In its new space, the New Rep can finally think bigger

WATERTOWN -- You couldn't find a better 46-year-old example of a kid in a candy store than Rick Lombardo as he conducts a tour of the new theater space at the Arsenal Center for the Arts.

He grins as he listens to the acoustics, he beams as he shows you the state-of-the-art equipment, and he positively exults as he basks in the spaciousness of Charles Mosesian Theater, the new 300-seat home of the New Repertory Theatre, of which he has been artistic director since 1996.

Theater is a religion to many, but New Rep was actually hosted by the Congregational Church in Newton Highlands for the past 14 years. It was a serviceable space that Lombardo and other directors learned how to use, despite the quarters being so cramped.

What audiences will experience now is literally on another level. The new building opens onto a large stairway leading up to the theater entrance. Inside, stadium-style seating flanks the stage floor, which extends out toward the audience.

New Rep has two five-year leases in the impressive-looking arts center, which also has a smaller black-box theater that will be available for rentals, as well as rehearsal rooms and studios.

Lombardo's work over the past four seasons has been among the best in the city, with productions of ''Waiting for Godot," ''The Threepenny Opera," ''Sweeney Todd," and ''Into the Woods" breaking crowd records and winning widespread acclaim. It's also been a good home for newer work. But it's time to move on.

For ''Into the Woods," last year's finale in Newton, ''clothes were ripping every day because inevitably someone would step on somebody else" in the crowded space, he says. Now there's plenty of room backstage, not only for actors to make more graceful exits and entrances but for dressing rooms, bathrooms, showers, and all the other amenities that aren't always easy to come by in the theater world.

When New Rep staged ''King Lear" in 2000, Shawn Sturnick, the actor playing Edgar, had to walk through the streets of Newton covered in muck to get to a shower.

Lombardo picked another Shakespeare tragedy, ''Romeo and Juliet," to open the Watertown space Sept. 19, with two previews the day before. Part of the reason for revisiting the Montagues and Capulets, says Lombardo, is its resonance with current events.

''There are so many regional conflicts where there are these ancient feuds," he says. ''We keep offering up our young people to be slaughtered -- all the young soldiers we've sent over to Afghanistan and Iraq and all the young men strapping bombs on their back. They're expendable material in what are in many cases senseless feuds."

The other reason was more practical. ''It's the kind of play we never would have been able to do in the old space, the kind of athletic production with acrobatic fighting, a big banquet scene. Also, the play requires a balcony," he says, laughing. ''We could never do a second tier."

Lombardo adds that the new freedom won't change New Rep's mission. ''What we now are going to be able to do is wed our commitment to a high quality of acting and text-centered work with visual design and production we weren't able to do before. We have large-scale Shakespeare and a big musical like 'Ragtime' standing right next to 'True West' or 'Frozen' " -- three other plays on the New Rep schedule this season.

Not everything has gone smoothly. The neighboring Red Sauce restaurant was going to cosponsor the season and host opening-night parties but was sold as the season was about to begin.

You get the sense, though, that Lombardo isn't too bothered by that. When you're walking on air, you can party anywhere.

Ed Siegel can be reached at siegel@globe.com.