When I first heard the story of the Little Lake Theater, it sounded like a fairy tale: A young lad named Disney (Will) opened a "straw hat" theater in 1949 in a tiny barn beside Canonsburg Lake. All the neighborhood came to buy their tickets from the office in the silo. This is fact, and the barn and silo are still there to prove it. Recently, the barn was deteriorating. What to do? It wasn’t really needed anymore, unless for storage, but Sunny Disney, daughter of the founder, gives so much to the community, they saved her barn, her father's first theater, to show their appreciation. Well, the theater had an SOB campaign (Save Our Barn), and now the little red barn is picture-perfect, as you can see.
The Disney daughter, Sunny Disney Fitchett, returned from San Francisco after the death of her father to take over management of the theater. All the neighborhood still comes to buy their tickets, most for the entire season, since all the selections can be counted on to be delightful. My sister, friend, and I have made this theater a tradition in our lives, even though we have to drive more than an hour to get there once every three weeks, like
clockwork, all season. We’ve discovered that the best play is always the one we’ve seen last, or else they just keep getting better. My explanation is that the magic of theater is alive at Little Lake.
The actors seem to think so, too, for they keep returning season after season. One "regular" has 70 plays at Little Lake to his credit. Another teaches drama in Kuala Lampur and studies Malaysian drama, but never fails to return to the rustic theater in Canonsburg. In short, we have an international community of wonderful actors here with a homing instinct for the community theater that keeps spawning and regenerating talent. There are children's programs, too. My friends and I have seen On the Verge, Life with Mother, The Miser, Over the River
and through the Woods, and The Turn of the Screw, all superbly acted. Two more, coming up, will finish the season: The Dining Room and A Tuna Christmas.
The stage design is in the round; the theater is small, intimate, with every seat a good one. Dinner is catered by Greco’s Catering and available on Saturday night only. Thursday and Friday nights and Sunday matinees, desserts are available during intermission. Admission is $11 - $13, depending on the night, without dinner, about $38 with dinner, and one must call ahead. A half-hour drive south from the South Side on Route 19, Little Lake is worth it. They have a website:
www.littlelaketheater.org