The Philadelphia Inquirer from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 148

18-DC Thursday, July 1987 The Philadelphia Inquirer LIVING People's Light after struggles shines of past Philosophically, the founders and the small pool of actors combined the ideals and aspirations from their Hedgerow Theater experience and the social activism of their college days to blueprint a viable theater format. A v-S JV (J if Pi-7. Ki Hillid 1 i1 --Tn iirT-ini i i i i mi ill i iit i i i ii i Specie! 10 The Inquirer ST ACE MORGAN Al Walton plays the bass, and George Huhn sings and plays fiddle. By Will Thompson Inquirer Staff Writer On a recent hot and humid Sunday afternoon, hundreds of colorfully dressed motorists spilled onto the manicured grounds of the People's Light and Theatre Company in Malvern. They came to picnic, listen to lectures and music and to view clothesline art before entering the theaters to enjoy two award-winning plays.

The scene is familiar for many area theater lovers, who arrive regularly from Philadelphia, the Main Line and West Chester to bask in the cool ambiance of the rustic setting and greet old friends before absorbing the performances. What's going on in Malvern until Aug. 2, however, is extraordinary. The theater company is host of a festival called "A Chautauqua for a Changing America: 1906-1937" to recreate the scenario of late 19th-century and early 20th-century rural America. In those days without television and cinema, people took to the outdoors often under canopies to share and absorb various forms of popular and cultural events and entertainment.

Those programs were named after the small New York town where residents in 1874 inaugurated an educational and recreational assembly with a program that included lectures, concerts and vi- sual arts. The concept quickly spread throughout the United States by way of traveling Chautauquas. The People's Light festival is named after those shows. The festival hinges on current productions of Louis Lippa's The Stone House, set in South Philadelphia in 1937, and Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness, set in a mythological small American town in 1906. The plays reflect the American rural scene when Chautauqua events were popular.

"Our primary purpose for the festival is to create activities to draw people to the site," said Emma Edmunds, the theater company's spokeswoman. "The primary thing is to enhance the theater experience through lectures, art and music and to draw the community here to help us do that." To fan the spirit of Chautauqua, People's Light is making available on the grounds a potpourri of cultural events that include fiddlers, string bands, violin and cello concerts, sassy saxophones and brassy cornets. And it's free. The theater company has come a long way since 1973, when the founders Danny Fruchter and his first wife, Megan, Dick Keeler and Ken Marlni built the first 70-seat theater in an old grist mill in Strodes Mill near West Chester. The first production of Eugene O'Neill's Emperor Jones was staged there in July 1974.

Danny Fruchter, who is producing director of People's Light, remembered how it all began. "It goes back to the late 1960s, when a group of people in Philadelphia were graduating college, mostly from drama schools," he said. "The local theater scene wasn't too good, then. There were about six theaters in the city that were trying to professionalize themselves. "Our group comprising people who were studying to become actors, directors, designers and technicians was practicing in separate venues, but all of us wanted to expand the cultural experiences that come from theater.

"By 1969, we found ourselves at Hedgerow ITheaterl, which was having some difficulty. Nevertheless, it was a company with a worldwide reputation, and we wanted to help revitalize it. We wanted to restore its former morale and theatrical luster" he said. Fruchter and his group also were attracted to Hedgerow out of respect for Jasper Deeter, who founded the theater in 1923. When Deeter died after a long illness in 1972, Fruchter had to think about the theater's future.

"The owners of the building told us to leave," Fruchter said. "That was unfortunate. We absorbed his ideals about understanding a theater's commitment to the community, however, and we felt we could do something about his general commitment to theater as a cultural experience. "Frankly, we were inspired by him and his ideals to found People's Light Company. In the early years, we spent a lot of our own money money we earned from outside jobs.

When I think about it, we're a success story in terms of survival." Philosophically, the founders and the small pool of actors combined the ideals and aspirations from their Hedgerow Theater experience and the social activism of their college days to blueprint a viable theater format. They performed on home stage, in prisons, in schools. Although money was a constant problem, the theater was holding its own and growing during the 1970s. The company needed more seating and a larger stage, so in 1976 it moved to the 200-seat Center for the Performing Arts in Chester Springs. It is now the Yellow Springs Performing Arts Center.

