Today the Players organization has more than 100 active volunteers, a mailing list topping 2,200, puts on an average of six performances per year and has an annual operating budget of about $100,000.

Some 1,200 people come out to see each new show the Players put on, attending one of 10 performances. Many of the performances, particularly the matinees, sell out.

Nearly 75 performances after “Our Town,” the troupe is winning acclaims from the likes of NPR (WCNV) theater critic John Porter who reviews theater groups across Virginia, including the Barksdale Theatre and Henly Street Theatre.

Reviewing the Players’ “A Trip to Bountiful” in February, Porter said he found the performance “impressive,” the people “thoroughly professional” and the trip to Callao “well worth it.”

The turning point for the troupe took place in 2000 when it purchased an old wedding hall in Callao, said current president Brian Tilbury. With a mortgage to pay, the group amped its productions, running more and bigger budget shows every year.

In the years since the players moved in, the metal wedding hall with it’s linoleum floors and fluorescent lighting has been transformed into a blackbox theater with a new stage, riser seating, and professional quality lighting.

With a full time artistic director on staff, the production company now aims for authenticity and quality. Glenn and Joy Evans are professionally-trained directors, producers and performers with a background in education. They have been with the Players for 12 years and are largely responsible for the training of the actors and the quality of the performances, Tilbury said.

Behind the playhouse is a palacial storage barn that displays decades of props, costumes and sets. The Evans teams’ passion for authenticity means that every detail down to the telephone on the set and the buttons on the costumes need to be authentic to the time period.

Painstaking research is put into the costumes and set design for each performance and Joy has the job of scouring thrift shops to make time-period costumes on a dime. Thrifty creativity also goes into the sets, from the Styrofoam packaging that becomes fireplace facades to the old baby cribs that are the porch railing on the current stage.

On its 30th anniversary, the Westmoreland Players is midway through both the fund-raising effort and the construction of its “Next Stage” theatre expansion and renovation.

The plans include an expansive new green room (dressing rooms), a dedicated workshop for the crew, a commercial kitchen, renovated restrooms, an art deco facade that opens into a large lobby where the audience can gather before and after the show.

“We wanted a real theater where people can come early and mingle,” Tilbury said.

Despite its growth, the Westmoreland Players has not lost touch with its family-oriented roots. Many of the most active members are entire families.

High school sophomore Erin Robertson plays a starring role in the troupe’s current production of “I Remember Mama” and is narrator of the ‘plot’. 

For Erin, the theatre is a family affair. She stars with her 12-year-old sister Katie in “Mama,” her dad is the lighting director and her mom lends a hand about anywhere she can be useful, “except on the stage,” Erin said. Even her brother has acted in a few shows.

Erin said she has helped in some capacity on just about every show since she landed her first role in “To Kill A Mockingbird” four years ago.

“I used to think of it as a hobby,” Erin said, “but now I am thinking more about teaching drama some day.”

Erin said the best part of community theater “is being able to make relationships with people you wouldn’t otherwise know.”

The community theater draws all types.

Community celebrities such as the late Circuit Court Judge George Mason III, Free Lance Star reporter Frank Delano and the family of Rep. Rob Wittman are some of the more well-known participants of the theater’s early days.

Anita Harrower, who plays Mama, landed her first role with the Players in its 1997 production of “The Good Doctor.” This is the first starring role for Harrower, who retired from a career with the National Auto Dealers Association before moving to the area.

“It’s a lot of work. It’s three months out of your life. But I enjoy the end product. I’m there for the applause,” she said.

Harrower said she particularly identifies with this role since she, like the main character of the play, is a mother of four.

“I raised four children with not a lot of money, so this is a part that’s very real to me,” she said.

In fact, her entire brood is coming from all over country – her daughter from Florida and her sons from Oregon, Tenessee and Pennsylvania – to see her final performance. It will be the first time they’ve ever seen her on stage.

Middle school English teacher Steve Gourley plays the doctor in “Mama,” his second role with the Players.

Gourley said community theatre holds a charm that can’t be found at the movies. In part, he said, it’s the way the cast and crew become a theater family.

But more than that, he said, “There is something you get from the theater that you can’t get from a movie. It feels more real, actually seeing people up there.”

“It’s like being plugged into an electric socket,” said Mama’s stage manager Bev Mangan of being on stage. At 76, she is the Players’ oldest active volunteer.

“As long as I’m alive I’ll be doing something here,” she said.

“Theater work gets into your skin,” said Joanne Cox, who plays a supporting role in the play. “Once you’ve been in one production, there’s no going back.”

Tilbury, a retired lawyer from Northern Virginia, joined the Players in 2003 when he followed his wife through the door for an audition and unexpectedly landed a role himself. He has since worked his way up and has starred in several plays including his favorite, “On Golden Pond,” in August 2007.

“The thing about community theater,” Glenn Evans said,” is it’s where an entire community of people come together as a family of equals. There is no hierarchy, from the kids to the adults. It’s a tremendous growing experience for everyone.”