Hempfield man's next act: Convert Latrobe gym into theater

Some scattered gym equipment still sits inside the former Latrobe Athletic Club on Main Street: a few weight machines downstairs, a pink exercise ball upstairs.

But John Carosella sees a performing arts center, where his Cabaret Theatre group will not only perform, but where children can take acting classes and local bands will play.

“I think a community without a theater at its heart, is ... well, heartless,” he said.

Carosella, 70, of Hempfield finalized the purchase of the three-story, 30,000-square-foot building last week.

A Catholic high school English and theater teacher, Carosella co-founded St. Vincent Summer Theatre with the Rev. Tom Devereaux in 1969, earned his bachelor's degree in teaching at St. Vincent College and was a student teacher at Greater Latrobe.

“I've always had a fondness for Latrobe,” he said. “I've always thought it was a lovely community.”

In 1979, Carosella founded the Cabaret Theatre that had a home at a refurbished barn on Penn-Adamsburg Road in Hempfield for six years before losing the lease.

Since then, the theater company, also known as the American Performing Arts Theater Company, has not had a permanent home, although it has tried to settle down in Irwin, Jeannette and Charleroi.

Carosella, along with Jay Michaels, his business partner and foster son, began to consider the former athletic club when they brought a company production of Carosella's play “Celibacy” to Latrobe.

The performances at Olde Main, a music and art studio space a block down Main Street in Latrobe, were well-received and spurred conversation about the city as a permanent home, Michaels said.

“We found that Latrobe was very receptive, and they wanted this kind of thing,” he said, which led to city officials helping with the process to find a suitable space.

Prior to its life as the athletic club, the building served as the Manos Theater, opened in the 1930s with seating for up to 1,000 people.

“It's very exciting now to have a single place to call home again,” said board President Tina Lepidi-Stewart, who joined the company in the early 1980s and met her husband performing with them.

“It looks like a very promising space. We've got some work to do, but I think it will pay off,” she said. “I hope the people of Latrobe are as excited as we are.”

Michaels said his vision for the theater was reinforced by the thriving environment at the Latrobe Art Center within a block of the building.

“Look at all these talented people,” he said. “I need to present to the public (an atmosphere) like when you walk in to the art center.”

Michaels, who works as a contractor, has begun to mark with tape where walls will be built or removed.

The building has three floors: a basement weight room, locker rooms and saunas; ground floor with office, lobby, cardio room and hot tub recessed into the floor; and three racquetball courts with viewing overlooks and a dance studio upstairs.

Some of the spaces will remain, but the theater will include cabaret-style table seating on raised levels in front of the stage on the ground floor, Carosella said.

“I think people enjoy stretching their legs out and not bumping their elbows and legs together,” he said.

Michaels said he wants to design other spaces, including rehearsal space and classrooms, to accommodate other programs, such as a festival of one-act plays from school theater programs or summer camps.

He said he wants to recreate the theater atmosphere he fell in love with as a teenager in the Cabaret's barn.

“I want a place for kids, for adults,” Michaels said. “I want to make a place as welcoming as the one I went into in 1980.”

Carosella said he hopes to be open by December and things like movie screenings, late-night cutting-edge theater or bingo for seniors could be planned for the future.

“Having a lot of space allows us to generate revenue in other ways,” he said. “I don't know whether or not all these ideas will work, but we'll give them a shot.”

Stacey Federoff is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. She can be reached at 724-836-6660 or sfederoff@tribweb.com.