Jun 19, 2018 6 min read

It’s not surprising that the revered “A Streetcar Named Desire,” “Macbeth,” “The Lion in Winter” and “Steel Magnolias” are part of Western Pennsylvania’s performance schedule. But this season, those plays are all being staged in one building – Canonsburg’s always ambitious Little Lake Theatre.

For 70 years, Little Lake has been synonymous with summer entertainment. Initially, the theater, founded by Will Disney, was known for its location – a barn nestled in the farmlands of Washington County – as well as for its theater-in-the-round presentation, unique for this area. But the theater quickly earned a reputation for quality as well, and an annual trip to Little Lake became as traditional as yearly ventures to a Pirate game, the Pittsburgh Zoo and Canonsburg’s Fourth of July extravaganza.

Over the years, some of the more popular and/or critical favorites have included “Clue: The Musical,” “Junie B Jones: The Musical,” “The Foursome,” “Peter and the Starcatcher,” “Proof,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “The Crucible” and “Our Town.” But the most popular attraction has never been a summer production – it appears long after grills have been put away and swimming pools have closed. “‘A Tuna Christmas’ is by far our most requested show,” managing director Andrew Seay points out. “Our audience requests it every year.”

Seay is confident this season will live up to expectations. “We have a wonderful lineup of hilarious comedies, contemporary musicals and gripping dramas. This season features some of the best plays of the last 70 years of theater, and children’s shows including four exciting plays based on popular books: ‘The Little Mermaid Jr.,’ ‘The Jungle Book,’ ‘The Musical Adventures of Flat Stanley Jr.’ and ‘The Secret Garden.'”

Driving each show will be what Seay believes is “the highest caliber of performers to date. This spring, we had over 320 actors audition for our productions. The amount of talent available was amazing.”

On board are 70 new actors, plus returning actors familiar to our audiences, such as Ina Block, Art DeConciliis, Lynne Franks, Jena Oberg and Mary Meyer, all Wall of Fame members (20 or more productions). In total, there are 145 performers, 12 directors, 14 camp staff, 150 other volunteers, 11 board members and 12 staff members hoping to entertain an average of 115 audience members each night. That doesn’t include the 214 youngsters at the summer camp, which has been a pleasant surprise in the age of electronic entertainment.

“We are very blessed that we still have wonderful audiences attending our plays for children,” Seay says. “Our (children’s) theater attendance increased 18 percent in 2017. In our current multimedia age, live theater is vitally important. We love watching imaginations expand and the joy live theater brings to the kids and adults in our audience.”

Planning begins long before the (non-existent) curtain rises on each season. Seay says the pre-production work begins almost a year in advance. Artistic director Jena Oberg reads and considers hundreds of plays for each approaching season. “These plays are selected based on audience and artist recommendations, critical success at other theaters across the nation, and subject matter that looks interesting,” she says. “That field is narrowed down to about 20 shows for consideration. I then look for a combination of shows that have a variety of genres and themes, plays that have a wide range of actors needed so that all of our age and gender demographics are covered, and plays that are able to be done on our stage with the staff and resources available. Once we have a proposed season, we apply for permission to produce the show with the publisher, hopefully receiving a ‘Yes!’ Once a completed season is in place, an artistic committee of the board reviews the season and gives final approval.”

With the selections in place, phase two begins.

“The directors and tech staff meet with Jena to plan the production and come up with general ideas,” Seay says. “The tech staff begins work on the sets, props and costumes about four weeks before a production opens. Each production rehearses for three-and-a-half weeks before opening night, usually six days a week, three hours each day. Each show has a cast of volunteer actors, a director, a team of three or four high school apprentice crew members, a designer, a properties master, and our technical director. We also have two box office associates who handle all seating and ticketing requests. Jena and I take care of all of the marketing, advertising, fundraising, building maintenance, accounting and just about everything else for the season.”

Seay says that this year, the theater is becoming “more ambitious in its scenery, costumes, props and the shows we are producing.”

But, he emphasizes that one aspect doesn’t change: “Little Lake is a theater for our community, by our community.”

Nonetheless, staging theater in the round presents it own set of problems. “It is really a different set of skills than staging for a traditional proscenium stage,” he says. “Directors must make sure that all sides of the audience are able to experience the play in the same way and that actors are playing to all sides of the stage. Staging in the round requires the director to see the stage picture from all dimensions. Actors also have to be aware of the angles they are using in relation to others onstage and have to act with all of their bodies, since at all times, someone will not be able to see their face. All of us who have been working in the round for a while tend to prefer it, since it allows for a much more natural and intimate performance.”

However, “Audiences sometimes forget how close the actors are to them,” Seay notes. “We often get loud talkers and people who comment back to the stage. We also have had a few incidences of people getting up during performances and walking across the stage during a performance. One of my favorite stories is during our production of ‘Crimes of the Heart:’ at intermission, a box of chocolates was left onstage as part of the production. One night, an audience member ate several chocolates from the box that was sitting on the set. It brought new meaning to the act two line, “Who ate this box of chocolates?”