A Labor of Love in June Lake

Rachel Lockhart brings back the June Lake Theater Festival for a second (free) year

The June Lake Theater Festival will return to the Loop on Saturday, August 25, hosted by founder and director Rachel Lockhart. Lockhart, a professional actor and producer, is offering the festival free of charge—there will be donation boxes at the doors for people to pay what they can.

Lockhart lives in Orange County with her husband, Brett, and their five-month-old son, Elijah. Her father-in-law, Ralph Lockhart, runs Double Eagle Resort and Spa, which will host this year’s event. Rachel didn’t grow up going to June, but her family made regular trips to the Eastern Sierra.

She’s been acting all her life. In the seventh grade, she transferred into Orange County School of the Arts (the alma mater of the television show Glee—it wasn’t exactly like the show, says Lockhart, but it was pretty similar).

Lockhart started the June Lake Theater Festival because she saw an absence of theater in June Lake, she said. Mammoth has Sierra Classic Theatre and Mammoth Repertory Theatre, two film festivals, as well as countless concerts and music festivals.

Hosting this free festival is a way for her to give back to the community through the arts.

The Sheet asked Lockhart to recount her proudest and most embarrassing moments on the stage. “I’ve fallen on my face in front of an audience…food in my teeth…everything you can imagine.” She said she was grateful that audiences are forgiving. “In live theater there are no take-backs,” says Lockhart. “If you are doing live theater, you’ve probably embarrassed yourself. That’s what makes it great, too.”