For six years, Becker, founder of the Hershey Area Playhouse (HAP), never faltered in his vision. He says he knew the community theater troupe would have a home one day.

“My belief from the start was that we would eventually find a theater,” the determined Becker said.

Initial steps were taken in 2002 when the Country Meadows of Hershey retirement community agreed to a 29-year lease on a 136-year-old barn used for storage on its campus for $1 annually.

Raising funds to remodel the venerable structure was the next task HAP members faced, even as they continued to perform in such varied Derry Township area venues as a fire hall, a high school, a small Country Meadows community room, an indoor soccer field, a dance studio, and a tent at Hersheypark.

During the past three years more than $750,000 was raised to begin work on the barn, and a groundbreaking ceremony was held last month. The 150-seat theater may be completed by July 2006, Becker said.

Performing in varied locations is “reminiscent of the old vaudevillian circuit, I suspect,” Becker continued. “Except that in those days one played theaters set up for performances. We play where we can find a room and make it into a theater. ... When you make a theater out of a soccer field, you can be pretty sure that you can make a theater out of anything.”

Being without a theater of its own has had little effect on the HAP schedule, which has been filled throughout the years with such productions as “Barefoot in the Park,” “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” “Bus Stop,” “Oliver” and “Arsenic and Old Lace.”

Next on the calendar is the comedy “Nuncrackers,” which will be staged at the One Broadway The Dance Centre in Hershey, Nov. 25-27 and Dec. 2-4.

Despite HAP’s successes on the road, so to speak, Susan Cort Black, chairwoman of HAP’s nine-member board of directors, noted that “there’s really no place like home. ... We’ll be more flexible and have a sense of location.” About $925,000 has been pledged for renovations so far, Black said, including $100,000 each by Country Meadows and The Hershey Co.

The HAP board estimates it will cost $750,000 to convert the historic, two-story pole barn into a state-of-the-art theater with seats rising on three sides of an open stage.

The $1 million fund drive continues with additional moneys earmarked for an endowment and equipment costs, Black said.

She noted that the work on the barn will be of professional quality; the board hired Hummelstown native Charles Alexander of Alexander Design Studio in Ellicott City, Md., to create plans for the new theater.

The intimate venue on the barn’s second floor is to feature stadium seating so that the 19-by-32-foot performance area will be clearly visible to all in the audience.

The first floor will include the box office, dressing rooms, an office, rest rooms, a concession area and “a large open area for gatherings,” according to Theresa Ridge, the theater’s treasurer and manager of budgeting, insurance and benefits administration for Country Meadows of Hershey.

A 20-by-40-foot addition on the barn’s west side will house the backstage area and dressing rooms. There will be room

backstage for an orchestra and “many areas where actors may enter, including through the audience,” Ridge said.

Walls will be painted black to “cut out as much natural light as possible so you can create that imaginary world on the stage,” she added.

A prime consideration as plans were developed was the actors’ relationship with the audience.

“We did not want a proscenium stage,” Black said. “We knew we wanted a more intimate feel to the theater. ... We wanted to make sure what we are building is right, not just for today, but for the next 29 years.”

A permanent home is “essential to our long-term success,” Black said. “People often don’t know who you are (when) you move from place to place, (and) most importantly, we will be able to do more than we were doing.”

Becker, who directed productions at Lebanon Community Theatre for six years in the late 1980s, described the new HAP home as “a black box theater” with great potential.

“That is to say ... the audience and actors will be very close to each other, so directing for a venue of this kind is an extraordinary reward,” he said. “It gives the actor that unique opportunity to see the audience close-up. ... This is a remarkable (experience) for actors learning their craft. ... I can’t wait to direct there!”

 Not only will the new building greatly enhance creative opportunities, it is also expected to prompt expansion of the playbill and benefit other community art groups.

Currently, HAP stages three productions annually, a number that should eventually double, according to Black. Another change is that acting classes conducted at a Hershey church will be moved to the new theater, she noted.

“In addition, we’d love to have theater professionals do workshops, (and) it could be a temporary home for other arts organizations to present piano recitals, displays and the like.”

Although the planned theater is small, Ridge said that intimacy would not hinder staging large productions.

“There are ways to do big productions in small places,” she noted.

“A small theater is an exercise in economy (where) you are able to represent whole universes with just the suggestion of a set,” Becker said.

“I believe it’s magic ... and it’s extraordinarily exciting (because of) the potential this theater will have for actors, not only today but for those who are now in kindergarten.”