After turbulent start, Little Lake ends year on a calm note
Shown in a scene from “A Christmas Carol” are, front row from left, Leah Hillgrove as Mrs. Cratchit, Andy Coleman as Tiny Tim and Eric Leslie as Bob Cratchit, and back row, Art DeConciliis as Scrooge.
Shown in the Little Lake production of “Light Up the Sky” are, from left, Terry Westwood as Sidney, Ashley Rice as Irene and Sean Duggan as Carleton.
From left, Nate Bell as Bertie, Jennifer Sinatra as Gertrude and Bill Lyon as Eustace are shown in a scene from “Jeeves Intervenes.”
McMURRAY – The word “auspicious” will never be used to describe the start of the year for Washington County’s venerable Little Lake Theatre.
Just months after bidding farewell to Managing Director Rob Fitchett and Sunny Disney Fitchett, the longtime artistic director and the daughter of Little Lake founder Will Disney, the board of directors at the McMurray playhouse deposed Artistic Director Roxy MtJoy amid accusations by MtJoy that she was done in by old-guard board members and volunteers at Little Lake who didn’t like change. Bob Rak, a Little Lake veteran who had been installed as managing director, followed MtJoy quickly out the door, emphasizing that the decision was his, but that his vision of how Little Lake should grow and develop differed from that of the board. The company’s property master, technical director and resident designer, all seasonal employees, also decamped.
As 2016 winds down, with the holiday production of “A Christmas Carol” due to wrap up in a week, the troubled waters at Little Lake appear to have calmed. The company has a new artistic director, a freshly hired managing director and has announced a 2017 season that includes newer works such as “The Audience” and “Middletown,” along with evergreens such as “The Philadelphia Story” and “The Crucible,” and crowd-pleasers such as “Clue: The Musical.”
“I think we are on the right track,” said Kathy DeBlasio, who heads Little Lake’s board of directors. “We’ve made strides, and I couldn’t be happier.”
Once the dust settled from the departures of MtJoy and Rak, a committee that included Disney Fitchett, board members Richard Rauh and Art DeConciliis, and Jena Oberg, who had performed and directed at Little Lake and is now its artistic director, tore through 120 plays to come up with a final schedule of 11 for the 2016 season. They included Moss Hart’s “Light Up the Sky,” Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Joe Orton’s “Loot.” Disney Fitchett also returned from her new home in California to direct the 1960s comedy “Luv” and remains an emeritus member of the board.
When Disney Fitchett and her husband relinquished control of Little Lake in 2015, it was the first time since Little Lake’s founding in 1949 that a Disney was not at its helm. With MtJoy and Rak lasting only months in their jobs, it was open to question how stable Little Lake could be without a Disney atop the hierarchy. Responding by email from California, Disney Fitchett explained that she is confident Little Lake is moving forward.
“The spirit at the Lake has returned,” she said. When she returned to Little Lake in the fall to direct “Luv,” Disney Fitchett said she felt “so comfortable and confident in what I saw, heard and felt that I finally believed I could step away from the board, trusting in the Lake’s future, knowing that any changes will be movement in the most positive direction for artists, audiences, apprentices, volunteers and donors.”
Oberg hails from the North Hills and first became part of Little Lake when she was 16, appearing in a production of “Anne of Green Gables.” She has a theater degree from Northwestern University and has taught in the creative dramatics program with Pittsburgh Public Theater and the Pittsburgh CLO. She has been joined by Andrew Seay, who was hired this fall as Little Lake’s managing director. Seay previously worked in the development department of the Pittsburgh Symphony and is the associate conductor for the Three Rivers Ringers handbell ensemble. DeBlasio had been handling much of the managing director’s duties throughout the 2016 season, and they delayed filling the post because “we wanted to make sure we found the right person, who understood what Little Lake was about.”
Seay says he appreciates the “feeling of intimacy” and “family atmosphere” of Little Lake. A Virginia native and graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, he plans on moving to the South Hills area from his home in Pittsburgh because, in his estimation, “it’s important to be part of the community and be part of where you work. That needs to be where you live.”
The new hires at Little Lake and the way the 2017 season is shaping up have put Disney Fitchett’s mind to rest. She said, “I am no longer burdened with thoughts that maybe Rob and I made the wrong decision – for ourselves or for the future of Little Lake.”
She added that Little Lake’s board made “difficult decisions,” and did “the extraordinarily hard work required to ensure the company’s future.”