A Labor of Love
At the Little Lake Theatre, presenting great plays is more than good business, it’s a family tradition.
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Sunny Disney-Fitchett watches a rehearsal.
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When she was 4-years-old, Sunny Disney-Fitchett acted in her first play at the Little Lake Theatre, the small community playhouse in North Strabane that her father, Will Disney, owned.
The elder Disney, a respected veteran thespian, was staging a production of “The Seven Year Itch” and changed the role of a 4-year-old boy to a 4-year-old girl to get Sunny into the play.
It was 1961, and while that small theater next to tiny Canonsburg Lake had already been around for 13 years, few would have guessed it would endure another five decades. As 4-year-old Sunny was concentrating on learning her lines, the thought of one day running her dad’s beloved theater had yet to cross her youthful mind.
But now, as the curtain raises on the Little Lake Theatre’s 58th season, that’s exactly the case. Sunny and her husband, Robert, are in their 14th year running the theater, keeping Disney’s dream alive and helping a beloved community institution thrive.
This year’s first production, “Rounding Third,” opened on May 4. It’s the first of 11 main stage productions to go along with two family matinee productions and three “Looking Glass Theatre” productions for young audiences this season. Thousands of theater-goers – some loyal season subscribers and others the casual curious – will visit this season.
Sunny says the theater’s commitment to artistic quality is what has enabled it to survive for nearly 60 years in a business where many similar operations have floundered.
“I’m so proud of the Little Lake Theatre,” she said. “It is a theater that takes theatric integrity very seriously. Any theater that’s been in existence for 58 seasons must be doing something right.”
Obviously, Sunny grew up in the theater business. When she was young, she appeared in numerous Little Lake productions and worked behind the scenes on many more. She continued to nourish her life-long love of the stage while attending San Francisco State University, majoring in Theater for Young Audiences.
It was in California where Sunny met her husband, Rob, a musician by trade, who attended Berkeley College of Music. He managed a popular jazz club in San Francisco until Sunny’s father retired 14 years ago and the couple moved back to Western Pennsylvania. These days, they live in Mt. Lebanon.
“We decided this is the place we wanted to be,” said Sunny.
The theater truly is a family endeavor – not to mention a year-round job – for the Fitchetts. Sunny is the Artistic Director, meaning she’s in charge of deciding which plays get produced, hiring directors, overseeing auditions, etc. Sunny even directs a handful of plays herself each season.
“My problem is I like all the plays we select, so it’s really hard for me to give them up,” she said.
Rob is the managing director, which means he handles the business end of the operation. That involves everything from bookkeeping and ticketing to overseeing the restaurant and bar aspects of the theater.
The facility, located just off Route 19, is an old-but-cozy structure with a capacity of 150 people. It’s an “in the round” theater, meaning the stage is in the center of the building and the audience is located at tables surrounding the performances.
Most patrons complement their evening with desserts and beverages, and for groups of 20 or more, full course dinners are available.
But, according to those who frequent the theater, what makes it such a special place is the magic that unfolds on the stage.
“I think the quality of the acting is great,” said Kathy DeBlassio, who has been a season subscriber for five years. “It’s always an interesting play. And for a small theater company, I’m always so impressed with what they can do. I thoroughly enjoy the intimate atmosphere… it’s almost like they’re performing in your living room.”
Peters Township resident Eva Mogensen, who has been a season subscriber for four years, is an avid fan of live theatrical performances, but she prefers to stay close to home and attend the Little Lake Theater instead of venturing to Pittsburgh’s Cultural District.
“The actors that they have are really fantastic … some of the plays here are better than what I see in [Pittsburgh],” said Mogensen. “And I just love the feel of this old, old building.”
Each winter, Sunny reads and digests between 100 and 150 plays, then selects the ones she thinks will best suit her audience and assembles the coming season.
She usually selects a hefty number of comedies, because those plays tend to have the greatest appeal. But she also throws in a few dramas and even a few obscure, lesser known works.
“I’m always looking for a balanced season,” she said. “I look for plays that will really appeal to the heart and intelligence of the audience.”
Each year, there is a play or two that seems to jump off the stage and especially capture the fancy of audiences and critics alike.
Sometimes it’s a well-known classic, like the Little Lake’s production of “The Glass Menagerie” last season. Other times it’s a lesser-known gem like “The Foursome” from a few years back; that work, by Norm Foster, was so popular, the theatre is staging it again this season.
“People would ask us about ‘The Golf Play,’” says Sunny. “It’s about four guys playing a round of golf at a college reunion. It’s just a great play.”
This season’s schedule reflects Sunny’s eclectic approach.
The first production, “Rounding Third” is a baseball-themed comedy about an Odd
Couple-like duo of Little League dads.
Some of the well-known classics on the slate are Neil Simon’s “Biloxi Blues,” comedy “You Can’t Take it With You” by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, both love-story-meets-comedy productions.
“The Happy Time” by Samuel Taylor is a lesser-known work Sunny thinks her patrons will relate to.
“It’s a light-hearted, well-written comedy that was probably written in the ‘40s about a household in the ‘20s,” she said. “It’s a beautifully-written script.”
As is the case with all Little Lake works, Sunny and Robert are attempting to weave the community into the productions.
For example, with the baseball-themed “Rounding Third,” the Little Lake Theatre offered community nights in conjunction with area Little League baseball teams.
Tickets for those shows were a bit higher in price with the extra money going to support the designated Little League program of the night.
That’s one of numerous community outreach programs of Little Lake. The theater also offered classes at area libraries, educational outreach programs (where the theatre’s touring company visits area schools) and even a theater arts “summer camp.”
“We did ‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ a few years ago and we had students from Washington and Green County in the play.
For some of them, it was their first experience in a theater, and that was wonderful,” said DeBlassio.
As part of the event, the Little Lake brought in a Holocaust survivor who spoke at the end of the play. Her message especially impacted one student.
“I found a young man in the audience whose grandfather had been in a [concentration] camp, but would never talk about it. This was this young man’s first experience with ‘The Diary of Anne Frank.’ He didn’t know anything about what his grandfather had went through, but after seeing this play, he started to understand. It was just truly moving. It’s those kind of experiences people can have here.” •
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