If you go

What: "The Secret Garden," presented by the Longmont Theatre Company

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday through Nov. 17

Where: 513 Main St., Longmont

Tickets: $15-$17

Info: 303-772-5200 or longmonttheatre.org

Parents guide: All ages

For more than 50 years, the Longmont Theatre Company has produced plays that entertain Boulder County families and involves the community in theater-making, and the troupe's current production, "The Secret Garden," is no exception.

"The Secret Garden," which opened Nov. 2, is a popular and oft-produced musical version of the book by Frances Hodgson Burnett.

The musical tells the story of how a young girl helps bring some life back to her family after they have suffered many losses. The change for Mary Lennox, her cousin Colin and uncle Archibald comes through memory and fantasy, as well as a love for the enclosed garden at her uncle's house in England.

"The show involves a lot of mystic type storyline," said Jim Kimbrough, director of the Longmont production. "A lot of the characters are people that died in India, and have not moved on, passed on. Mary Lennox's parents are with her throughout the story as she travels to England."


Kimbrough described this mystic atmosphere as central to his vision of the play.

"The message within the show is that we all need to find our Secret Garden and what makes us happy," he said. "It really deals a lot with helping children to understand and deal with loss."

As he described the process of getting the production ready, Kimbrough said, "The nice thing with Longmont Theatre is there is a lot of technical support for what my vision was for the show. We had a couple of fabulous set artists who did a lot of painting, creating a garden and several scenes that are highly visual."

 Mary (Renee Kendrick) enters  &quot;The Secret Garden&quot; in the Longmont Theatre Company&#8217;s latest production.
Mary (Renee Kendrick) enters "The Secret Garden" in the Longmont Theatre Company's latest production. (Courtesy photo/Tom Priestley)

The Longmont Theatre Company was founded in 1957 to serve as a fundraiser for the Longmont United Hospital, and the company's mission now is to present family friendly theater to Longmont and greater Boulder County while also providing the community opportunities to get involved, both as performers and behind-the-scenes volunteers.

The theater aims to "stay in the realm of things that you can bring your children to," said Kimbrough, whose goal is to present a show that will be interesting and visually stimulating for children while also entertaining for adults.

This is Kimbrough's third turn as a director in Longmont. During the summer he runs a theater in Scottsbluff, Neb., and he also works giving feedback to music and drama teachers in Denver Public Schools.

Each season, a committee selects a list of plays that they would like to see at the Longmont Theater Company. The list is longer than the production season allows, so an individual director will work up a proposal for a script for his or her vision for a show. Once all the proposals are collected, the committee makes final selections, balancing the choices between musicals and straight plays while also factoring in opportunities for the people involved in the company's work.

So that means the people involved in Longmont Theatre Company's productions such as "The Secret Garden" hail from the community the troupe aims to entertain.

The Longmont Theater Company also offers several areas of outreach. For many years, the company has brought "A Taste of Shakespeare" to Longmont's public schools. The company also provides workshops for anyone interested in learning how to audition or prepare a monologue.

The Longmont Theatre Company's most recent addition was "Standing Room Only," a vocal group that focuses on songs from the musical theater genre but also performs classic carols for the Christmas holiday season and love songs at Valentine's Day.