For most high school students, summer means ice cream, sunny weather and no homework. For recent Penn Manor High School graduate Dana Raugh, summer means showtime. Read More Entertainment
For most high school students, summer means ice cream, sunny weather and no homework. For recent Penn Manor High School graduate Dana Raugh, summer means showtime.
Raugh is the founder and director for danaraughproductions, a youth-run theater company that has produced five shows to date. She has spent her past few summers rehearsing four to six hours per week with the company in her family’s (not air-conditioned) garage.
Danaraughproductions will present their final show, “Romeo, You Idiot” at 4 p.m. Sunday, July 13, at Redeemer Lutheran Church at 800 Fifth St. in Lancaster. The performance is open to the public. This will also be the group’s last production as many core members move on to college.
“It’s bittersweet. It has been a huge part of my life for the past five years,” says Raugh, who will start at Millersville University this fall. “But at the same time, we’re all getting into a new stage of our life.”
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Youth-run theater
The 18-year-old from Pequea Township said while it’s time for the company to come to an end, she’ll miss having fun with her friends through putting on performances.
Raugh started the group in 2021 when she was in eighth grade, during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said she was feeling bored and remembered having fun with her cousins putting on shows together growing up. She wanted to “try it for real.”
Raugh’s first show was an adaptation of the board game Clue, with a script that she had written herself. The cast of eight people included her friends and their siblings.
The company started by filming their shows and posting them to their YouTube channel, which can be found at lanc.news/danaraughproductions.
“It’s so fun to see it all come together,” says Kristi Raugh, Dana Raugh’s mother. She adds that she is “just so proud” of her daughter and the rest of the company for the time and effort they put into the shows.
The group has expanded since its inception, now including 14 members aged 15 to 21. Over its five years, the company has included over 30 different members, ranging from 10 to 21 years old.
Dana Raugh says the youth-led aspect of the company “adds something special”.
“We get to be more confident in ourselves, because what we produce is cool no matter what,” she says. “We can just have fun with it and enjoy it.”
From the screen to the stage
During the summer of 2023, danaraughproductions transitioned from showing their work online to hosting live performances at Redeemer Lutheran Church.
There are typically 100-130 people in the audience. Families of the cast and crew attend each show, and Dana Raugh says “it was really cool” to see her classmates from school come out to support them as well.
“I enjoy being able to see the reactions of people in real time,” she says about transitioning from film to live performances. “Hearing people laugh at the jokes that we added into the show, I feel like that is so much more fun.”
Cast member Isabelle Ebersole, from Pequea Township, says while she finds it “nerve-wracking at first” to perform live in front of an audience, it’s still really fun.
“Knowing that everybody else is there feeling the same way makes me feel better,” says Ebersole, who also graduated from Penn Manor High School this year and will attend Millersville University in the fall.
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The process
Every year, the production process begins when Dana Raugh chooses the script and purchases the performance rights out-of-pocket, which cost $300-$400. She said they try to break even with what they make from the show.
Once the purchasing rights are approved, Dana Raugh reveals the show to the rest of the company at the start of the year.
In April, the company meets at one of the member’s houses to do a read-through of the script. They start rehearsing in May on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and some Sundays, from 6-8 p.m.
Rehearsals take place in the Raugh family garage. She puts tape down on the garage floor to map out the size of the stage until they move to rehearsing at the church the week of the show.
Emily Gregory, 17, who serves as the stage manager, says she loves seeing “the final product” at the end of the process.
“From the first time we all come together and are still reading from our scripts, and then to the last time they actually perform, it’s really nice to see how much work everybody puts into it,” says Gregory, another recent graduate of Penn Manor High School.
The company’s final show, “Romeo, You Idiot,” is a parody of William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” written by Tim Kochenderfer. Dana Raugh says she chose it because she “could see the cast unfolding into this really funny show.”
Tickets for the performance are by donation and profits, after covering the production’s expenses, will go to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.
“We’re a youth company, and we want to support other youth,” Dana Raugh says. “We want to help them out because we’re really lucky to have this opportunity.”
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What’s next
The cast and crew are saying goodbye to the theater company after this show. Dana Raugh will be studying music education at Millersville University, and she says she hopes to continue working with theater in her extracurriculars, as a choreographer or director.
“We spend so much time together and not having that time together anymore is disappointing,” says Gregory, who starts at Messiah University this fall. “But we have all the memories that come with it.”
Rayn Andrechek, 16, who stars as Romeo, says while he is not excited for the end of the company, he is excited for the end product. He’ll be a senior at Penn Manor High School this fall.
“I think this is going to be our best show yet,” Andrechek says.
If You Go
What: “Romeo, You Idiot,” presented by danaraughproductions.
When: 4 p.m. Sunday, July 13.
Where: Redeemer Lutheran Church, 800 Fifth St., Lancaster.
Cost: Tickets are by donation, with a portion benefiting St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital.
More info: @danaraughproductions on Instagram.
