Nine Arcadia Theater alumni are part of the team bringing the musical “A Latte of Love” to Arcadia’s Little Theater, Sept. 4-7. Led by Writer and Producer Christina Healey ’18, the show is part of the 2025 Philadelphia Fringe Festival.

“ For me, being part of the Fringe as an artist now is monumental,” said Healey, who also stars in the show. “I was first exposed to Fringe during my first weekend as a student at Arcadia. The Theater Department took us to see a show called ‘Zombies with Guns,’ and I saw this piece and I was like, ‘oh, this is what it is like to be a professional artist.’”

Director Sarah King ’17; Lighting Designer Emmie Parker ’19, an adjunct professor at Arcadia; Vocal Coach Janine Silano ’19; and Public Relations Specialist Olivia Gendron ’19 join Healey on the production team, while CJ Knorr ’20; Casey Lynch ’22; Courtney Thoroughgood ’22; and Nina Vitek ’23 join Healey in the cast.

“When the alumni got back into the theater for the first time together, we all said, ‘We’re back home,’” King said. “So it’s such a joy to be able to bring a show that is so personal to Chrissy, and now personal to me, to our alma mater.”

Healey and King both agreed that having nine alumni work on the production says a great deal about the Arcadia Theater program. 

“ There’s been kind of a universal comment from individuals not from the Arcadia sphere that the Arcadia folks come in with such grounding and such professionalism,” Healey explained. “And despite Sarah and I being several years removed from most of the rest of the cast, there was an immediate camaraderie and understanding of how to work as a team. I think it really speaks volumes to the work being done within the program.”

Healey started working on this musical during her time working at Disneyland Paris in the summer of 2024. Right before she left to return home to the United States, Healey and friends put on a workshop production, giving Healey a really good idea of where the story wanted to go, what worked, and what didn’t. She contacted King after shifting the piece to a full musical to see if she wanted to join the team as the director. King also had ideas for other Arcadia alumni that could fill holes in the cast.

“ It started with our theater alumni group, which mostly pulled from my immediate class year and the bookends on either side of it,” Healey said. “Sarah was tangentially connected to a few people who graduated several years later than I did, so  she reached out to two or three people. They had another two or three people who said, ‘Well, I did Cabaret Club with that person, and I did a show with that person who’s also from Arcadia, but you don’t know because they’re six years after you. It just grew through the network of other people’s professional circles who all just happen to be other Arcadia Knights.”

The show focuses on a group of patrons at the Rise & Grind Coffee Shop. As the shop is on the brink of closure, the patrons’ lives play out in good ways and bad, mirroring the rise and fall of the coffee shop itself.

“ There is a song that runs the course of the show called ‘Runnin’ on Home,’ and ultimately it is a comment on both the home that they have found in Small Town, USA, but also the home that we find in each other and the comforts of our community,” Healey said. “It is so refreshing to be working on a project with a team that fully recognizes the value in the community and the home we’ve created as a group.”

Showtimes:

September 4, 2025 7:00 p.m.

September 5, 2025 7:00 p.m.

September 6, 2025 2:00 p.m.

September 6, 2025 7:00 p.m.

September 7, 2025 2:00 p.m.