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GREENSBORO -- Rain pours outside as controlled chaos reigns inside the Community Theatre of Greensboro rehearsal studio.

Dancers practice their tap routines. Actors read lines. Youngsters and parents line the hallways.

The oldest arts organization in Guilford County is polishing its annual signature production of the musical "The Wizard of Oz."

Sixty-five of 100 cast members warm up their limbs with choreographer Alison Williams. The Munchkins have the night off.

"Thank you for coming out in this horrible weather," says Mitchel Sommers, CTG executive director and the show's director. "But the show must go on."

That show-biz adage has led the amateur theater company to this season of milestones.

The Carolina Theatre curtain opens Friday for CTG's 15th year of "The Wizard of Oz," the Triad's largest theatrical event, with 200 people in cast and crew.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the arrival of Sommers, its passionate, behind-the-scenes wizard, credited with turning CTG around artistically and financially.

And CTG itself celebrates 60 years of showcasing local talent in dramas, musicals, troupes, school programs, classes and, since 2005, its annual Triad Idol competition.

Some have gone on to bigger stages. Ann Sanders to "Avenue Q" on Broadway. Ruby Crawford to "The Color Purple" on Broadway and "The Lion King" in Las Vegas. Marques Haynesworth, a Triad Idol finalist, to sing on BET's "106 & Park."

If someone aims for stardom, Sommers says, he'll give all he's got to get them on track.

But his daily aims are closer to home.

He focuses on gathering a human rainbow of diverse ages, genders, ethnicities, religions, incomes and abilities to experience the joys of theater.

"We have so many people who are happy and healthy and well-rounded and supportive of the performing arts," Sommers says. "That is the core of what I think CTG is all about."

Longtime supporter Sheryl Siar summed it up at CTG's October anniversary celebration:

"We all live in our own little villages, we go to our own schools, our own churches and temples, we all participate in our interdenominational one-nighters. But at CTG, people of all ages, from 7 to 70, all religious backgrounds, homeschooled, public-schooled, private-schooled, black, white, gay, straight, conservative, liberal, all get the opportunity to come out of their villages for three months (from auditions through showtime) to get dressed up and to play together.

"What better way to build a tolerant and healthy community than to come out and play together?"

Back when CTG's founders started playing together in the late 1940s, few plays were produced locally beyond college campuses.

Then Bill Rudd, who had been active in Greensboro College theater, wrote to radio station WCOG on Oct. 16, 1948:

"A group of young people have realized the need for a Little Theatre in Greensboro. We have decided to do something about it, if possible. We are holding an initial meeting for 'sounding out interest'..."

Greensboro Little Theatre was born, thanks to Rudd, Pat Munroe, Jeta Pace, Norman Dalton and others.

For its first play, members bought equipment and built scenery in an empty Overseas Replacement Depot barracks. Greensboro Senior High School offered its auditorium.

"It was like a small family," recalls cast member Donnell Stoneman, who remembers rehearsing above a bowling alley.

On May 27, 1949, the curtain rose on Greensboro Little Theatre's first production, "Personal Appearance," by Lawrence Riley.

Stoneman played a press agent in the comedy about a Hollywood star whose car breaks down in a small town.

"That was a wonderful period. It just whetted my appetite for theater," said Stoneman, now a retired theater and movie critic.

Stoneman appeared in several more shows. He and others eventually moved on, but many others stepped in.

Such as Doris Hansen.

Hansen moved to Greensboro in 1967 with some acting experience, but none in serious theater. She won a role in Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit."

"When the headline came out and said, 'Doris Hansen shines in Little Theatre play,' I was so excited," Hansen recalls. "And I have been excited ever since."

She played parts for the next few decades. "I learned how to take direction, how to move onstage, voice modulation," says Hansen, who later acted professionally.

Greensboro Little Theatre continued performing in school auditoriums and Town Hall Auditorium in the Greensboro Coliseum Complex.

In the 1970s, it changed its name to Community Theatre of Greensboro and found a home stage at the newly renovated Carolina Theatre.

But by 1989, CTG found itself on shaky ground artistically. Its executive director had left. Productions were bare-bones, and audiences had diminished.

That began to change after the volunteer board of directors hired Sommers, a native New Yorker with a master's degree in acting and directing from UNCG. He became artistic director and producer, then executive director.

"Mitchel really turned CTG around," says Dennis Duquette, a board member then and now.

"It's his passion and his drive that not only keeps it going, but flourishing and improving."

The local theater scene has expanded significantly since CTG's founding, with additions such as the Greensboro Children's Theatre and other City Arts drama programs, The Broach Theatre, Triad Stage and Open Space Café Theatre.

Sommers, 56, continues to be one of its most dramatically passionate and persistent leaders in seeking money and attention for his cause.

