Published April 03. 2026 03:53AM<\/p>\n
Lehigh Valley thespians gathered in the Rodale Community Room, Miller Symphony Hall, Allentown, for a get-acquainted mixer March 21 where local actors rubbed elbows with area theater professionals.<\/p>\n
The new Lehigh Valley Drama Club hosted its inaugural public event, \u201cConnect, Collaborate and Cocktails,\u201d attended by aspiring thespians and seasoned actors, producers, directors and playwrights.<\/p>\n
They are part of an effort to bring the \u201cfragmented\u201d theater community together, according to Jason King Jones, Artistic Director, PA Shakespeare Festival.<\/p>\n
\u201cI noticed that the theater community [in the Lehigh Valley] is really fragmented and there wasn\u2019t any group of people that are organizing and trying to gather us all together as a team of people,\u201d Jones said to a reporter for Lehigh Valley Press at the event. Jones is in his third year as PSF artistic director.<\/p>\n
The Drama Club is \u201can evolving, ad hoc group of theater creators from throughout the Lehigh Valley,\u201d states the organization\u2019s social media page.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom community to regional, these are just a few of the companies that have started to connect with a dedication to showing support and ally-ship to each other, and to our communities,\u201d states the social media page.<\/p>\n
Sean King, Managing Director of the Lehigh Valley Arts & Cultural Alliance (LVACA), said, \u201cWe\u2019re partnering with the Lehigh Valley Drama Club and their initial event here, a gathering of actors and producers, in order to elevate and sustain the acting community throughout the Lehigh Valley.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal as LVACA is to support all artists, actors, musicians, dancers, visual artists and others in the creative community in order to support the growth and quality of life through the Lehigh Valley,\u201d said Sean King.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very fortunate to be here. I just kind of want to dip my toe in the waters and see who I can connect with [and] hopefully work with and see whatever is up next for me. I\u2019m here because there\u2019s a lot of great theater companies in the Lehigh Valley,\u201d said Angelina Dries, who most recently was in Civic Theatre of Allentown\u2019s production of \u201cSweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dries is slated to perform as the character Eleven in Civic Theatre\u2019s \u201cStranger Sings! The Parody Musical,\u201d May 8 – 17.<\/p>\n
Also at the event was Nina Metrick, who played Mrs. Lovett in Civic\u2019s \u201cSweeney Todd.\u201d<\/p>\n
Among those attending from Crowded Kitchen Players were co-founder, playwright and director Ara Barlieb and actors Trish Cipoletti, Dan Ferry and David Oswald.<\/p>\n
According to Connie Behringer, Associate Producer, PA Shakespeare Festival, an estimated 100 attended the mixer.<\/p>\n
PRESS PHOTOS BY DOUGLAS GRAVESJayden McFadden and Angelina Dries are to perform in Civic Theatre of Allentown\u2019s \u201cStranger Sings! The Parody Musical,\u201d May 8 – 17.<\/p>\n
Left to right: Amber Charest, Assistant Education Director, Touchstone Theatre; James P. \u201cJp\u201d Jordan, Executive Director, Touchstone Theatre; comedian Lisa VanArsdale, and Lisa Jordan, Touchstone Theatre Ensemble Member, at Lehigh Valley Drama Club mixer.<\/p>\n
Left to right: Crowded Kitchen Players co-founder, playwright and director Ara Barlieb and actors David Oswald and Trish Cipoletti.<\/p>\n
Left to right: Veronica Melendez, Jeremy Melendez and comedian Lisa VanArsdale. Jeremy Melendez recently played Gordon and Dwight in Between the Lines Studio Theatre production of \u201cDead Man\u2019s Cell Phone.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Published April 03. 2026 03:53AM Lehigh Valley thespians gathered in the Rodale Community Room, Miller Symphony Hall, Allentown,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":["post-156244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}