David Saint begins 20th season at George Street

• Saint is directing this season's opening show, "Mama's Boy," which will be staged through Nov. 6
• George Street, he said, is a safe place for new work to develop
• “People have learned that they trust the experience of watching a new play unfold," he said

David Saint hasn’t stayed on at George Street Playhouse for two decades because he has nowhere else to go.

The artistic director of the New Brunswick venue says he has had offers to manage theaters elsewhere, offers baited with such come-ons as, “We’ll give you twice the salary, twice the budget and twice the facility.”

His answer has always been no, and so this month he’s embarking on his 20th season, personally directing the opener, “Mama’s Boy,” Rob Urbinati’s drama about the family life of Lee Harvey Oswald and particularly about the stifling influence of his mother, Marguerite. The show opened Oct. 18 and runs through Nov. 6.

READ: George Street opens season with 'Mama's Boy'

“I don’t know how long I expected to be here,” said Saint, former associate artistic director at the Seattle Rep, “but it certainly wasn’t 20 years. It’s like a marriage: you are seduced, you fall in love, and you make a commitment.’’

An important factor in his longevity, he said, is a staff that is motivated by love of their work and loyalty to each other — something, he said, he doesn’t find in many theaters.

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“That’s something I’m as proud of, if not prouder of, accomplishing as the works and artists we’ve brought here,” he said.

Developing and learning

Another factor, he said, is the ability to provide a safe place for new work to develop.

That is his passion and, he said, for the George Street audience it has been a learning experience.

“Our audience has changed,” he said. “When I started, I was doing new plays and people were resisting that — the telemarketers and the subscribers.

“People were asking, ‘How do I know I will like these plays?’ ”

Now, he said, when the theater mounts a play such as Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town,” as it did in 2014, people say, “I don’t want to see that. I come to you for the new stuff.”

In fact, under Saint’s watch, audiences have seen an unusual number of plays make the leap from the stage in New Brunswick to stages on and off-Broadway, including “It Shoulda Been You,” “Spitfire Grille,” “Clever Little Lies” and “Toxic Avenger.”

And David Auburn’s Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Proof” was developed in George Street’s Next Stage Series of new plays.

Besides the leading playwrights and directors who frequent George Street, audiences also have become accustomed to seeing familiar figures on the playhouse stage — such as Tyne Daly, Marlo Thomas, Ute Hagen and Anne Meara.

“They’re not coming here because of me,” Saint said. “They say they come here because they can go back to their lives at night. We’re right outside of New York, so you can develop something new and get home to the rest of your life in an hour or less.”

But television and stage actress Marlo Thomas said that her appearances in three new plays directed by Saint had everything to do with him.

She said Saint approaches a play with enthusiasm and excitement, but no preconceived notions of how it should be presented. Instead, she said, he engages the actors in a collaborative “search for truth.”

“As an actor,” Thomas said, “you have to protect yourself from the mediocre and the oppressive, suffocating kind of director who can stomp the life right out of you” leading to “stifled performances by people are afraid to stretch their wings.”

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Not so, she said, with Saint.

“You’re supposed to be able to try anything, any way,” she said. “Little by little you — the director and the cast —figure out where you should be. It’s like a big sandbox of wonder. Everybody can play in it. That’s why I’d work with David any time. David is great at playing in the sand.”

One notable figure who made the George Street Playhouse a second home was writer-director Arthur Laurents who, among many accomplishments, wrote the books for the Broadway musicals “Gypsy” and “West Side Story” and the movie “The Way We Were.”

After Saint directed a new play by Laurents at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, the two developed a relationship in which George Street mounted about 10 of Laurents’ plays over 15 years until the playwright’s death in 2011 at the age of 93.

Even when Laurents’ work wasn’t on the stage, the writer was frequently in the audience.

Saint is president of the Laurents/Hatcher Foundation — which makes cash awards for new theatrical works — and literary executor of Arthur Laurents' estate.

In the latter capacity, he is currently representing the estate regarding Stephen Spielberg’s prospective re-make of “West Side Story.”

A playwright's dream 

Saint said Laurents told him that, with respect to developing new work, “Broadway is Chernobyl; George Street is a playwright’s dream.”

And often Saint’s role comes down to what happens between him and the words a playwright has put on a page.

He said that the most important factor when he reads a play is whether he feels a visceral connection to it, “whether I laugh out loud, or cry, or am stunned by the sheer theatricality or the suspense of it.”

With respect to planning a whole season, he said, his primary goal is variety. This new season, for example, begins with an intense drama followed by “a charming valentine of a musical,” “a thrilling, hard-hitting drama of suspense,” and “a smart, funny, dark comedy.”

“In a five-course meal,” Saint said. “You can’t have protein all the time. You need the protein, but you also have to have the appetizer, the salad and the dessert.”

In the years that Saint has been at the playhouse — which is flanked by the Crossroads Theatre and the State Theatre — downtown New Brunswick has been transformed into a popular dining and entertainment destination that attracts an estimated 550,000 visitors each year. The three theaters on Livingston Avenue, the Mason Gross School of the Arts on the same block, and the American Repertory Ballet on Albany Street comprise the New Brunswick Cultural Center, which was established in 1982.

“When I started here,” he recalled, “you’d be afraid of walking to your car. And now there is this beautiful hotel across the street, great restaurants, new apartment buildings. It has changed drastically. Twenty years is a long time, but not a long time in changing the character of a city.’’

New Brunswick Mayor James Cahill said Saint has been integral to that evolution.

“David is a dear friend,’’ the mayor said, “and a passionate and inspirational advocate for the arts. He has helped transform New Brunswick into a cultural hub of excellence with world-class performances and world-renowned actors.

“The city is fortunate to have David and the George Street Playhouse helping to lead the way of bringing excellence in the arts to all of New Jersey,” he added.

The fact that he is still planning George Street seasons after 20 years is attributable in part to the board of directors of the nonprofit theater, Saint said.

“From the very beginning," he said, "I told my board, ‘If you don’t like the kinds of shows I choose to do, then fire me. If you don’t like my aesthetic, ask me to move on and bring in someone whose aesthetic you do want.’

“It’s fortunate that I have never had that pressure,” he added. “If I ever do, I’ll know it’s time to go.”

See the latest show at George Street

WHAT: "Mama's Boy"

WHEN: Through Nov. 6

WHERE: George Street Playhouse, 9 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick

TICKETS: $43 to $69

INFO: 732-246-7717 or www.georgestreetplayhouse.org