Photo by Ellen Ferrara
Left to right: Heather Beck, John Stephens and Bonner Church, along with Emily Bacino Althaus, headlined the Little Theatre July 2 concert.

•July 7, 2021•
by Ellen Ferrara
NP Writer

John Stephens, Executive Producer of the Little Theatre, peeked out at the June 4 free concert crowd and couldn’t hold back the tears. “We are performers,” he said, “and the audience is everything to us. For nearly two years we have come to a darkened theater and struggled to survive Covid-19. It was so emotional to see the large crowd waiting for our first post-pandemic performance and the chance to finally perform again.”
Continuing, John said, “The theatre has lost over a million dollars in revenues, and we have had to release valued staff during these 16 months. Our incredibly generous donors, sponsors and foundation grants have helped us survive so these three free concerts are our thank-you to an amazing community for their abiding support of this treasured theatre. With the grants we could bring our family of talented performers and not just put anyone on the stage.”
The July 2 crowd doubled the previous month’s size with the street fronting the theatre a sea of lawn chairs that flowed up and over the courthouse lawn. An estimated 400-500 people turned out to see perennial favorites, Heather Beck, Bonner Church and Emily Bacino Althaus sing their hearts out in a two-hour program of some 25 hit songs.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.