Talk of the Town: Mark Morgan

Moorestown Patch: There’s been a lot of debate lately about what makes Moorestown special, what gives Moorestown its character, as it relates to this whole debate over liquor. What, for you, gives Moorestown its character?
Mark Morgan: Like most people who moved to Moorestown—I mean, I wasn’t born and raised here—the reason that we came here was because of the schools … You name it, this town pretty much has it. Whether it’s academics, or athletics, with great volunteer support organizations. The three As: academics, athletics and the arts. Very strong in all three. And you don’t often find that in a town that also has a Main Street. I grew up in a town—Lansdowne, PA—that was very similar. Had a Main Street, similar population, suburban town outside of Philadelphia. Moorestown’s very similar, and I loved that, that it was kind of like my hometown. So to give that to my kids, a place that has all three of those As, that makes it a very special place.

Patch: What play, more than any other, would you love the Moorestown Theater Company (MTC) to be able to put on?
Morgan: There’s different shows I’d like to do for different reasons. West Side Story is a personal favorite … I’ve been in it, (with the) Upper Darby summer stage, a million years ago. The problem with it is it skews to a young cast, which is not necessarily our strength yet. We have a lot of parents. We have a lot of very talented teens and pre-teens. But that 20-35 range—so I don’t see us doing West Side Story anytime soon. Les Miserables is in the mix of one of my all-time favorite musicals … We could conceivably do that. But that’s a show where you really need to have your own space, because the set is so intensive. Plus, the rights aren’t available to be able to produce the show.

Patch: You’ve said before your dream is for MTC to one day have its own place. How close, or how far, are you from reaching that goal?
Morgan: Some days I think we’re real close. Other days I think it’s not so close. We’ve looked at sites, we’ve drawn up architectural designs on places. Like anything else in life, it always comes back to money. I teach my kids that: If you can’t figure out why something is the way it is, put a dollar (amount) attached to it and that’ll give you some explanation why it either does or doesn’t happen … If we had an angel out there who wanted a performing arts center or theater named after them and wanted to write us a check, we could be in a space within a year and be up and running. Until then, some theater companies go 20, 30, 40 years jumping from place to place before they finally settle somewhere.

Patch: Downtowns have been hurting in this economy. How would you evaluate the condition of Moorestown’s downtown? How could it be better?
Morgan: Besides theater, my great love is, sports in general, but baseball in particular. And I would say Moorestown’s Main Street has just gotten off the disabled list. For a few years, there were many, many vacancies. People said, “Hey, we need more restaurants on Main Street.” Well, through the efforts of the volunteer Economic Development Advisory Committee—I sit on that committee as MBA president—they reached out … In the last three years, has opened, the has opened, Akira has opened, , , , , and . That’s eight restaurants that weren’t necessarily here three years ago. To me, that’s a great sign for our Main Street. The reason I’m saying just off the disabled list—when you get off the disabled list, you’re still not going to be playing at full stride. You’re going to be getting back into it slowly. We still have some ways to go.

Patch: You dressed up as a hula girl for the Halloween Parade. Whose idea was that?
Morgan: Being a theater person, costuming is not usually an issue. So Halloween is a fun, favorite day. Since the MBA took over the a few years ago, I have been known to dress in the occasional outlandish costume. Switching hats back and forth to my theater company hat, we are producing (, which he cannot name because the MTC is restricted from doing so—per Rodgers & Hammerstein's policy) and the outfit I wore fits with the theme. So I was advertising, cross-marketing there … Last year we were doing Annie Jr. I was dressed as Little Orphan Annie for the parade. People thought I had hit a new low then. They have since realized, no, the new low was reached this year with the coconut bra.