Community theater celebrates 50 years

LA CROSSE, WI — The La Crosse Community Theater is celebrating a major milestone this week.

Actors are busy rehearsing the play “Noises Off”.

It opens on Friday, which will mark the theater’s 50th anniversary.

Theater directors say it’s an incredible achievement for a community theater to perform for so many years.

And now that it has a new home at the Weber Center for the Performing Arts, the potential for the next 50 years is unlimited.

The artistic director says the theater plays an important role in the community by bringing people together.

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“Every show that you come to in here, whether it’s the people you see on stage or in the audience, these are your friends, these are your neighbors. They work at the hospitals, the schools, the post office, teachers, lawyers, everyone from the community can walk in here and come and do something that’s greater than just the sum of its parts,” said artistic director Greg Parmeter.

One of the volunteer actors, Suzanne Young, first started performing with the theater in 1967 and said community theater gives everyone a chance to experience something new and stretch themselves creatively.

She said it’s been incredible to watch the theater grow during the years.

“To me it’s very significant. One that a community theater has continued for 50 years and successfully and through the years seeing the quality of the productions of the theater has been an amazing, amazing contribution to the City of La Crosse,” said Young.

To buy tickets, you can contact the box office at 608-784-9292 or you can visit the theater’s website at http://www.lacrossecommunitytheater.org