Sierra Stages: Footlights in the foothills

COMMUNITY THEATER IS BLOSSOMING, from Auburn to Grass Valley to Nevada City. The players include Community Asian Theatre of the Sierra, LeGacy Productions, Off Broadstreet, Placer Community Theater and Sierra Stages.

Relative newcomer Sierra Stages, a nonprofit located in Nevada City, is establishing a loyal following in the foothills and beyond.

“We are looking forward to our third season of musicals and plays,” says President Peter Mason. “This year we continue to present works with a strong theatrical sensibility, that challenge our local actors and enrich the lives of our audience.”

The 2011 season begins in February, with a series of two shows playing “in repertory” at the Off Center Stage in Grass Valley: Marry Me A Little, a two-person musical revue, and Old Explorers, a two-person comedy.

The season continues with three blockbuster musicals, led by Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King and I, a collaboration with CATS and InConcert Sierra in March and April.

In July, Sierra Stages presents the irreverent musical theatre classic A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. The funny and edgy contemporary Broadway musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (co-produced with the Miners Foundry Cultural Center), is in October.

Last May, the group’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s musical Into the Woods at The Center for the Arts in Grass Valley was well received, playing to an audience of 1900 during its 12 performance run.

It was “an appealing” hybrid of professional and community theater, complete with a 15-member pit orchestra, as one Sacramento reviewer put it.

Sierra Stages’ other productions have included The Sound of Music, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Babes in Arms and Lend Me a Tenor, its first non-musical production.

As Mason observes, “The diversity of our county is apparent in the arts we create and support here.”

(photo credit: Tony Finnerty)