From 1976 to 1978. the theater staged 21 plays, including Woody Allen's Play It Again, Sam, and Jean Anouilh's Becket. When they lost the lease, they decided that it was time to build their own theater. In 1979, they found the present site, a 7.5-acre farm in Malvern, which is an affluent suburban community of about 3,000 residents who welcomed the presence of a prestigious theater. These days.

People's Light has two theaters on Its property and operates with an annual budget of $1.3 million. It has a pool of about 20 actors, more than 5,400 subscribers and an annual audience of more than 65,000 people, officials say. "We're obviously here to stay," Fruchter said. "We're the only nonprofit theater in the Philadelphia area, besides the Walnut Theater, that owns its own buildings. Many of the theaters are still looking for a home." The company's Main Stage, which seats 400 people and is now showing Ah, Wilderness, was the barn site on the property when the group acquired it.

Last year. Rouse Associates built for cost, $1.5 million, the Second Stage, a 150-seat theater where The Stone House is playing. "This is really an extraordinary theater setup," said Marsha Saunders, who is an actress and teacher in the company. "I came to the theater from New York in 1976 to do prison tours. I got excited about it and decided to stay." Saunders plays the role of Mary in The Stone House and has played in more than 25 company productions.

She said that she also was impressed by the dedication of the actors and the attitude of the people who were running People's Light. "I remember when we had only four or five actors," she said. "And we weren't making a lot of money. But we enjoyed the experience because we were really dedicated. We all pitched in to do whatever was necessary to run the office and to do the creative work.

"We were treated very well. It's the same way now. The actors are treated very well. Their humanity is respected. They arent treated like property." Jarlath Conroy, who plays a main-role in Ah, Wilderness, heard about People's Light when he was working for various productions in New York City.

In 1985, he auditioned to join the company. "It's a wonderful atmosphere," Conroy said. "There are several things I like about People's Light. In a lot of ways. People's Light is more courageous about their choice of productions.

There's a sense of continuity from one play to another. "From an actor's point of view, I enjoy the opportunity it provides me in various roles, and I'm getting a chance to do things I didn't have the opportunity to do before." It took more than creative talent to bring People's Light to where it is. It also took money and management Staff members like Saunders, who had a front-row seat to the business growth of the theater company give Danny Fruchter a lot of credit for making it happen. "I think Danny has been a strong force in the success of People's Light," she said. "He has an incredible grasp on the business aspect.

He's a INew York producer! Joseph Papp in fund-raising." Ken Marini is resident director of the company and the only co-founder besides Fruchter to have stayed with the theater. He agreed with Saunder3 about Fruchter's fund-raising talents. "We always had financial problems," he said. "But we stayed with it, anyway. And we were lucky to have a group of talented and dedicated people.

But Danny's a great salesman. He seems to have a talent for the business aspect." To raise money, People's Light has an annual membership drive and a gala in January when patrons pay $250 a couple for an evening of dining and dancing. People's Light officials say that money is supplemented by donations from private individuals and about 150 corporations and foundations which include Rouse Associates, National Liberty the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the Mabel Pew Myrin Trust. It is not unusual for the theater company to invite business people there for luncheon to see what is happening there. Robert McCle-ments, chairman and chief executive officer of Sun Co.

Oil is familiar with the scene. "All of us in business have access to resources, whether they are financial or people resources," he told one group of businessmen there at a recent luncheon. "I suggest to you that with some of those resources we can expose many more people to the ex citement and stimulation of the world of theater. People's Light has deserved and earned our support." People's Light also has an outreach and educational program that includes prison and school tours; acting classes for children and young people; an apprentice program geared to providing classes, salaries and housing for post-graduate students studying various phases of theater and an intern program to provide students with theater production and administrative training. This fall, the theater company will launch Project Discovery, a three-year program that will give about 4,000 Chester County 10th graders each year the opportunity to see two productions at the theater.

The project will cost about $100,000 a year and it is being underwritten by Rouse Associates, the Chester County Commission and National Liberty according to the company. By the third year, the theater hopes to involve Chester County's population from grades 10 through 1Z "Next year, we also intend to concentrate on more physical expansion and the improvement of our artistic products," Edmunds said. "We're also concerned with ways whereby we can become more of a community cultural center for our residents." Fruchter feels there's much more to do at People's Light. "We've clawed our way to the middle ranks of area theaters)," he philosophized. "But where do we go from here?".