Ed Aldridge

The Twenty-Fifth Season began with a new management team at the Playhouse — John J. Heinze as producer and Ed Aldridge as artistic director. Neither were strangers to Allenberry!

Ed first came to our Theatre in 1956 as an apprentice and returned for two more seasons gaining his Equity card. He performed in over a dozen shows including Caine Mutiny, Teahouse of the August Moon, The Loud Red Patrick and No Time for Sergeants.

While no one would ever replace Richard North Gage, Ed brought considerable theatrical knowledge and great energy to his new assignment. His superb opening show in 1973, Butterflies Are Free proved to our audiences that here indeed was a most worthy successor. Over the next four seasons we were privileged to a variety of memorable productions. Ed assembled a talented and dynamic team including Mike Bottari as scene designer, Don Wilder as musical director, and actor/playwright Jim Lockhart. Ed loved the challenge that each production presented. “Getting there is half the fun.”

Jim Lockhart

Jim Lockhart first came to Allenberry in 1966. He returned in 1973 with director Ed Aldridge to serve full time. In addition to acting, Jim was production manager and director of winter dinner theatre. On stage Lockhart, the actor, created memorable roles in The Gin Game, Private Lives and Sleuth. As playwright, Jim entertained us with his hilarious original comedies, The Honeymoon Caper and Behind Every Man, the latter playing successfully on the regional circuit.

Nelson Sheely

Nelson Sheeley came to Allenberry in the fall of 1977, after working as associate producer for director Bill Putch and Jean Stapleton at the Totem Pole Playhouse. He studied at Western Maryland, the Yale School of Drama and at Exeter College, Oxford. Nelson shared his love and knowledge of the theatre with young people by teaching in public schools in Baltimore and internationally in Thailand.

“Allenberry was my training ground, my home away from home, and the site of some of my best work and my fondest memories for nine and a half years. If I am ever called upon to defend my professional life I can certainly summon productions of Pirates of Penzance, The Student Prince, Taking Steps, Round and Round the Garden, and The Foreigner to speak for me.

My autobiography, should it ever be written, will be titled “Big Musicals in Small Places.” Allenberry summers will take up at least three or four chapters. I remember a beautiful South Central Pennsylvania summer’s day around the pool — actors lounging in beach chairs getting tanned and relaxing. I remember turning to Kathy Conry, Norman Weiler and Dennis Kotecki and saying, “These are the good times — remember them. And I do.”

Nelson has considerable and varied musical ability. He has played organ, piano and flute, and has a vast knowledge and appreciation for classical music and opera. Nelson introduced Allenberry audiences to the operetta with his highly successful productions of Pirates of Penzance, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Mikado, and The Merry Widow. Sharon Johnson, Patriot–News theatre critic, in her August 12, 1982 review of Pirates of Penzance wrote, “But the real hero of this production is stage director Sheeley who believed that there is an audience for Gilbert and Sullivan in this area and who is offering them a Pirates of Penzance staged with taste, imagination, intelligence, much love and even more ability.”

Since Allenberry, Nelson has directed at the Forestburg Playhouse and the Whitewater operas. He has also worked for the last decade with Allenberry alum, Don Wilder, at the National Opera in Raleigh. Four years ago Nelson and Lewis Arlt (Allenberry performer) founded Fleetwood Stage, currently housed in New Rochelle, N.Y.

Michael Rothhaar

Michael Rothhaar came to Allenberry in 1980 as an actor. He delighted audiences in the Rainmaker, Annie, and Let Me Hear You Smile. In 1985, Michael returned to the Playhouse to make his professional directing debut with Papa is All. It was an auspicious and memorable beginning showing the work of a man with exceptionally high standards and a keen eye for detail, who encouraged and attained excellence from all.

Biloxi Blues, produced in the fall of 1987, marked Michael’s appointment as only the fourth resident director in the thirty-eight year history of the Playhouse. The fast moving production with sharply defined characterizations was very well received. Five seasons of excellence were to follow. Highlights include The Miracle Worker, The Nerd, Steel Magnolias, The Diary of Anne Frank, Driving Miss Daisy, Cabaret, My Fair Lady, Guys and Dolls and The Foreigner. Michael left the Playhouse in the spring of 1992 having directed close to forty productions. The following year, he returned to guest direct Peter Shaffer’s demanding comedy, Lettice and Lovage, starring his wife, Nancy Linehan Charles, and Amy Warner. We were treated to yet another theatrical jewel.

Michael Haney

Michael Haney served as artistic director of the Allenberry Playhouse from 1993 through June 1996. Prior to this he had accumulated several acting credits on the Allenberry stage. In 1988, Michael appeared in four productions; his first role being Dr. Humphreys in Life with Father. The following season, together with his wife, Amy Warner, he starred in Black Coffee and Two for the Seesaw. Most memorable roles include Boolie in Driving Miss Daisy and Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady. During the 1992 season, Michael directed the hilarious and very well-received Nunsense, and the audience favorite, Sound of Music.

As resident director some of Michael’s most memorable productions include Bus Stop, My One and Only, Lost in Yonkers and Love Letters with Shirley Jones and Marty Ingels. As artistic director, one of Michael’s priorities was to bring newer plays to the Allenberry stage. This project was realized in 1994 when seven productions never before seen at Allenberry were scheduled. These included Jake’s Women, I Hate Hamlet, Deathtrap and Shirley Valentine. Michael adapted, directed and starred with his wife, Amy, in Mark Twain’s Adam and Eve Diaries to open the 1995 season. Throughout his tenure at the Allenberry Playhouse, Michael brought us a wide-ranging variety of theatre, providing both wonderful entertainment and provocative thought, performed at consistently high standards.