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All the county’s a stage

Drama finds a home with eight different community theater groups operating in Prince George’s

Thursday, Oct. 19, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Photos by Ian Hurley⁄The Gazette Volunteer Larry Wideman of Laurel sweeps the floor at the Laurel Mill Playhouse before the opening production of ‘Moon Over Buffalo.’ Click here to enlarge this photo Larry Simmons plays Herb and Milla Ferrara plays Edna during rehearsals for ‘Lying in State,’ a Prince George’s Little Theater production scheduled to open next week at the Bowie Playhouse. The play is about the chaos that ensues after a state senator is killed.

That fantasy drives a lot of the popularity of community theaters. Just look around Prince George’s County and you’re likely to find two or three community theaters staging productions of plays that once were major shows on Broadway.

And there will be a half dozen more in rehearsals for their next show. They stage anything from musicals (‘‘The King & I”) to intense dramatic plays (‘‘Equus”) to comedies (‘‘The Importance of Being Earnest”) to classics (‘‘Inherit the Wind”) to children’s shows (‘‘Annie Jr.”).

Community theaters produce plays across the county. They have become so popular in Bowie that there are now three community theater groups that share the Bowie Playhouse stage, meaning there is usually a show playing on any given weekend.

The work is usually all done by volunteers and on a shoestring budget. But few get into it for the money. There have been, however, a few success stories where local community theater performers have gone on to act on television or Broadway.

The oldest

Prince George’s Little Theater claims to be the oldest continuous community theater in the county, starting in 1960 as the Carrollton Players. The group, which changed its name in 1962, is scheduled to open its 47th season next week with ‘‘Lying in State.”

This season brings something new to the oldest theater group in the county. They are leaving Publick Playhouse in Cheverly, where they have been performing their plays, and moving to the Bowie Playhouse.

Keith Brown, director of ‘‘Lying In State,” has been acting and directing with the group for 27 years. He said there are still members of the group who have been there for all 47 years.

‘‘We like to think of ourselves as friends,” Brown said. ‘‘We all go out afterwards and talk about the week.”

He said membership in the group is simple, once you do a show, you are considered a member. He said there are between 25 to 100 current members. He said people leave, but the group ‘‘just kind of replenishes itself.”

‘‘Lying In State” is a farce about the death of a local state senator. Brown said it is filled with mistaken identities and everything snowballs. He said the group does four shows a year in October, December, February and May. He said they always do a variety of shows.

All of the work is done by volunteers, Brown said. They build and paint their own sets.

‘‘Everyone here does this for fun,” Brown said. ‘‘I think it gives friends, family and people who are interested a way to perform.”

The next show the group plans on producing is a take-off of a radio show based on ‘‘It’s A Wonderful Life,” after that they will do ‘‘Side by Side” by Stephen Sondheim and the ‘‘Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde.

2nd Star Productions www.2ndstarproductions.com Bowie Community Theater www.bctheatre.com Greenbelt Arts Center www.greenbeltartscenter.org Hard Bargain Players www.hbplayers.org Laurel Mill Playhouse www.laurelmillplayhouse.org Prince George’s Little Theater www.pglt.org Tantallon Community Players www.tantalloncommunityplayers.org Young Artists Theater www.yatheatre.com

‘‘We try to put the best people who come to the auditions on stage,” he said.

Taking it outdoors

The Hard Bargain Players in Accokeek started as part of the Alice Ferguson Foundation in the 1930s. Suzanne Donohue, managing artistic director of the Hard Bargain Players, said this most recent incarnation of the players is the third and started in 1996.

Donohue said it takes a lot to put together a production.

She said first you have to choose the production, then pick a cast and then there are rehearsals, costumes, makeup and publicity.

All of the members of the group are hard working and dedicated, Donohue said. She said the most helpful part of the production process is the pre-performance because the cast ‘‘will have a little bit of an audience.”

‘‘It’s a blast to take a show you feel very passionate about and put it all together,” she said. ‘‘The finished product is what makes it worthwhile.”

She said for the latest show, ‘‘Hot-n-Throbbin’,” there are 15 people actively involved. She said compared to the last show, which had more than 35 people in it, the cast is small.

‘‘Everyone who is doing it because they enjoy it, we don’t get paid for it,” she said.

Keeping it local

Charla Rowe started the Tantallon Players 27 years ago because of convenience. She had previously been a member of theater groups in Reston and Alexandria, Va. She said she was getting home late from rehearsals and decided to create something in her own community.

‘‘On a wing and a prayer, and donations from great people, we started the Tantallon Players,” she said.

For the first show, she wrote the script and all of the music. She charged 50 cents and earned $55. Ticket prices have increased to between $12 and $15 but the group has remained successful.

The Fort Washington-based community theater group puts on its productions in the John Addison Concert Hall in the Harmony Hall Regional Center.

One of the most successful shows is the USO Tribute to Men in Uniform they do every year around Christmas. The show, patterned after Bob Hope’s USO show, is free to any member of the armed forces.

Rowe said whatever money is left goes to the USO.

‘‘As long as there are still World War II veterans alive, I will continue to do the show,” she said.

Rowe said the Tantallon Players have won several awards from the Ruby Griffith Awards to the Washington Area Theatre Community Honors. In the past 27 years, the group has done more than 80 productions.

Rowe said the group has been a training ground for performers who have gone to Broadway to do musicals.

‘‘The casting is local so kids who are 8, 9 and 10 get their sea legs on home ground,” she said.

Sasha Miceli, who started with Tantallon as the youngest child in ‘‘The King and I” at age 4, went on to star in the NBC television show ‘‘Homicide.”

Another actor, Corey Hawkins, made his debut in ‘‘Babes in Toyland” with the Tantallon Players and has been a member of Debbie Allen’s dance troupe and been in ‘‘The Lion King” on Broadway.

Rowe said the competition in Prince George’s County among the community theater groups is very keen, and there is really no need to ‘‘drive back into the [District] and pay $75 for a show.”

She said community theaters are important because it prevents those places from becoming ‘‘bedroom communities.”

‘‘In our community, you have your sports events, you have your country club, your senior centers and you have a community theater,” Rowe said.

The Tantallon Players will do ‘‘The Diary of Anne Frank” in March and ‘‘Mame,” the musical, at the end of May. The following September the group will perform ‘‘The Piano Lesson” by August Wilson.

E-mail Tia Carol Jones at tjones@gazette.net