The Magnetic Field, a sleek new bar and theater space in the River District, opens this month.

by Mick Kelly . photo by Rimas Zailskas

It’s the jolt of energy the River District has been waiting for. This month, after two years of plotting and planning, Chall Gray and a gang of Asheville creatives are unveiling The Magnetic Field, an unusual combination of bar, restaurant and theater space on Depot Street in Asheville’s River Arts District. The bar is the main tenant in the Glen Rock Depot, a Mountain Housing Opportunities project that includes 90,000 square feet of commercial space and 60 apartments for those who qualify for affordable housing through MHO. Glen Rock, likely the first LEED-certified multi-use building in Asheville, will hold a ribbon-cutting on December 2. Tenants have started moving into the apartments, which leased up well before the building was completed. The Magnetic Field’s first show, The Bernstein Family Christmas Spectacular, opens December 8.

Gray, a former marketing and development director for Asheville Bravo Concerts, plans to use the performance space to showcase original works. Rows of old movie theater seats will hold up to 64. The stage will be open to dance, comedy, readings and movie screenings, but Gray, a former producer of Asheville’s late-night No Shame Theatre, hopes to roll out provocative new theatrical works by playwrights around the Southeast. He’ll do that with the help of Steven Samuels, a former manager of New York’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company who has taught theater at NYU and elsewhere.

They’ll kick it off with the irreverent, over-the-top Bernstein Family show, a collection of skits that Gray helped produce in 2008. But their first serious production, which rolls out January 13, is When Jekyll Met Hyde, starring veteran actress Tracey Johnston-Crum, Asheville Bravo’s current executive director. The play is written by Samuels. Yes, it will be, according to Gray, “a gleefully ridiculous” take on the classic tale by Robert Louis Stevenson. But if Magnetic’s first local play this summer, the dark and complex Ruth, by Dr. John Crutchfield, is any indication, look for serious theater (and good food and drinks) at this buzzy new venue in 2011.

For details on upcoming shows, check out www.themagneticfield.com.