In 2001, he agreed to shave his cherished salt-and-pepper locks if a campaign for a CTG educational fund met its $100,000 goal. (It did, and he did.)

He has faced some controversy along the way.

In 1997, his plan to stage the comic musical "La Cage aux Follies," about a devoted gay couple who run a drag club, met with protests from some people. They pressured Guilford County commissioners to cut money for arts organizations, which they did, siphoning the money to the county schools' budget.

But the show went on.

He voiced his protests when the United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro, after expanding its grants process to add new recipients, reduced this year's allocation to CTG by 35 percent, to $38,000.

"I am very passionate about CTG and the arts, and I say it like I see it," Sommers says.

The arts council has been among those to compliment CTG's efforts to reach a diverse community.

Through the years, Sommers added shows with traditionally black casts, such as "Fences" and "Ain't Misbehavin'," and predominantly black casts, such as "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" and "Smokey Joe's Cafe."

For the city's 2008 bicentennial, CTG commissioned playwright Ed Simpson to write a play about the 1960 Woolworth lunch counter sit-ins.

CTG also cast more black actors in shows with traditionally white casts. As a result, Sommers says, he has seen more turnout from the black community.

Angela Williams Tripp was impressed when Sommers cast her in the 1998 satire "Women Behind Bars" in a role traditionally filled by a white actor.

"Mitchel was one of the first directors who gave me a chance," says Tripp, 45, who now also acts professionally. "The best person for the job gets the job."

In 2005, CTG expanded its reach and tapped into new talent when it created Triad Idol, a singing contest modeled after TV's "American Idol."

Since then, the annual contest has attracted a diverse crowd of singers from the Triad and beyond and inspired more African American, Latino and Asian contestants to become more involved in CTG.

That diversity has been evident in recent years in "The Wizard of Oz."

This year, for the first time, an African American teen will play Dorothy.

Jordan Frazier, 16, of Greensboro, alternates in the demanding role with Tate DeCicco, 16, of Madison, for its two-week run. Like other "Wizard" actors, they won the part through competitive auditions.

"Since I am the first black Dorothy, it has taught me that I can try out for any role," Frazier says during a rehearsal break.

"Even if you don't look exactly like the role, if you feel you can do it and do your best and the talent is there, they are not going to overlook it."

Frazier and DeCicco joined 250 actors, ages 4 and older, auditioning for 100 roles.

The milestone production will add special features. Glinda the Good Witch will descend in a metal bubble created by local sculptor Jim Gallucci.

Current and past cast members will gather for a Nov. 21 reunion extravaganza.

And appropriately enough, Sommers himself will play the Wizard. He stepped in when the actor in the role had to bow out.

"Wizard" is no cheap proposition for this nonprofit organization. CTG spends more than $80,000 of its $675,000 annual budget on the production.

It pays off not only in good will, but financially: 10,000 people attended last year's shows.

"When they stop coming, we'll stop doing it," Sommers says.

Beyond the theater experience, the children, teens, adults and seniors in "Wizard" say that they return for another reason.

"We like CTG because it is a big family," says Eric Kaufmann, who has participated with his wife, Kim, and daughter Annanoa, 13, for nine years.

Sheryl Siar watched dur- ing the years as her daughter Emily, now 18, became a better actress, singer and public speaker through her roles in "Wizard" and other shows.

But her daughter also became a better person, Siar says.

"Emily had the opportunity to get to know and become friends with people from all over Greensboro," Siar says. "She got to learn about and from people she never would have met.

"At age 14, she chose to dance at a studio where she was in the minority, where the majority of the other dancers were African American. She would never have had this opportunity had it not been for friends she met at CTG."

Although there may be no place like home, that's one asset that CTG still lacks: its own performing space.

It continues to rent stages around town: the Carolina Theatre, the Broach Theatre, the Odeon Theatre in the Greensboro Coliseum Complex.

It has used unusual venues, such as the ornate downtown Masonic Temple and the Guilford County Courthouse.

Its five-member staff works from offices in the downtown Greensboro Cultural Center, where it also has a rehearsal studio.

Earlier this year, it looked as if CTG had found a home stage.

It had an option to buy the Masonic Temple at 426 W. Market St., an annex and parking for $2 million.

But Sommers realized that raising $2 million, plus renovation costs, would be difficult in a sagging economy.

The option expired, and the temple board opted not to extend it. CTG put its plans on hold.

"If we had our own home, it would give us much more credibility and maybe allow us to do even more," Duquette says.

As wonderful as that would be, Sommers says, he sees some benefits in not owning a building.

"We have never had to spend a lot of time thinking about the roof, the furnace, the paint," Sommers says. "We can focus on service and products and relationships. Maybe that's why we have been here for 60 years."

 

Contact Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane at 373-5204 or dawn.kane@news-record.com

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