Lordy, lordy! New Bern Civic Theatre turns 40

 For 40 years the play has been the thing for New Bern Civic Theatre's ever-changing cast of local characters. Now, four decades after the troupe staged its first production, the company will present an anniversary retrospective in late August.

"Forty years is a milestone in people's lives - as well as for organizations," said Joey Infinito, the group's managing and artistic director. "This will be a celebration of New Bern Civic Theatre and its volunteers."

Live music, musical numbers and a video montage complemented by a wine and cheese reception will form the pillar of that celebration, said Infinito, but the foundation of the commemoration will be the people who crafted the organization one play at a time.

People like Bill Benners Sr.

Benners is not only one of the few remaining members of the original troupe, but in 1968 he served as the group's first president, an office achieved through association.

"Mark Skinner, a singer, got the group together," the 83-year-old Benners said. "He wanted to produce a musical like ‘Oklahoma.'"

Although he was high on ambition, at the time Skinner was low on funding. Steadfast in his idea, the would-be producer approached the Jaycees for financing, used volunteers to perform excerpts of the play and got the nonprofit group to underwrite the musical.

"Then, one of the first people he talked to was me," Benners said.

But not the last. That original group would grow to more than two dozen volunteer cast and crew members.

"Oklahoma," though, would not be the as-yet unnamed troupe's first production. When the cost of the production grew to an unanticipated high, the Jaycees pulled its funding.

"The consensus of opinion was to quit - this is it," Benners said. "I said, this is it, let's organize our own group. We knew we couldn't afford ‘Oklahoma,' so we started putting on 20-minute one-act plays for different civic clubs. We didn't have too much trouble finding work."

So New Bern Civic Theatre was born, but not without Skinner's lingering desire to stage a full-scale production.

"Eventually we decided to put on a three-act play," Benners said. "It about divided the group."

Many of the company's founding members believed that producing a full play would mean financial ruin. Benners, a photographer and business owner by day, thought otherwise. He devised a plan to pay for it.

"We sold patron memberships, for $15, to raise money," said Benners. "This smoothed things over."

And paved the path for the production of a work that had been written just six years earlier.

"‘Charley's Aunt' was our first play," Benners said. "We performed it in the New Bern High School Auditorium - which is now Grover C. Fields."

A number of the group's early plays would find a place on that high school stage, but the bulk of New Bern Civic Theatre's productions would find a more permanent home, one still in use today: Athens Theatre in downtown New Bern.

Yet not everyone agreed that the troupe's purchase of the theater, with its list of necessary renovations and repairs, was a good thing for the future of the organization.

"I was not in favor of buying Athens Theatre," Benners said.

Ever the businessman, Benners wanted the city to buy the building and rent it to the theatrical group for a dollar.

But at the time of the purchase, Benners, who insists he was chosen as the group's first president "because my mouth was so big, not because I had talent," had a much smaller voice. No longer president, or even a formal member because of time constraints, Benners was overruled.

Still, the octogenarian welcomes the Aug. 23 retrospective of the organization he helped build.

Never, he said, did he think in 1968 that he would be witness to decades of plays and productions 40 years later.

"It was a remarkable," he said. "How this thing popped up."

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If you go

What: New Bern Civic Theatre celebrates 40 years

When: 7 p.m. Aug. 23

Where: Athens Theatre, 414 Pollock St., New Bern

Cost: $5

Contact: (252) 633-0567 or www.newberncivictheatre.org

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New Bern Civic Theatre productions, 1968-2008

1968: Charley's Aunt, The Advantage of Being Shy, Not Enough Rope

1969: Night of January 16th, The Wizard of Oz

1970: Look Homeward Angel, Oklahoma, See How They Run

1971: Dark of the Moon, local drama festival, one-act plays, Suppressed Desires, Just You Wait, Box and Cox, The Status Seeker, The New Sep, Barefoot in the Park

1972: Romeo and Juliet by the National Shakespeare Company, Hello Dolly, Spoon River Anthology

1973: Plaza Suite, My Fair Lady, The Miracle Worker

1974: Brigadoon, Arsenic and Old Lace

1975: You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, three one-act comedies, The Final Dress Rehearsal, The Ugly Duckling, Suppressed Desires, The Sound of Music

