In the summer of 1950 a meeting was held for people interested in presenting amateur theatrical productions in the Roanoke area. Plans were made to present six plays in the summer of 1951, and on July 5 the curtain was raised on the first Showtimers presentation, “Arsenic and Old Lace.”
During its early years, the Showtimers’ productions were performed in the Lab Theatre on the campus of Roanoke College. In 1961, Showtimers purchased a former Church of the Brethren building located on what is now McVitty Road, S.W., in Roanoke City. Initially this facility served as a rehearsal hall while the Showtimers continued presenting their performances at the Lab Theatre.
When the latter finally became unavailable for the Showtimers’ continued use, the group completed renovations on their McVitty Road property with money raised from a fund drive, making it their new, full-time location. They presented their first production there in 1971. Additional improvements to the building since then have allowed it to provide access to the handicapped, a covered front porch for the theater’s patrons, a covered “stage door” providing an entrance for the actors, and other accommodations.
Since its debut in 1951, Showtimers has mounted over 300 different shows, covering a wide range of genres: standard, classical theater pieces, modern and avant-garde productions, comedies, serious “think pieces” delving into social issues, tiny, intimate musicals, and mammoth Broadway hits.
While the group still presents six shows, they’re no longer confined to the summer months, as was the case at first. The current Showtimers season runs from February through November, with an occasional December offering as well.
“We’ve just recently started doing a December show – a Christmas-based show,” said current president Cynthia Keeling. Comedies and dramas are presented ten times during a period of two weeks, while musicals are performed twelve times during a three-week span. “We are currently doing very well,” Keeling said. “[We] would like to continue to do what we’re doing now. It’s worked well for us, for about sixty years.”
“Right Bed, Wrong Husband,” the Showtimers’ next offering, is a farce slated to run June 2-13. It will be followed by the musical “Man of La Mancha,” then a suspense piece (“Night Must Fall”), and the comedy-drama “The Heidi Chronicles.” The latter is different from the Showtimers’ usual mainstream, family-based offerings in that it features considerable adult language.
“That is not something most of our patrons particularly care for,” Keeling explains. “We don’t do a lot of shows for that reason, but it is . . . valid theater and, for that reason . . . when it is selected, we will do it.” Similarly, Showtimers’ has mounted productions of “Biloxi Blues,” “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” and “Sweeney Todd,” as well as such suspense productions as “Wait Until Dark,” originally a 1960s film with Audrey Hepburn.
“We have found our audience is drawn to the name plays,” Keeling said, “the ones that they are familiar with, anticipate, and enjoy. So we do have a tendency to do the standards but we try to look for standards that aren’t totally typical. We do stretch the limit. We do classics here and try to have something for everyone.”
Showtimers chooses the plays it will perform based on the recommendations to the board by a committee that reads plays submitted for consideration. At the present time Keeling herself doesn’t know what shows are under consideration; “It’s not a closed committee, but they’re usually pretty quiet about what they’re doing.”
When it comes to the caliber of the players in Showtimers, Keeling says, “We always have excellent actors.” These include professionals and those who’ve acted on stage since they were children. Some have progressed to the actual stage elsewhere. Each production features new actors.
“I know that we have people who have gone on to be very successful, although possibly not in theater itself,” Keeling explains. “And we have people who returned to us.”
Keeling points out that stage acting can help people in careers away from the stage. “It can prepare them for a theater position, acting in any sense. But simply being on stage, having that ability to get before people, to speak, to know how to move, and the nuances to relationships are learned there that really do benefit people in all walks of life.”
“We just have been a good, family-based theater for so long, and we don’t want to mess with success,” said Keeling.
Further information about Showtimers can be found by phone at (540) 774-2660 or toll free at (877) 336-9294, by email at [email protected], or by visiting the Showtimers website at www.showtimers.org.
By Melvin E. Matthews, Jr. [email protected]