Raleigh Little Theatre (RLT) is a community theater open to all participants and audience members. The upcoming season runs from June 2022 to July 2023, with shows for all ages.
“The mission is to use the art of theater to engage, enrich, educate and entertain audiences, students and volunteers of all ages,” said Patrick Torres, RLT’s artistic director. “We partner with the community to produce theater in order to have an impact on the community.”
The theater was founded in 1936 as a part of the Federal Theatre Project, which helped create small community theaters throughout the country following The Great Depression.
“It’s one of the longest running community theaters in the country, so it’s really a treasure,” Torres said. “Cantey Sutton, who started it, really wanted to inspire people to participate in theater as an art form because she knew that it was a way to bring people together, that it was a way to build community very quickly.”
RLT has two indoor theaters and an outdoor amphitheater. It also includes the Raleigh Rose Garden.
“She [Cantey Sutton] had a vision for the whole campus,” Torres said. “That included having the theater there and this rose garden. Prior to the rose garden being in place, it was the site of the original fairgrounds.”
The musical “Xanadu,” based on the 80s movie of the same name, will kick off the upcoming season July 22-31.
“[‘Xanadu’] is actually through our Teens on Stage and Teens Backstage program,” said Megan Farrell, the marketing manager of RLT. “It’s a group of teenagers — they are all the actors — but they also build all the sets, they do the costumes, they do the design.”
In August, they will put on the musical “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”
“We are utilizing our outdoor theater space for that show,” Farrell said. “So that one will be out in our amphitheater, which will be fun. We had a great summer show out there last year.”
Other productions for this season include “Pride and Prejudice,” “Blood Wedding,” “Hands on a Hardbody” and “Cinderella.” Past productions include “In The Heights.”
“It was the first time the theater has ever done a musical written by Latin artists and featuring Latin actors,” Torres said. “So that was really exciting, and one of the events that we did around that was we had a community festival to introduce people in Raleigh to local Latin artists and businesses.”
This season’s family series shows include, “The Surprising Story of the Three Little Pigs,” “Fancy Nancy: The Musical” and “My Wonderful Birthday Suit.”
“Through our family series we definitely have a younger family audience,” Farrell said. “But the rest of our programming is more adult centered, so kind of hitting all the age ranges. One of the original reasons for the founding of Raleigh Little Theatre was to create accessible theater for the community.”
Everyone is welcome to watch or participate in the shows, no matter their previous theater experience.
“If you want to volunteer but you have no idea what you want to do, we’ve got folks that will help you,” Farrell said. “If you want to run lights but you’ve never touched a lighting rig, someone will show you how. It’s all about finding that desire to be involved and then we will make it happen.”
Tickets for the season are on sale now, and subscription options are also available. Instructions on how to audition or volunteer for shows are posted on their website. For more information, visit RLT’s Instagram or Facebook.
