LeGacy brings community theater to Nevada City

THE REGION’S ARTS COMMUNITY SUFFERED a blow in May, when Foothill Theatre Company in Nevada City closed after 33 years. It was the only resident professional theater in the area, and its rent helped pre- serve the historic Nevada Theatre.

But “this too, shall pass,” and community theater groups such as Sierra Stages and LeGacy Productions have formed. For its part, Sierra Stages presented sold-out performances of The Sound of Music this summer at the Miners Foundry in Nevada City.

This spring, CATS, the Community Asian on Cedars at the Nevada Theatre. It is the first theater company in California to predent this show.

LeGacy Productions has helped fill the void too. It epitomizes the spirit of community theater, where the actors and technical staff work for little, or nothing, but help to shape a town’s culture.

This holiday season, LeGacy will present Miracle on 34th Street at the Nevada Theatre.

This stage adaption of the 1947 Oscar winning film, with a cast of 24 people, brings to light the holiday happenings around New York’s Macy’s department store and asks “Is there really a Santa Claus?”

After 15 years participating in local theater, Chris and Sue LeGate, along with their son Alvis, decidedto start their own production company. Two years ago, Chris played Mark Twain in a one-night performance at the Nevada Theatre—an old-haunt of the real author and humorist. Then during 2007, the group staged Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men.

Under Sue’s direction, with all three family members pitching in as producers, their first full stage production had debuted. At this company, pitching in means everything from swinging a hammer, painting, pounding the pavement with tickets and advertisements, even cleaning the theater toilets.

“The enthusiasm for a new company was growing, a company committed to produce new or rarely produced plays in Nevada County, with a core of volunteers helping to pave the way,” says Sue.

The LeGates quickly regrouped to help choose a new script: Budd Shullberg’s On the Waterfront. It was rehearsed in the confines of a friend’s airplane hangar, with costumes and sets built on a shoe-string budget.

The tasks also included juggling the mostly fully employed cast’s work and life schedules. LeGacy’s already low ticket prices were lowered early this year, when Steve Martin’s comedy Picasso at the Lapin Agile was staged.

Just this fall, The Haunting of Hill House brought a new and different type of theatre to locals. The heavy dialogue show was adapted from the Shirley Jackson novel.

Three major productions are planned for next year. “LeGacy continues to reach out to find new or seldom produced scripts — all the while keeping its promise to cast local actors, new and veteran,” Sue says.

(Photo of Nevada Theatre by Kial James)