gmhTODAY 04 gmhToday Sep Oct 2015 | Page 10

Our Performing Arts The theater … from drama, comedy, and the classics to Broadway musicals with multiple theater organizations. A 15-minute drive gets us to a local theater where our hosts will greet us with a smile, actors will autograph our playbills, and season tickets won’t wipe out our discretionary funds. Some venues invite patrons to bring dinner to enjoy. When it comes to community theater, here’s how we roll in South County. Limelight Actors Theater In 2010, local actor Kevin Heath was invited by a local restaura- teur to put on a play in his banquet room. That led to an invita- tion to bring theater to the Gilroy Interim Center for the Arts in 2011. Kevin persuaded Alan Obata, his partner and husband, and a local real estate broker, to join the project, and the Limelight Actors Theater (LAT) was born. The “Limelight” name was inspired by what Kevin describes as “theater with a twist.” Kevin aims to premier events in Gilroy. To this end, he selects and directs a variety of comedies, dramas, staged readings, cabaret performances and musical reviews. “Patrons love the variety of shows and our intimate, cabaret style theater expereince, like the show is being performed just for them, ” Heath said. Now in its fifth season, LAT treated audiences to a summer performance of a 1960s French comedy farce, Boeing, Boeing, about a Parisian lothario who courts three fiancées, all airline host- esses from different countries. The plot thickens when unexpected schedule changes (surprise surprise!) bring all three women to his apartment at the same time, and his deception is uncovered. In September, LAT shifts its focus to Other Desert Cities, described by Heath as “a brilliant script and our first full-on drama with new local actors.” When a young woman comes home to her parents’ Palm Springs enclave for the holidays, news of her upcom- ing memoir threatens to expose cracks in the family history. The original play was written by Pulitzer Prize nominee Jon Robin Baitz. In November and early December, LAT’s holiday musical pays tribute to an American music legend with Always…Patsy Cline. 10 GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN The 39 Steps PROVIDED Who needs YouTube or the Boob Tube when we’ve got an amazing theater arts community ready to entertain us with side-splitting comedy, modern drama, Shakespearean classics and Broadway musicals? There’s nothing quite like a night of theater in South County. We are blessed BY ROBIN SHEPHERD The play is based on an encounter between the famous singer and one of her fans. Enjoy down-home country humor, emotion and more than 20 Patsy Cline hits like Crazy, I Fall to Pieces, Sweet Dreams and more.  The show’s title was inspired by Cline’s letters to Luise Seger, which she signed “Love ALWAYS… Patsy Cline.” It’s also LAT’s first show with a live band. Gilroy’s Milias Restaurant offers a special catered menu with meals delivered to LAT. Guests can also browse the Center’s Artisan’s Corner to see art and jewelry crafted by local artists. SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 gmhtoday.com