Last year, nearly 300 children and youth participated in programs and shows. “The core of what we do is musical theater,” said Chris deLambert, Temple’s director of business development. A community group raised money for restoration and a reopening in the 1980s, and Temple now hosts professional performances year-round, and youth conservatories in the summer. When vaudeville went out of fashion, the theater added a movie screen, but it all went dark when Temple closed in the late 1960s, allowing the building to fall into disrepair. Sanford is home to the 330-seat Temple Theatre, opened in 1925 to host traveling vaudeville shows. It’s a lot to ask of people, and yet, they continue to give it. “Almost everyone who performs with us has a full-time job, so they work all day, come to rehearsals at night and on weekends, and then do multiple shows on the weekends. “I ask myself all the time why people continue to do it,” said Alice Sherwood, artistic director for the Opera House Theatre Company, which staged a rousing “Spamalot” at downtown Wilmington’s Thalian Hall in June and will perform “1776” at the historic theater building for the next two weekends. Except for the rare company that is able to hire one or two professionals, most actors are local residents, performing for their neighbors, co-workers and relatives who get a seat on the front row to applaud the results of all those weeks of rehearsals. ![]() Some companies perform in school auditoriums or outdoor amphitheaters. Some perform in extravagantly renovated historic buildings that saw their first heyday in the early 1900s, when vaudeville acts came into the state on trains, unloaded their gear into theaters near the railroad tracks and performed for a few days before moving down the line. Others leave it all on the stage for audiences of fewer than 100. ![]() Some perform in theaters that can hold more than 500 people, and often fill every seat. Across the state, dozens of theater companies (many of which are listed geographically here put on hundreds of shows featuring the tireless work of thousands of actors, directors, musicians, set-builders, costume designers and car-parkers.
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