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GUIDE TO YELLOW SPR INGS  |  2020 – 2021 41 It was community, and it was theater, and for over 30 years, Center Stage joyfully brought both elements together in downtown Yellow Springs. The all-volunteer yet highly professional organization put on 100-plus plays from its first act in 1971 to its final bow in 2003, most of them in its Dayton Street theater, a space that once was an automobile agency and now houses Rose & Sal Vintage Shop. “Oh, golly, it was wonder - ful,” Center Stage veteran Ron Siemer told the News in 2016. “It was real, honest-to-God theater.” Like many good things, Center Stage was born from adversity. For many years before its inception in 1971, community members who loved theater were welcome in the Antioch Area Theater productions, which utilized the talents of students, profes - sional actors and villagers. It was just such a production, in the summer of 1948 at the old opera house, that drew actress Jean Goff from Dayton. She later became Jean Hooper, after marrying the show’s technical director, Bill Hooper. Theater opportunities abounded in Yellow Springs during the next decade, when Antioch produced its nation - ally renowned “Shakespeare Under the Stars” festival. But in the late 1950s, the festival declined and not long after, the college decided to use only student actors in its produc- tions. That change of policy left village theater lovers adrift. In 1971, a group of Yellow Springs theater enthusiasts decided to bring community theater back to the town, and Center Stage began. After a few years at the John Bryan Center gymna - sium, Center Stage moved into a space on Dayton Street in SPOTLIGHT | Center Stage Theater 1975, building a black box theater there for its produc - tions, as well as many other community and school plays. While the Antioch Area The - ater before it had braved all the plays of Shakespeare, Center Stage took a different tack, bringing popular theater to village audiences by mounting all the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan, directed by Jean Hooper. The run of Gilbert and Sullivan started in 1972 with a production of “The Mikado” and finished in the summer of 1987 with a production of “The Grand Duke.” More than anything, I miss Center Stage. —Daria Schaffnit In its heyday, the theater put on six to eight shows per year, according to Rebecca Eschliman, who was second in dedication and longevity only to Hooper, Center Stage’s dynamo founder and artistic director. The pace was intense, she said: six to eight weeks to put on a show, two weekends of performance, strike the set, then begin again on a new show. “Classical comedies, modern drama, Shakespeare, musicals, all of Gilbert and Sullivan — we did it all,” Eschliman said. From inception to close, Hooper was the energy behind the theater that could, and did. For twenty-three years, Hooper was Center Stage’s president, producer, technician and noted director of 49 plays and musicals, as well as an actress. “Jean Hooper was Center Stage,” said Eschliman. “She was the driving force.” Playbills from that era indicate that participation in Center Stage was often a family affair, with both children and adults listed from many local families, including the Mul - linses, Bernsteins, Damasers, Miers, Battinos, Beverlys, Hills, Champneys, Turoffs, Stein - hilbers, Siemers, Overtons, Dallases, Brezines, Hudsons and Logans. Local actors and singers Leon Holster, Flo Lorenz, Bill Chappelle, Victor Ayoub, Ronnie Whitmore, Rebecca Eschliman and Meredith Dallas often had lead roles. But by 1995, both the company and the community- at-large had begun to slow its use of the Dayton Street space. The News reported in 2003 that Center Stage had struggled over the previous five years to attract directors and local support to continue pro - ducing quality shows. Hooper and other board members said that times had changed and local residents didn’t participate in small community theater the way they once did. They decided to close the theater that year. As Hooper told the News: “It’s been a lot of fun, and it is with regret that we’re closing … but I think it’s OK. It’s been a reasonable run, and not a whole lot of theaters make it that long.” In 2011, villager Kay Reimers revived Center Stage, and the local volunteer com- pany brought community the- ater to life again with shows like “Threepenny Opera” and “The Crucible,” as well as the 10-Minute Play Festival, which continues annually. The new Center Stage ended its run in 2014, and the YS Theater Company took up the commu- nity theater mantle that same year, and continues to produce plays throughout the year. —Audrey Hackett. Lauren “Chuck” Shows and Diane Chiddister PHOTO: JULIE STEINHILBER In the summer of 1975, Center Stage put on Gilbert & Sullivan’s “H.M.S. Pinafore.” The show was directed by Jean Hooper, with musical direction by William Jones. PHOTO: JULIE STEINHILBER Center Stage’s sign was erected in 1975 when the theater moved from the Bryan Center gym to its longtime Dayton Street home.