Prime Stage kicks off children's programming with 'The Amazing Lemonade Girl'

Pittsburgh’s Prime Stage Theatre is planning to bring literature to life for children and their families through its new Prime Stage Sprouts programming.

The inaugural Sprouts production, “The Amazing Lemonade Girl,” is set for June 16-19 at the New Hazlett Theatre in Pittsburgh’s North Side.

The play by Jim DeVita recounts the well-known story of Alexandra “Alex” Scott, the inspiration behind the Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation, which raises funds to benefit childhood cancer research.

Born in 1996, Alex battled cancer from the age of 1 until she succumbed to the disease at age 8. She started a front-yard lemonade stand when she was 4 to raise funds to help other young cancer patients, ultimately raising more than $1 million during her short life.

“It’s an amazing play about an amazing girl,” said Wayne Brinda, Prime Stage co-founder and producing artistic director. “It’s the perfect way to open Prime Stage Sprouts.”

The production features a cast of six local teen actors.

The part of Alex is played by Rayna Akin of Natrona Heights, whose first theater experience was in “Seussical The Musical” in 2018 at Highlands Middle School. She since has studied and performed with Pittsburgh Musical Theatre.

“The play addresses some tough subjects, but there is also a lot of humor and hope,” said director Allison Weakland.

Since its founding in 1996, Prime Stage Theatre has sought to educate audiences through theater, Brinda said. Sprouts programming will extend that mission to a new audience.

“As we were looking at where audiences are and how theater needs to grow, we saw that we need to nurture younger audiences,” he said. “I’ve seen the impact theater has on young people and families, and I thought we need more of that in this region.

“Theater stimulates the imagination and creativity of young people. It gives them an opportunity to see things they normally might not see or be exposed to and gets them to think about things,” he said. “That’s part of the power of theater – it opens up the world, introduces new worlds and stimulates discussion and discovery.”

Prime Stage Sprouts has worked in mounting the production with Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation and the Childhood Cancer Initiatives of the American Cancer Society.

“We were able to have a wonderful conversation with Liz Scott, Alex’s mom, who really gave us a lot of insight and inspiration on who Alex was,” Brinda said. “It really helped us to take the production to a whole other level.”

“The Amazing Lemonade Girl” is recommended for families with children ages 5 to 11. Run time is approximately 60 minutes without an intermission.

Curtain times will be 10:30 a.m. June 16-17, 7:30 p.m. June 16-18 and 2:30 p.m. June 18-19 at the New Hazlett Theatre, 6 Allegheny Square East. The 2:30 p.m. performance on June 18 is sensory inclusive.

The 10:30 a.m. performance on June 16 is pay-what-you-can. Other tickets are $8-$18.

For information and reservations, visit primestage.com.