Performing troupe closes Delco run after 27 years

Four days before opening night, the Performing Arts Youth Theatre company in Springfield Township, Delaware County, was having the kind of rehearsal that would make any observer doubt the show would go on.

The White Rabbit was sitting in the audience when she should have been standing stage right. The Four and Six of Clubs missed their cues. The Mad Hatter forgot his stopwatch.

Loretta Wehbe, 72, the company's cofounder, stood in the center of it all. Script in hand, she started doing what she's done for 27 years - making it work:

"Louder." "Wonderful." "Where's the Six of Clubs?!"

Today at 4 p.m., Wehbe and her cast and crew of thirty 8-to 18-year-olds will perform a musical adaptation of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland at the E.T. Richardson Middle School. It will be the last time the company will hold hands and take a bow. The Performing Arts Youth Theatre is closing after more than two decades of introducing thousands of youngsters to the theater.

Wehbe, a former Philadelphia schoolteacher and preschool administrator, is ending the program because of money. She is weary of scrambling for cash during the economic downturn, which has depleted her enrollment, her funding, and her audiences.

"Financially, we're just not doing well," she said, "so it would be easier just to close."

The company performed five shows annually and offered improvisation classes. The youngsters met every Wednesday at Richardson. Tuition was $225 a year.

Over the years, Wehbe has struggled to pay for costumes, props, scripts, fees to use school district buildings, and salaries for her small staff. Other community theater programs are having similar troubles.

The economic downturn has forced small nonprofit theater companies to cut performances, move to cheaper headquarters, and present original plays instead of paying fees to perform popular stage productions, said Marsha Amato-Greenspan, vice president of the Pennsylvania Association of Community Theatres.

The companies are coping not only with a reduction in funding but also are facing competition from other forms of entertainment and from one another, Amato-Greenspan said. In Delaware County, there are at least five community theaters within 10 miles of one another, she said.

Competition is increasingly acute among children's theaters because many adult companies are adding youth divisions to bring in more revenue, said Claudia Carlsson, executive director of the Young People's Theater Workshop in Swarthmore.

In shutting down the company, Wehbe is ending a 27-year theater adventure. She has coped with a leading man whose voice changed days before opening night and props that were secured only hours before curtain time. While preparing for a performance of High School Musical, Wehbe fell off the stage, cracked her two front teeth, and broke her nose. She showed up the next day for rehearsal.

"I feel theater is very important for students and young people," Wehbe said. "It gives self-confidence. It just gives you the ability to be yourself in life."

Superintendent James Capolupo, of the Springfield School District, said Wehbe's dedication and the company's performances would be missed. Several of Wehbe's student directors are considering starting their own youth program in the area.

Wehbe cofounded the company in 1983 with Rose Marie Lord, the company's music director. The women met at the Church of Atonement Day School in Morton when both were on the faculty. Wehbe had starred in several local theater productions.

The women secured sponsorship from the Springfield Township Lions Club, which paid for the group's insurance. Their first show was Cinderella. Wehbe made the costumes.

Five years ago, Barry Harris, 19, of Glenolden, wrote the score to the company's adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. He wrote the music in his basement. His father, Ed, wrote the lyrics.

"That was the first time my confidence was boosted as a songwriter," said Barry Harris, now majoring in popular music at the University of Southern California. "That's when I realized that I can do this, and I've got to do this."

Other graduates of the program include Zoe Mulford, a folksinger now based in England who once opened for the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary.

As a director, Wehbe tends to yell - but not in a mean-spirited way, said Ceri Galati, of Mullica Hill. Gelati made a 90-minute commute so her daughter Skylar could participate in the program.

Wehbe's young actors call her tough and hands-on. When the students get too rowdy in the auditorium, Wehbe, who enjoys skydiving and white-water rafting, marches up the aisle to deliver a good talking-to.

"She brings out the best in them," Lord said. "Even though the process may be painful."

Actress Elena Glammer, 11, of Aston, has a special appreciation for the company.

She stutters.

"It's hard for me to try out for plays," she said slowly. "But I've learned that if you stick with something you can be better at it. I got my first lead part here."

Elena said she would miss the theater group and the friends she's made, but the company has given her a good foundation to pursue more acting roles.

"When I am bullied at school, I don't mind it," she said. "I know I try out for plays. They may not know it, but I do, and I don't let it stop me. I'm getting ready to try out for Seussical."