MONROE — Five months after closing suddenly due to COVID-19, Monroe Theatre Guild’s halls were once again filled with laughter, only this time, it was not because of a performance. 

Seven of MTG’s original members, including two board members from its founding in 1970, gathered together Aug. 25 to celebrate the theater group’s 50 years in the community.

Though many of the members had not seen each other in multiple years, it was as if not a day had gone by as they sat together and reminisced on the theater’s early years as part of a video archive documenting the theater’s history. 

Part of what makes the anniversary so monumental, MTG Board Member Stephen Eliasson said, is that many community theaters do not stay open long enough to reach such a milestone.

“Not many small theaters make it to their 50th year,” Eliasson said.

Throughout its 50 years, there were times in which MTG members worried the theater group may face the same fate as so many other community theaters.

“We had reached a point where we were pretty low on funds,” original member Anita Huffman said. “No place to go.”

Many of the members credit the success of the 1958 musical “South Pacific” with saving MTG, which at the time was performing in different buildings throughout the community. It was not until 2010 that the guild was able to complete a capital campaign and purchase what used to be a department store north of the Square.

“When you got into a play, you didn’t know where it was going to be held,” original member Gil Oberdas said.

Having a dedicated building for the group to perform, practice and teach in has provided the group with more stability over the last 10 years.

“This was a dream for years and years … having our own place,” Huffman said.

Looking to the future, current MTG members remain hopeful that the guild will continue strengthening its position in the community and growing and changing with theater while maintaining its classic community theater aspect.

“There really is a feeling that we’re moving into our next era,” Eliasson said. 

As the world moves into a more high-tech era, so has MTG. New members from other cities and states have brought in new skills, ideas and talents.

Throughout the last 50 years, MTG has worked not only to provide theatrical talents to the community but has also offered theater education for youth and adults looking to grow as actors. It also puts on serious pieces as a way to express and reflect on what is happening in the world.

“Theater is supposed to make you take a very brutal, very honest look at yourself,” Eliasson said. “As human beings, as a society … I think art reminds us of who we are. It tells us sometimes who we are even though we may not want to admit it.”

Speaking Aug. 25 was also the “spitfire” woman behind MTG’s beginning. Now in her 90s, Gloria Hendrickson has seen the theater group through its entire journey.

“I shouldn’t think that this is an ending,” she said. “It’s just a celebration.”