LOXLEY, Ala. — The music of Gilbert and Sullivan will fill the air as The Loxley Community Theater presents “The Pirates of Penzance” at the Loxley Civic Center on Friday, July 30 through Sunday, Aug. 1. The Friday and Saturday performances begin at 7:30 p.m. with the Sunday matinee at 2 p.m.

Tickets are $15 for general admission and $12 for senior citizens and children under 12. Group rates are also available for parties over four, Director Phillip Dembowski said.

This production, comprised of youth ages 8 to 21, will be the first for the theater after a two year hiatus. “We are trying to reestablish the theater for the summer and revive the program and this play will be our first attempt in doing that,” Dembowski said. His goal is to put on one large production each summer from this point forward.

Auditions were held in May and rehearsals began in June for the veteran cast of 20 young people. “All these kids have had theater experience and been involved with plays here and in South Baldwin. We didn’t have open auditions this year because we were getting reestablished, but with future plays, we will be having open auditions,” Dembowski explained.

Most of the cast is made up of youth from three different families that have been performing together for the past five years. “The Grants, Steimles and my kids (Dembowskis) are very used to acting together and all four of my kids are now getting into it. Glad to see all the kids taking an interest in the theater. It’s good for them and teaches them so much,” commented Dembowski.

Valerie Steimle-Foy, assistant director, is very excited about this production and said there is an abundance of talent in this group of kids. “They have worked so hard and are really putting so much effort into all they are doing.”

The play is sure to be a crowd-pleaser with colorful costumes and sets as well. Dembowski said all the costumes came from the overstuffed wardrobe closets of the Joe Jefferson Players Theater. “They gave us loads of old costumes they weren’t using so we really were fortunate to receive them.”

As far as the sets, they are all homemade.The backdrop for “Pirates” will consist of a bay and inlet and will be handcrafted by Dembowski and his cast. “It’s a team effort when we put the sets together. Everyone works together to make it happen,” Dembowski said.

People from the local and theater community also donated items to be used for the sets and Dembowski said it’s an unspoken rule among theater groups that they can borrow props and set materials from each other.

Depending on the play they are performing determines how big and unique the sets are. One of the hardest and most elaborate sets they ever created was for “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” Dembowski said. “We had a chocolate river and a real boat we puled through the water with ropes. It took about 100 hours to complete that.”

Although the theater took a two-year break because many of the core cast members moved on to different groups, the theater has been around since 1999 and performed about 12 plays and at least five dinner theaters including “The Odd Couple” and “The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged,” Dembowski said.

Dembowski hails from Miami and has been involved in musical theater since his days at St. Brennens High School. He found carrying the theater tradition over into his adult life to be a natural transition. “I did several plays at Miami-Dade Junior College and at Auburn including Gilbert and Sullivan’s “H.M.S. Pinafore” and “West Side Story.”

Dembowski graduated from Auburn in 1984 with a B.A. in history and taught high school in Miami until 1989 when he decided to go to chiropractor school in Atlanta where he graduated in 1995. “I was involved in the theater the whole time I was teaching but took a break from it while I was in chiropractor school,” Dembowski explained.

In 1996, Dembowski and his family moved to Loxley and he opened Alamo Chiropractic. It was during this time he began working with the senior citizens at the Loxley Civic Center and getting back involved with musical theater.

“I really enjoyed being around the older people and in 1999, Barbara Lovell, director of the civic center at the time, and I founded the Loxley Community Theater for children and seniors,” Dembowski said.

In addition to his work at the Loxley theater, Dembowski has been in several Joe Jefferson Players productions and is a part of the chorus for the Mobile Opera.

For ticket info, contact Valerie Steimle-Foy at (251) 978-4666 or Alamo Chiropractic at (251) 964-6273.