The Ephrata Performing Arts Center has been producing and performing high quality productions for the community of Central Pennsylvania for the last 25 years. The history of the "Playhouse in the Park", our performance space, is much more extensive. The land we're located on was part of Penn's Woods until it was given to the Daniel Eicher family in 1734. The Ephrata Park Association obtained the land for a public park around 1912. It's estimated that it was around this time that the original Eicher barn was torn down and the pavilion was erected on its foundation. The pavilion was used as a dance hall and roller rink from 1915 until the Great Depression when the building started to fall into disrepair. In 1935, the American Legion took ownership and began a major improvement program, restoring the building to its former glory as a dance hall and roller rink.

In the 1950's, John Cameron, a visiting Broadway producer, convinced the Legion that the pavilion would be a perfect place to put on shows and thus the Legion Star Playhouse was born. Interestingly, during that time, it was the area's only "theater in the round". The Playhouse was an Equity theater, and Mr. Cameron brought in big names from New York to perform in his plays. Some of the more recognizable were Veronica Lake, Eva Gabor, Chico Marx, Francis Farmer, and Ann B. Davis (remember Alice?), to name a few. If you browse through the pictures on our lobby wall, you'll see a resume from Robert DeNiro. And rumor has it that a young actor from Philadelphia auditioned, by the name of Sylvestor Stallone. They weren't hired...

After John Cameron's departure in the 1970's, community arts groups and contracted producers were brought in to produce shows. In 1979, Richard Whorl and his York-based Gallimaufry Productions served as the theater's sole producing group. It was also in that year that EPAC was formed with a board of directors to oversee what was now a non-profit community theater. Gallimaufry had many exciting and successful seasons of musicals and plays, including the highly praised 1982 production of The Elephant Man and the state debut of the musical Annie in 1983, their final season in the Playhouse. Many improvements were made during this time, including a new lighting system. The EPAC board also hired their own administrator and began the current practice of combined artistic and business management.

The 1990 season at the Playhouse is generally considered the turning point for EPAC. That year, Little Shop of Horrors had its area debut along with the Tony Award winning play, House of Blue Leaves. The remainder of the season saw another area premier of Musical Comedy Murders of 1940, the chamber musical Ernest in Love and the vintage musical comedy Anything Goes. Hired to direct Little Shop was Ed Fernandez, who also directed the little known, camp musical Gold Dust the previous season. The artistic, financial, and critical success of Little Shop forged an artistic relationship with Mr. Fernandez that continues today. The positive response to the 1990 season established our current programming format.

EPAC's reputation for outstanding musical theater, including the showcase productions of Stephen Sondheim, can be traced to that eventful season fifteen years ago. Few theatres, let alone small community playhouse, can claim national recognition as seen in the article on EPAC's production of Assassins in the Fall 2000 edition of The Sondheim Review. As Artistic Director of The Ephrata Performing Arts Center, Mr. Fernandez has continually shown an audience exists for challenging, entertaining and thought-provoking theatre.