Millbrook Playhouse: From farm to theater
Clinton County | I-80 Frontier of the PA Wilds
By Lou Bernard
Where can you go to be entertained, see history, and visit an old farm?
The Millbrook Playhouse in the Pennsylvania Wilds, that’s where.
Millbrook Playhouse is at 258 Country Club Lane in Mill Hall. It’s existed as a local community theater for over half a century, but the building goes back much further than that. Each summer, Millbrook puts on a wonderful selection of plays and shows.
The building is almost a hundred and seventy years old. But it didn’t start out as a theater. It began as a barn.
It was built about 1850 for William Sanderson, a farmer in Bald Eagle Township. Much of the structure is still original, including a very neat stone tunnel that lies on the north side of the building. For about seventy years, Millbrook stayed the same, until local businessman Sedgewick Kistler purchased it in 1920 and made a few adjustments.
Kistler brought in Holstein cows, imported from Holland, and was known for having the first farm to involve genetic engineering of Holsteins. During this time, the farm thrived. It is said that during Prohibition, local bootlegger Prince Farrington stored his whiskey there. Just above the snack bar and to the right is a small door where he was said to have hidden his goods; he then sent his men around to the dairy farm to distribute “milk” to his customers.
And then in 1962, Dan Reinhold arrived.
Reinhold saw the potential in the old barn, and made the arrangements to form a community theater there. A board of directors was formed, and in October of 1962, the barn was leased to the players. They opened up for shows soon after. The property was finally paid off in October of 1990.
Ever since, Millbrook has been in business with shows offered in the summers. The community has enjoyed some big names, including a performance by Kyle McLachlan, of Twin Peaks fame. (Or, if you’re a little younger, Portlandia.) McLachlan performed at Millbrook in the summer of 1980, and has always stated publicly that he has fond memories of the place. And a variety of popular shows continue to be featured on the small, summer stock theater’s stages.
Learn more about Millbrook Playhouse or leave a review/recommendation on their Wilds Cooperative of PA profile!
*Cover photo credit: Bill Crowell / Budget Artist, a juried Creative Maker of the Wilds Cooperative of PA.
*This article originally appeared on the PA Wilds Are Calling blog at pawilds.com/blog.
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