People's Light is reaching a landmark 50 years of history, and the Malvern theater company is viewing its upcoming season as a party.
Five productions and numerous social events are planned for the season, and People's Light Artistic Director Zak Berkman said all of the events will demonstrate the company's place as a hub for live arts and community engagement.
"We know our audiences want to feel that they are gathering and having events that uplift," Berkman said. "So a lot of what the season is focusing on is how that can happen in very nourishing and true to People's Light ways."
The origins of People's Light stem from Hedgerow Theatre in Rose Valley. In 1973, a group of four young staff members at the theater company had ideas for a different direction. A Hedgerow "elder" invited them to split off to establish a new company in Strode's Mill in East Bradford Township.
Renamed People's Light in 1974, the company moved to Chester Springs in 1976 and landed at its current location of Malvern in 1979.
"(The founders had) really the same ethos that Hedgerow had, which is very much a commune arts kind of company, where everybody was doing everything," Berkman said.
People's Light had a focus on connecting to the community, interfacing with young people and even touring shows in prisons.
"That core rocket fuel that led those four founders to make People's Light, even though we're now a $6.8 million company, still has the same genesis of: How can a group of artists be meaningful to a distinctive community?" Berkman said. "How can we be in dialog with our community in meaningful ways, and how can we be in service to that community?"
People's Light sits on a 7-acre campus with two theaters. The Leonard C. Haas Stage is a 340-seat venue housed in an 18th-century stone barn, and the Steinbright Stage is a more intimate 140-seat venue at the back of the campus.
The theater's name comes from an elder who encouraged the founders to start their own venture and had a company called People's Light, which would rent out lights to Philadelphia theaters, Berkman said.
"(The founders) then named the theater 'People's Light and Theatre' thinking someday they'll change it, but that's what they needed to do to incorporate it, and they never did," Berkman said.
Berkman joked that some people think People's Light is the name of a cult or utility company because of the PECO power lines across the campus.
"And in a funny sort of way, for the live arts, we want to be a little bit of both, right?" Berkman said. "We want to be something that people feel like is an absolute necessity and has a degree of deep belief and faith in as a form."
The season will begin with "The Porch on Windy Hill," which Berkman describes as an "intimate musical." The show is a three-theater production with Merrimack Repertory Theatre in Massachusetts and Weston Theater Company in Vermont. The production will feature at People's Light from Sept. 18 to Oct. 13.
This musical centers on three characters: a Korean American violinist, her boyfriend and her estranged grandfather who connect in the mountains of North Carolina. David Lutken, one of People's Light's company artists, portrays the grandfather and co-wrote the show.
From Nov. 20 to Jan. 5, People's Light will perform "Peter Panto: A Musical Panto," a family-friendly pantomime retelling of the Peter Pan story. The company traditionally performs panto versions of classic tales for the holidays with a "subversive, joyful, mad, silly wonderfulness."
People's Light will put on a production of "A Raisin in the Sun" from Feb. 19 to March 30. Company artist Melanye Finister will portray Mama after playing the show's other key female roles in previous productions of the show.
Fitting for the 50th anniversary, "Birthday Candles," will play from April 4 to May 1. It follows a woman's life through almost 100 years, focusing on her birthdays as she bakes cakes.
Finally, the classic musical "Little Shop of Horrors" will close out the season from June 25 to Aug. 3.
"We're super excited about doing that show over the summer and running it longer than our summer productions generally run, so that we can really get more and more people out on campus," Berkman said.
Beginning in October, People's Light will also bring back its "Flight Nights," which lets audience members watch a "flight" of short provocative plays while also enjoying a drink flight. These events will expand to host up to 100 audience members.
"We've been seeing a lot of younger folks coming to these Flight Nights ... and every one has been sold out," Berkman said.
Appealing to younger audiences has been a challenge with so many sources of competition.
"We've learned how seductive the couch can be," Berkman said. "I think the through line for (the shows this season) is that there is a reason to gather, that all of these pieces have an event element to them that makes it feel like you can only experience this in a community, in a live space that you have to see from toe to head of a human being to really relish the stories that you're hearing."
To People's Light, adding social elements to their events is essential for making their shows feel more like community gatherings.
"I find that young people don't want to go and be like, 'I just want to see a play.' They don't go to see a concert because they want to hear the 12 or 18 songs," Berkman said. "They want to come because they also want the food, and they want to cheer with their friends, the whole social event of it. And I think American theater in general needs to play some catch-up to the idea that there's this opportunity for these holistic, full-body events and social experiences."
According to Berkman, People's Light is still a hidden gem and the only theater of its size, scale and scope running year-round in Chester County. Berkman said 85% of the company's audience comes from a 15-mile radius that doesn't even touch Philly.
But like every organization in the arts and culture sector, People's Light struggled during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the company didn't provide membership or revenue numbers, Berkman said it is about 20% down in attendance compared with pre-pandemic numbers.
Even so, People's Light took advantage of its outdoor spaces, doing a concert series on its parking lots and a family-friendly fairy tale series on lawns for socially distanced experiences.
"It isn't really programming," Berkman said. "It really largely is about that social opportunity. So how we now discover what the next generation's desire for what kind of social opportunities to have, that's the key."