WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Seats inside the Little Theatre of Wilkes-Barre on North Main Street were empty for months at the beginning of the pandemic.
"We're so grateful that we made it through," said David Parmelee, the general manager. "But it was not an easy thing, and it was a close thing. It was only because of the support of the CARES Act through Luzerne County, of local foundations and individuals who supported us and stuck with us and said 'We want you to be there.'"
The theater had to be creative and even put original content on YouTube to stay relevant and make it to this weekend's celebration marking the 100th season for the theater.
"This is a very big deal, Chelsea. It has been in the planning for about a year, in rehearsal for about two months. We decided a little while ago to go back through our history and do a choral concert of the best Broadway music of those ten decades," explained Parmelee.
The concert will be about two hours and include close to 80 performers that will fill seats on stage and perform dozens of songs. Some will be traveling back to the area to be reprising roles they had here years ago.
"We have a 20-piece live orchestra. We always have a live orchestra here, but this is extraordinarily large," added Parmelee.
Parmelee has been with the theater since 2010 and says being able to be a part of this celebration brings a tear to his eye.
"My wife says this often—many of the arts you can do on your own. If you're a painter, you can paint alone. If you're a writer, you're always writing alone. But you cannot do theater alone. You have to have the company. You have to have the team, the staff, the creative people, the technical people to light it and put sound behind it. And most importantly, you have to have a place, and there is no place with a spirit like this place to do theater. You can feel it as soon as you come in," said Parmelee.
Get tickets online or at the door. The shows will be Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. with a Sunday matinee at 3 p.m.
You can learn more about the show and purchase tickets on Little Theatre's website by clicking here.
Check out WNEP's YouTube page.