Apple Hill Playhouse

Apple Hill Playhouse was the name of both a theater company and a theater building, both located in Delmont, Pennsylvania.

The theater was established by Gerta Bendl ^[1] as a theatre space around 1956 in a pre-Civil War barn that was part of Martz Farm. It grew when Bill Loucks and a group from Pittsburgh Playhouse expanded the building and named it the William Penn Theater. It was renamed Apple Hill Playhouse when a trio of theatre practitioners associated with Mountain Playhouse bought the building in 1964; their first production was a one-woman show starring Totie Fields. In 1982, the theater was bought by Pat Beyer, who served as artistic director for the theater until its closure in 2020.^{[2] [3]}

Apple Hill produced a "summer season" that ran from May to October. During the summer, children's plays were produced under the moniker Johnny Appleseed Children's Theater; many of the plays are staged versions of classic stories such as Snow White , Rumpelstiltskin , Aladdin , Sleeping Beauty , Jack and the Beanstalk and The Emperor's New Clothes .^{[2] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]} Apple Hill also produced seasons of adult programming, which included contemporary plays such as Mrs. Bob Cratchit's Wild Christmas Binge , Rabbit Hole , and Suite Surrender as well as plays from earlier eras such as Butterflies Are Free and The Prisoner of Second Avenue .^{[3] [9] [10] [11] [12]} The Apple Hill company produced and performed the courtroom drama Nuts in the Westmoreland County Courthouse.^[13] Apple Hill has also performed many musicals over the years, including Evita, Sweet Charity , and And the World Goes 'Round .^{[14] [15] [16]}

On July 23, 2020, Apple Hill Playhouse announced that it would close down, in part because of the impact of the coronavirus. The theater company itself will seek a new home. ^[17] The building was sold in 2021. ^[18]

• Theatre in Pittsburgh

• Theatre companies in Pennsylvania

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