Looking toward the future by reminiscing the past, Salem’s Pentacle Theatre celebrates its upcoming 55th anniversary.

Announcing their next season (as are most local theater companies), the organization aims to lighten the mood as it opens its doors.

“Next year they will be a little more lighthearted,” Randy Boyd, managing director of Pentacle Theatre, said.

Limiting the amount of drama, Pentacle has “You Can’t Take it with You,” “The Real Inspector Hand,” “The Taffetas,” “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” “Steel Magnolias” and more on the bill.

While some productions may mix laughter with pain, drama in its ancient Greek translates literally to action.

As actors bring these characters to life, they’re also extending a legacy of people who put their passion for the arts into making the theater a working reality.

Founded in 1954 in a barn on Highway 22, approximately 15 people were at the core of this artistic operation.

A large tarpaulin was spread in the center to act as a stage and a chicken coop in the back provided a dressing room. Bob Putnam, at the time a Drama Professor at Willamette University, directed the premiere production: a rendition of “Blithe Spirit.”

Forging into the future, a more user-friendly facility was conceived.

“We’re not a barn anymore,” Boyd said with a chuckle.

With the financial assistance of Dr. and Mrs. E.B. Bossatti and Stuart Compton of Pioneer Trust Bank, the land and building where the theater stands today were purchased.

According to the theater’s archives, “Pentacle hired the best architect it could find, but the theater was built by amateurs, in the best sense of the word, by people who did what they did for love, not money.”

In what is now the lobby, the first play came to life in the theater building in 1963. Once construction was completed the next year, productions moved upstairs.

Currently, an eight play season is produced each year and involves hundreds of people who perform each necessary function, from costuming to performing to ushering. Though they operate much like a family, Boyd insists there’s always room for additions.

"We try to offer a lot of opportunities for people to come in and learn or to be on stage," Boyd said. "Sixty-percent of casts in our plays are first-timers.”

The same equal opportunity approach is taken in the process of choosing the material to produce for a new season.

"We go ten years with no repeats," Boyd said.

While revivals may be popular on Broadway, Pentacle has a play reading committee that carefully reads scripts and chooses a collection of plays that are fresh and new to the theater. Comprised of supporters, actors, professors and other theater lovers, this committee of seven to nine

members does have a few conditions.

“Given a focus by the board, such as award-winning plays or old plays, they meet every week until they reach a consensus that is brought before the board for approval,” Boyd said.

The theater chooses one play, financed by the Virginia Choate Foundation, that is dedicated to women – either it has a largely female cast or the play is about women's issues.

Evidenced by sell-out audiences, as such was the case with this year’s “Seussical,” musicals are mandatory on the list.

"We have an obligation to the public to put on two musicals each year,” Boyd said.

While many new patrons may also add to the ever changing dynamic of performances, some local theater-goers have built a long-term relationship with the organization.

"We do have patrons who have held season tickets since 1963,” Boyd said.

It is the loyal support of patrons and couples like Stuart and Betty Compton that allow the Pentacle to continue expanding and renovating, as the theater’s operating costs use up their approximate $400,000 annual budget.

According to Boyd and his staff, the theater is now updating their set construction shop and their used set and props storage space (dubbed “The Glogau”) adding to the capitally raised $1 million renovation that was completed in 2008.

"Pentacle is the grandame of the community theaters, but with that comes responsibility,” Boyd said. “We aim to be a mentor, working to give children an avenue into acting through groups like Children’s Educational Theatre (CET) who also partner young actor’s with Salem Repertory Theatre.”