In 1952 a group of five couples attended a play presented by a local women’s club and afterward went out for drinks. They discussed the play they had just seen and all agreed that they could do better. Thus, they decided to start their own playhouse. These founding members were Gwen Barndt, Harry and Marge Schaffer, Ben & Mickie Beltz, Ed & Pearl Herb, Otto & Kay Koch, Harold & Sue Norman, Al & Mina Hasson, Rita Pearce, Erik Van Anglen and Peg West. The couples spread the word and to their surprise, 30 people showed up at the first meeting.

To house their group, they found an empty auction building next door to the Ridge Road Hotel. The auction building had been used for square dancing at one time and had a six inch high stage. It also had a ceiling that dropped to six feet at the stone wall in back with a door located in the center of the wall. The group rented the building for five dollars per year.

The next thing the group had to do was decide on a name and obtain funding. The area was referred to as Dutch Country and was used by Philadelphians for summer retreats, so the group decided to create a summer theatre called The Dutch Country Players (DCP). A successful white elephant and plant sale provided the necessary funds and soon the playhouse was on its way.

The first play produced on the DCP stage was a comedy titled Apple of His Eye. Set design and blocking was made difficult by the physical limitations of the building, as all sets had to have a center back door and all actors over six feet tall had to be blocked down stage. The congregation of Huff’s Church heard of the group and invited them to present the play at their church off Route 100. To the actors’ disappointment, no one laughed at the comedy. At intermission the cast and crew were provided with coffee and donuts. After the show the DCP group discovered the audience only spoke Pennsylvania Dutch and was even more surprised when they received a bill for the coffee and donuts. The story later appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The playhouse was chartered in the fall of 1952. In March of 1953 they performed Apple of His Eye again as the first show in a full season of six plays. Dues were $5.00 per year which was wisely invested by the treasurers of the group. Funded by admission proceeds alone and using imagination instead of money, DCP operated in the black when only charging only $1.00 per person and serving free coffee.

Night Must Fall by Emlyn Williams
from our 3rd season, May 24, 25, 31, June 1, 1954.

Things went well until March 1956. At that time the playhouse was heated by a gas space heater suspended from the ceiling. The membership made their first big purchase by buying an oil furnace. The underwriter checked the furnace the first Wednesday of the month and furnace company was to turn it on the next day. But being the first Wednesday of the month, it was also the DCP membership meeting night, so the owner lit the space heater around five o’clock to heat the building for the gathering. A delayed ignition caused an explosion and the building burned to the ground.

A week and a half later, the first play of the season, ironically called Gaslight, opened at the Pennsburg Civic Center. An ice storm on opening night severely limited attendance with only 25 people in the building including cast, crew, and audience. A square dancing club was rented for the next two shows.

Time Out For Ginger by Ronald Alexander
Aug. 2, 3, 9, and 10, 1957

Shortly thereafter, an agreement was reached with the owners to rebuild the theater. DCP paid the insurance on building and contents giving the players equity, right of first refusal, and a 15 year lease starting at $150 a year (later renewed). Taking no chances, the property owners instructed the builders to make the floors strong enough so that if the group did not stay he could rent it out as a machine shop. No bathrooms were put in the building with the hope that patrons would use the hotel bathrooms and buy a beer while they were there.

In the new playhouse, the hotel proprietors made arrangements for dinner theater, paying DCP as if it were a benefit. They prepared the food and served it in the playhouse, setting up a bar in the lobby. This arrangement may have been the first dinner theatre in the area. During the hot summer and before air conditioning all the doors were open and sometimes the owners’ cat would make appear on the DCP stage – during a show.

DCP produced their first original play, Trout Season, in 1962 and many more followed. The first musical was By Hex in 1965.

In 1973 DCP purchased the entire property. The barn was torn down and the property divided into three parcels. One of the parcels was sold for residential use followed by the sale of the hotel. During this time, DCP also improved the playhouse by adding patron bathrooms off the auditorium. 38 months later DCP paid off the mortgage.

The Musical Comedy Murders from our 39th season, 1989.

For most of the following 22 years, the hotel was owned and run by Louis “Lou” Fantini and his family and operated under the name “Fantini’s”. During that time many improvements were made to the playhouse including air conditioning and an addition to the back with another bathroom, shower, and workshop downstairs and a costume room upstairs.

In 1995 tragedy struck yet again when the hotel burned down. DCP subsequently purchased the empty hotel property and when attendance dropped off, the players began providing patrons with refreshments. Eventually, due to the quality of the productions, attendance slowly grew to where it had been before the fire.

Placemat from Fantini's Ridge Road Hotel.
Note the hotel/restaurant and playhouse as
they looked 50 years ago.

Today, DCP is a successful non-profit organization providing access to the dramatic arts for children and adults in the “Dutch Country” area. Our spacious facility is air conditioned and heated providing a comfortable atmosphere in which up to 200 patrons can enjoy fine performances.

Last updated - September 20, 2009