Jerry Reilly works magic not only in his Newton Upper Falls neighborhood, but across Newton, always planning fun and engaging events that bring people together. Reilly has been an Upper Falls resident since moving from West Roxbury 17 years ago. His contributions to the community take many forms – everything from pranks to the founding of the Newton Nomadic Theatre, an organization that travels across the city to perform various plays at unusual locations.
The first of Reilly’s many contributions to Upper Falls was working on the Upper Falls Greenway. Reilly joined with a group that proposed to convert a state-owned, tree-lined, unused railway bed running parallel with Needham Street into a walkable one-mile trail extending from Newton Highlands through the heart of Newton Upper Falls to the Charles River. He then went door-to-door to all the abutters and organized a neighborhood community meeting to get the ball rolling. Funding for removing the railroad ties and creating the walkway came from the sale of the rails for their metal. Reilly admitted that since he had a short attention span, the project was a challenge to take on. “I have no regrets about it,” he said. “But there were many steps I had to go through to achieve this project.” The entire Greenway took about five years to complete, and Reilly does not plan to take on any more long-term projects.
Even before moving to Upper Falls, Reilly enjoyed coming up with ways in which he could express his humor. “I got it from my mother,” he said. “She would play these elaborate pranks on us—her seven kids.”
Reilly has turned his love for pulling anonymous pranks into a series of fun ways to mess with the Newton community, including placing a string of rubber ducks floating along the Charles River in Hemlock Gorge, advertising non-existent kayak tours inside the Cochituate Aqueduct for an April Fools’ joke, and hanging fake money on trees along the Greenway. (And yes, Reilly is responsible for that troll statue emerging from a drainpipe by the side door of Newton Free Library.)
Reilly’s inspiration for the “Money Tree” came from an art installation that other residents had organized along the Greenway. These art pieces had labels, explaining which artist did each piece. In the second year of the annual exhibition, Reilly and a friend hung fake $20-100 bills on a tree and put up a similar label that said, “The Money Tree, by Fredrika Smith” (a name he randomly drew out of a hat). “People thought [The Money Tree] was actually part of the installation,” he said. “After about five days, some of the money started disappearing, so we put some more up there.”
Reilly takes no credit for some projects that yet have a distinctive Reilly imprint. For instance, two years ago he was the first to “discover” the Upper Falls Loop – a 2.5-mile walking tour all around the village that appeared seemingly overnight, complete with trail markers along the route.
Newton Nomadic Theatre
In addition to his many pranks, Reilly started the Newton Nomadic Theatre troupe in 2014 after first discovering local actor Linda Goetz through the Upper Falls News, an email newsletter published by the Upper Falls Area Council. After reaching out to Goetz, Reilly decided that instead of renting out a permanent space, they could instead look to borrow various spaces for performances. “We came up with this crazy idea of borrowing spaces, and it just took off from there,” he said. “The two of us have been running it ever since.”
A typical Nomadic Theatre production runs 3-5 weeks in seven different locations – staying a couple of nights in one location before moving on to the next. Locations include Gregorian Rugs in Lower Falls and Newton residents’ homes. Every production run always ends in Dunn-Gaherin’s Pub. Actors are recruited through a process of connections with directors that Reilly has worked with previously, and actors who have performed with the group in the past often return. He also offers auditions. Although Covid slowed the production of the plays, the Nomadic Theatre is still planning to host more plays in the future, with one for this upcoming September, not yet announced. “People think they are coming to see a little community theatre,” he said. “But in reality, it’s a really intimate setting with fabulous actors.”
The Newton Nomadic Theatre also organizes the “Nomad Story Slam,” based on NPR’s Moth Radio Hour. Anyone can sign up to participate—and from there, participants’ names are picked randomly— to tell a five-minute story, and this approach always brings in a huge audience, he said. He also sometimes organizes the “Nomad Story Slam: Election Edition,” inviting Newton political candidates to share their personal stories (not political speeches).
One of the community events Reilly is most proud of organizing was a Secret Drive-In Concert, which was the first event during the Covid lockdown. The concert, which featured a performance from local band Couch, took over the abandoned Marshall’s Plaza parking lot for a night, with each band member standing on identical, socially distanced pickup trucks. “We had a big sound system in the parking lot, but we also pumped the music through the FM radio into all of the guests’ cars, like at a drive-in movie,” he said, “People absolutely loved it, and since then, Couch has gone on to be a really big deal and is now touring all over Europe and America.”
Annual events
Reilly was also very much involved in the Feast of the Falls, an annual (pre-Covid) neighborhood celebration for Upper Falls, initiated by Seana Gaherin. It was was an outdoor dinner for 400 on one very, very long table on the aqueduct by Echo Bridge. Tickets were free for Upper Falls residents to register on a first come, first served basis, courtesy of Better Life Food and Dunn Gaherin’s Pub/Restaurant. The remaining 25-50 tickets were auctioned off to residents from elsewhere who wanted to join the festivities. Elected officials served as servers. (See Jim Lerner’s video and Reilly’s description of the event.)
Reilly also helped with the annual Tour de Newton – a 20-mile bike ride through all 13 villages of Newton. The event was organized by Bike Newton with Alicia Bowman as head planner. At a stop in each village, volunteer greeters welcomed riders with snacks, badges, and information about the village.
Reilly sees all of these projects as a way to bring Newton residents together. “These days, people are really upset over the current state of the world, and so community events are more and more important as the year goes by,” he said. “People meet each other in a context of fun.”
