Community theatre runs on passion. Stages are built by volunteers, costumes are stitched by parents, and audiences fill the seats not for spectacle but for the joy of seeing neighbors and friends create something together. These organizations survive on heart, generosity, and trust. But sometimes, trust becomes the very thing that puts them at risk.
The Lake Wales Little Theatre is learning that lesson the hard way. Earlier this month, former board member and treasurer Leslie Grondin was arrested on fraud charges tied to her work with another nonprofit. Soon after, the theatre itself acknowledged financial irregularities during her tenure. Grondin reportedly had sole custody of the theatre’s debit cards and produced the financial reports herself — a situation with little room for oversight. For a small nonprofit that depends on ticket sales and community donations, the news was a gut punch. As one board member put it, “This has been painful, because Leslie wasn’t just a treasurer. She was a mentor, a leader, someone we all trusted.”
And yet, Lake Wales is not alone. Theatres across the country have faced similar betrayals. In Wyoming, the Cheyenne Little Theatre Players nearly collapsed when a longtime bookkeeper embezzled more than $250,000, forcing the group to take out a second mortgage just to survive. In Pennsylvania, a finance manager at the Ephrata Performing Arts Center used the theatre’s credit card and checks to pay for hotels and salon services, a theft that totaled less than $3,000 but left behind a larger scar of mistrust. Even large organizations have been shaken — the Florida Chapter of the Educational Theatre Association saw nearly $600,000 misappropriated over a decade, spent on everything from groceries to Disney tickets…