1976: You Can't Take it With You, The Music Man, Ten Little Indians

1977: Camelot, Never Too Late

1978: Count Dracula, Mary Mary, Annie Get Your Gun, The Homecoming

1979: Cheaper by the Dozen, Irene, Twin Rivers Crew Revue

1980: Carousel, Star Spangled Girl, South Pacific, Littlest Angel

1981: Right Bed Wrong Husband, Don't Drink the Water, Natalie Needs a Nightie

1982: The Sound of Music, Broadway Comes To New Bern, U.T.B.U.

1983: Once Upon a Mattress, Deathtrap, Show Boat, Prisoner of Second Avenue, Littlest Angel

1984: Annie, The Lottery, Showstoppers, No Sex Please We're British

1985: Come Blow Your Horn, Ledge Ledge and Legend, Three On A Bench, Oklahoma II, Is Anybody Out There, 1776

1986: I Do I Do, Our Town, The Drunkard, Give My Regards to Broadway, Any Wednesday, Three Billy Goats Gruff, Goldilocks

1987: It's Not Just an Act, The Trysting Place, The Sandbox, Sometimes I Wake Up in the Middle of the Night, California Suite, On Golden Pond, Grease, The Sea Horse, Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood, The Foreigner

1988: The Game, Impromptu, Sweet Charity, Snow White, Li'l Abner, The Nerd, The Hitchhiker, Take Five

1989: Steel Magnolias, An Experience in Experimental Theatre, Night of the Phantom, Love Sex and the IRS, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, I'll Be Back Before Midnight

1990: An Evening Out Experimental Theatre II, Splashes of Love, Foxfire, Snow White II, An Evening of Jazz, With Melva Houston and Friends, Don't Drink the Water

1991: Romance Café, Oz Over the Rainbow, Run For Your Wife, Through the Peppermint Door, A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum, Babes in Toyland

1992: A Little Music in the Night, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Cinderella, Riddle Me Ree, Annie

1993: Boeing Boeing, Babies Having Babies, The Fiddler's Green, Bus Stop, The Little Foxes, Nunsense

1994: Deathtrap, Athens Memories, Peter Pan, Man of LaMancha, The Glass Menagerie, Frankenstein, Twelfth Night

1995: Magical Moments, Once Upon a Vine, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, The Belle of Amherst and Love Letters, Hello Dolly, Alone Together

1996: Stepping Out on Broadway, Dragon Tale, Noah, The Cemetery Club, Paint Your Wagon

1997: Broadway Encore, Right Bed Wrong Husband, Robin Hood, Blithe Spirit, Fiddler on the Roof

1998: The Man Who Came to Dinner, Under the Surface SUPERFISHALLY Speaking, Odd Couple, Social Security, Guys and Dolls

1999: The Really Big Shoe, The Sound of Music, Summer Heat Cool Music, The House of Frankenstein, A Holiday Music Showcase

2000: Nature's House, The View From Here, Last of the Red Hot Lovers, Kiss Me Kate

2001: Everybody Loves Opal, The Velveteen Rabbit, Bad Year for Tomatoes, Smoke on the Mountain, Oliver

2002: Arsenic and Old Lace, Schoolhouse Rock Live Jr., My Fair Lady, Smoke on the Mountain, Girls of the Garden Club, The Music Man

2003: The Importance of Being Earnest, Dogs, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, The Melody Lingers On, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

2004: A Song in my Heart, Right Before Your Eyes, Some Enchanted Evening, Barefoot in the Park, The Sound of Music

2005: Charley's Aunt, The Treehouse Rascals, Godspell, Graceland - The Old Maid and the Thief, The King and I

2006: Grease, Rats, Morning's at Seven, Rumors, South Pacific, Amahl and the Night Visitors

2007: Don't Dress for Dinner, Fences, Charlotte's Web, The Fantasticks, Moon Over Buffalo, Carousel

2008: Once Upon a Mattress, Into the Woods, On Golden Pond, California Suite (scheduled), Big River (scheduled)