Saturday night we went to see the Windham Community Stage Theatre production of the musical 1776. At the cost of being patronizing, I need to say that I was impressed by how much better it was than several community theatre productions we’ve seen in Needham and Newton. Maybe it’s because they have a professional as the director, the woman who directs theatre for the Point Sebago resort in the summer. It’s hard to imagine that there are that many Windham area residents who are better actors, actresses, or singers than the community theatre organizations in the Newton area can find.
The show was in a multi-purpose room at a school, a place with the stage on one side of the gym and the lighting booth across the basketball floor. The pit orchestra, drums, keyboard, string bass, violin, and one-woman woodwind section playing clarinet, flute, and piccolo, was off to the left of the audience. The show, one of three performances each of three weekends, was almost sold out — at least, there were only a couple of empty chairs among the 80 or 100 folding chairs set up in the gym.