might go after, but one pol he’s unlikely to try to pick off is State Sen. Roger A. Picard (D-Dist. 20, Woonsocket, Cumberland). That’s because he and Picard are second cousins.
For now, Mancieri says his key focus will be on launching Beacon’s new theater in the old United Methodist Church, a project he estimates could take two to three years to come to fruition.
If all goes according to plan, Mancieri says the structure may also house the culinary arts program for either Beacon or its companion school, Founder’s Academy – a middle school.
Beacon has already hired personnel to run a capital fundraising campaign for the project, and the school expects to receive some supplementary grant funding early this year.
“We’re going to completely renovate this structure,” he said.