Beloved Harrisburg institution celebrates 100 years: ‘It just needs to exist’

One of the centers of the Harrisburg community’s arts and culture is celebrating a milestone that has been a century in the making.

Theatre Harrisburg, the city’s community theater organization, is about to open the first show of its 100th season.

Run by a small full-time staff, Theatre Harrisburg produces plays and musicals with casts of volunteer artists from across the community.

In any given show, you may find some cast members who have studied acting or worked professionally, and others for whom it may be their first time ever on a stage.

And according to Lorien Reese Mahay, executive director of Theatre Harrisburg, the staff and artists working there today are driven by the same passions for community and performance as those who founded the company.

“I feel like you can feel the love for this organization throughout all of this time,” Mahay said. “I have playbills [programs from past play productions] going back to 1927. Someone took the time to take the playbills from throughout decades, and bind them into a book. All of these little decisions [show that] people really loved this place.”

It’s a sign of the commitment that has continued to keep Theatre Harrisburg running, Mahay said.

“It mattered so much to this community, and continues to matter,” she said.

Humble beginnings

The origins of the group stem from the Little Theatre Movement, where communities across the country began developing theaters that were independent from the large commercial theaters and opera houses.

“The idea really was that each community could have this community-led theater,” Mahay said. “It’s sort of anti-commercial, if you will. It was really focusing on the fact that art doesn’t always have to make money in order for it to be important.”

And in Harrisburg specifically, the city’s Grand Opera House had burned down in 1907, which had left a void for the performing arts.

And after some meetings in the city’s public library, the original organizers began to plan out how they would put on performances of their own. Thus, the Harrisburg Community Theatre was born.

“The short version of it: there were a group of women that came together to ask themselves the question of, ‘What if Harrisburg had a theater?’” Mahay said. “So we really started our existence with this idea [that this] could this be something that we could bring into our community.”

The idea was that “it doesn’t have to be perfect,” Mahay said. “It just needs to exist.”

Over the decades

Between 1926 and 1932, the Harrisburg Community Theatre performed “all over the city, wherever we could,” Mahay said.

Venues included several that are no longer around today, like the downtown Majestic Theatre, the old City Hall on Walnut Street, or the William Penn High School.

In 1932, the Harrisburg Community Theatre began performing at the Jewish Community Center on North Third Street, where they would remain until they broke ground for their own permanent home on Hurlock Street in 1950.

Over the decades, the growing company was bolstered by the Federal Theatre Project in the 1930s, part of the New Deal funding to support the arts during the Great Depression.

And those decades also brought plenty of their own challenges and memorable moments — moments that Mahay said really root the company to the city’s history, and the world.

“There’s all of this history, where it was like, ‘Theatre Harrisburg was helping with the war effort by auctioning off Marilyn Monroe’s gloves or something,” Mahay laughed. “There was this one article that talked about this outbreak of smallpox. [The cast and crew] went out of the theater and burned all of the costumes, but the show went on.”

At the turn of the century, Harrisburg Community Theatre signed on to become one of the resident companies of Harrisburg’s Whitaker Center, which opened in 1999.

While larger shows continue to be staged at Whitaker Center each season, Theatre Harrisburg has also brought performances back to the Hurlock building. It was dubbed the Krevsky Center in 1999, in honor of Jay and Nancy Krevsky, actors, volunteers, donors and longtime pillars of the arts community.

That year also brought with it a name change for the organization: Harrisburg Community Theatre officially became known as Theatre Harrisburg.

Mahay said that some of the group’s veterans still refer to the company as “HTC.”

“Some people just refuse,” she said. “Some people on my board still call us HCT! And I love that. I am proud of [the name] Theatre Harrisburg and I love Theatre Harrisburg. But it needs to be rooted in both.”

And in recent years, the organization has found new ways to reach the community it was founded to serve. In 2024, Theatre Harrisburg collaborated with Sankofa African American Theatre Company to produce the play “Intimate Apparel,” and they have joined the Penguin Project to produce plays for children with special needs.

Theatre Harrisburg today

Preparing to celebrate an organization’s major anniversary can be a challenge. And especially when you’re celebrating a century of work.

Mahay said that “no matter how much you’ve prepared, you’re still never quite prepared.”

“There’s so much history to to take into consideration,” Mahay said. “You want so badly to not only really honor all the people and all the things that the organization has represented, especially when you have a community organization. But then also you want to sort of set forward some some new pieces, and try to help people to learn more about who you are as an organization today.”

Mahay has only been with the organization for 4 of those 100 years. She applied for the position after traveling through Harrisburg with her family by chance, and falling in love with the city on a brief visit.

