Summer Sensation

STORY AND PHOTOS BY Kimberly Burger Capozzi

Tucked into the scenic countryside of Jennerstown, the Mountain Playhouse is far from urban centers where top-notch theater is often found. But each summer, professional actors from around the country gather to perform on the stage in a historic grist mill.

The Mountain Playhouse is one of the last locations to host a professional company for the summer in the tradition of summer stock theater. The presence of professionals, including directors, choreographers and a full crew and staff, means quality shows ranging from lighthearted comedy and feel-good musicals to occasional dramas. And they’ve been doing it for more than 80 years, making it one of the longest-running theaters of its kind.

After canceling the 2020 season due to Covid-19 restrictions, the Mountain Playhouse had not determined its season for 2021 as of press time. That decision will depend on health restrictions, the theater unions, and public comfort, says executive director Patty Carnevali. It is only the second time in the theater’s history it has paused performances, the first being when the theater closed for four years during World War II.

As a member of the Council of Resident Stock Theatres, The Mountain Playhouse honors a special union contract that experienced performers find attractive, says Larry Tobias, a New York-based actor and musician who has performed in and directed shows in Jennerstown since 2006.

The contract requires the use primarily of actors and stage managers in the actors’ union and ensures them roles in multiple productions, giving professionals a solid run of work and access to benefits. Many of the professionals can boast New York City credits, national tours, and appearances in film and television. Tobias says he relishes For More Information the challenges of the playhouse’s fast-paced season www.MountainPlayhouse.org 814-629-9220 of short-run shows, in which performers are putting on one play while rehearsing another set to open in just a few weeks.

“The process here forces you as an actor to make bigger choices and fully commit to them in a short period of time,” says Tobias, who during the 2019 season directed The Irish … And How They Got That Way and Million Dollar Quartet, in which he also performed. “It also forces us to really study and work hard to learn the lines, and to hone your acting craft skills in a way that other regional theaters don’t require you to do. It’s exciting and really rewarding as an actor to work this hard.”

Tobias says he is still working out his plans for the summer of 2021, but he plans to tour with his George Jones tribute band, The Grand Tour.

The 393-seat Mountain Playhouse opened in 1939 as the brainchild of James Stoughton, a farmer-turned-entrepreneur and theater lover who was looking to draw business to his Green Gables Restaurant. The restaurant began as a road-side sandwich shop, but Stoughton had bigger plans. He disassembled an old mill and moved the logs to build his new theater next door.

The Mountain Playhouse joined the “straw hat circuit” of summer stock theaters that flourished through the 1960s. More than 150 companies at one time offered summer work to actors and brought major shows to audiences at resorts and country settings.

Within a few decades, Americans’ changing vacation preferences put many resorts out of business, as well as most of the summer stock theaters that relied upon them, says Paul Douglas Newman, a professor of early American and public history at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. But the Mountain Playhouse survived and is one of just eight summer stock theaters in the country. Its location near U.S. Route 30—Lincoln Highway and U.S. Route 219—allowed it to benefit from growing automobile traffic, says Newman, who with a group of students wrote a history book for the Mountain Playhouse’s 80th anniversary in 2019.

“Stoughton’s theater relied on his restaurant, which sat at a vital crossroads and still does,” Newman says. Today, the Somerset interchange of the Pennsylvania Turnpike also helps bring audiences from Pennsylvania as well as Maryland, West Virginia, and Ohio. Bus tours frequently bring visitors to dine, catch a show, and enjoy the natural beauty of the grounds and lake.

For cast and crew, the Mountain Playhouse offers a unique summer opportunity, says Sara Sawyer, an actress who, during the 2019 season, performed in Million Dollar Quartet and in 5/31/1889: The Flood, an original play commissioned by the playhouse about the Johnstown flood. She also teaches performing arts in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota and has had roles in the Minnesota Opera and in New York productions. In 2021, she will perform in the musical First Lady Suite at Theater Elision in Crystal, Minnesota, in the roles of Jackie Kennedy and Eleanor Roosevelt. Sawyer has spent eight seasons at Mountain Playhouse and says she looks forward to returning.

“This theater has a reputation for casting good people,” Sawyer says. “Working here, it’s always a blast. For those relocating to the area for the summer, the company becomes a family of sorts. Some share housing on the theater property or live nearby. They explore the region’s tourist attractions together. They frequently end their days around a bonfire. And there are the many hours spent together in rehearsals and performances.”

Over time, the actors and directors grow familiar with each other’s styles and expectations, and those close relationships help them fine-tune the productions, Sawyer says. “It’s so much easier to work with people you trust and feel comfortable with. You look forward to whenever you are going to be here.”

The company also gets to know its audiences, which include many returning patrons and long-time supporters.

“They come for a reason,” Tobias says. “The audience is very well educated insofar as what good, high-quality theater is, and we are lucky they demand that. We have an obligation to give them what they’re used to.”

The 2020 season was canceled due to Covid-19, and it is still uncertain if the 2021 season will take place. Call 814-629-9220, or visit the website for more information.

www.MountainPlayhouse.org; 814-629-9220