- We've got more living history for you now.

Celebrating its golden anniversary, the Old Courthouse Theatre in Concord has been entertaining audiences for 50 years.

Local artist Mary Snead Boger created it in 1976.

The name came from its original performance location inside the historic Cabarrus County Courthouse.

Now, today its home is inside the old First Baptist Church on Spring Street Northwest.

As producer Russ Hunsinger shows us, the mission remains the same.

(upbeat music) - [Director] So let's go to the top.

♪ I'm gonna get up, get up and do it ♪ - We call the theater the Seven Lively Arts because every art form that you can think of: painting, sculpture, lighting, photography, almost all of them are involved in some fashion in putting on plays these days.

- The mission here is to provide high-quality entertainment for the community of Cabarrus County.

We offer five main stage shows from August through May, three plays and two musicals.

And we are now offering a black box series next door in our Wilson Family Black Box theater.

We offer summer camps for youth, and we are looking at offering workshops as well.

(intriguing music) - You could come to it with any number of skills, and you could come to it completely having never done it before in your life because that's part of the mission of almost every community theater I've ever worked with is to give people an opportunity who've never had one before.

- They're open call auditions for people to come in and audition and get cast in onstage roles, but also technical backstage and have the opportunity to act, work lighting, work sounds, work backstage, work all the technical attributes to go into making a production happen.

- There's a girl in the lake down there.

- There's always a new group that comes in for a show.

You always end up meeting new people, and by the end of the process they're family.

There's that sense of connectedness that happens by the time you've gotten through the other side and when you get to strike and it's that bittersweet moment when the show's over.

But you've made these fabulous new friends that hopefully you will work with again and some you will and some you won't.

♪ Let your freak flag fly ♪ - The show I'm in is "Shrek: The Musical Jr."

and I am Pig Two.

The first line that I have is, "Hello, we can hear you."

I just like being on stage and performing for other people.

Sometimes I feel nervous, but then once the show actually starts, I kind of get more relaxed.

(exciting music) - For me, it's a hobby at the moment.

I like doing it because I love portraying a character on stage and just being someone else.

Ooh.

- That's sharp.

There's a childlike quality to it.

Pretending, stepping in another person's shoes, playing dress up out of the treasure chest.

I do think that there is an element of play in it.

- And it's not just for the people who are on stage.

It reaches out and brings the community, the greater community together because whether you want to be on stage and performing or you just like to come to shows, you get a huge group of people together that share a moment.

And that's important.

- And we have a very, very strong volunteer base.

Some volunteers that actually have been involved since day one for 50 years.

- All right, go.

There are 18 actors in the show, and then there's going to be about 10 people behind the scenes making sure the scenery gets where it belongs, the lights are where they are, the costumes and the makeup and the wigs, and all the other aspects of the show.

And then you've got what we call the front of house people, which are the ushers who help the patrons get into their seats.

You've got the box office people selling the tickets, and then you've got the people in the concession stand, all necessary to make the play happen and all volunteers.

- I think what's really special about this place is we've been going 50 years strong in the community, providing high-quality entertainment on a volunteer basis.

Everyone here is a volunteer that does it for the love of the arts.

It gives you space to be yourself, to be creative, and I think it's important to provide a safe space for the community to be able to do that.