She brought with her an MFA in Dramaturgy and years of experience in nonprofit arts management, along with a healthy respect for the legacy she’s inherited.

And fortunately, she says, the local theater community remains as invested in the organization as it was when it was founded. Mahay noted that numerous volunteers, staff and board members helped with the massive anniversary celebration, including veteran director Tom Hostetter, board member Mike Greenwalt, and Jay and Nancy Krevsky.

Jay Krevsky passed away in August, weeks before the start of the 100th anniversary season.

“I think what was really hard for me was knowing that we’re going to be opening season 100 without Jay,” Lorien said. “Since I came to this place, Jay and Nancy really took me under their wing right away. They are the most gracious and lovely and warm people.”

Mahay said that Jay always led the annual Angel Campaign fundraiser, and for many years, he would write a personalized, handwritten note to each person on the mailing list.

And those notes would always mention something like “with your help, we’ll make it to 100,” she added.

“We made it through one more [campaign] with him,” Mahay said. ”He was so proud, and so unashamed, of really advocating for this place. And that that love showed through.”

The 100th anniversary season

The upcoming season is “an exciting, celebratory year,” Mahay said.

The first production is “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.” The musical comedy opens Sept. 12 and runs through Sept. 21 at the Krevsky Center.

The production is directed by Tom Hostetter, who led Theatre Harrisburg for 28 years.

“He was our artistic director for over a quarter of the life of the theatre itself,” Mahay said. “And [veteran costume designer] Paul [Foltz] came back for as well, even though he’s retired.”

On Oct. 4, Theatre Harrisburg will present a reading of “The Dover Road,” by A.A. Milne, famed author of the Winnie the Pooh stories. The play was the first show ever produced by the Harrisburg Community Theatre, Mahay said.

Next is the golden age musical “Guys & Dolls,” held at the Whitaker Center from Nov. 14-23.

“I knew we had to do ‘Guys & Dolls’ way before the season ever started,” Mahay said. “And in part, it’s because it’s the first musical our theater ever produced.”

This year will also see the return of a Theatre Harrisburg Christmas tradition, with the staged reading of the radio play “Merry Christmas, George Bailey” from Dec. 12-14. The show is an adaptation of the screenplay of the beloved holiday film “It’s a Wonderful Life.”

Then “The Last Five Years” will be held from Feb. 6-15 at the Krevsky Center. The intimate musical has a cast of only two people, and tells the story of a couple from opposite perspectives: Jamie starts at the beginning of their relationship, and Cathy from its end.

“Godspell” will be held at the Krevsky Center from April 24-May 10. The musical is a retelling of the Gospel stories, with songs and vignettes inspired by the stories of Jesus.

A special concert production of the musical “Follies” will be held at The Forum in Harrisburg on May 31 and June 1, in a joint production together with another Harrisburg arts institution, the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra.

The season closes with “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change,” which Mahay calls a “wonderful, funny, charming musical.”

“It also just seemed honestly like it would be kind of fun to end the season with this statement of: this has been amazing,” she said. “Everything is great, and now, also it’s time for us to actually look forward as well.”

For more information about the season, including ticket info and show dates, visit the Theatre Harrisburg website.

What’s coming next

But planning for the future doesn’t end with the 100th season.

Despite being executive director, Mahay said that “I don’t feel like it’s my job to put my stamp on this place.”

“I feel like it’s my job to help safeguard the legacy of the organization, and make sure that this place has its own distinct voice to carry forward,” she said. “It doesn’t belong to me just because I’m running it. It’s a community organization.”

The goal, she said, it to be “nimble enough, and tuned in enough, to try and be really what the community needs us to be, while also recognizing that we have a lot of history to sort of safeguard and ensure that it’s remembered as well.”

“We had four generations of Krevskys,” Mahay said. “[Board member and actor] Mike [Greenwalt] talks about how when he started as a volunteer, he was in high school. When we did [Harrisburg playwright] Paul Hood’s play ‘Pieces’ here, he was like, ‘This has always been my dream, ever since I was a kid, to be on this stage and have my work heard by this community. And I think that really matters.”

And there will always be a need to find balance, she said, between beloved classics and new exciting works, between plays and musicals, and between reliable entertainment audiences expect and challenging art that asks important questions.

Ultimately, the community determines what course and what shape a community theatre will take, by getting involved as artists, volunteers, audiences and donors.

And when Mahay thinks back to the Angel Campaign and Jay Krevsky’s personalized messages, she said, “it’s never been a mailing list.”

“It mattered up until the very end, that people knew that he personally cared, and he remembered them,” she said. “It’s really been this heartfelt plea for people to continue supporting the arts.”