Anniversaries inevitably are an occasion for reminiscing, and so it is as Stonington Players celebrates its 50th year. The community theater group is holding a gala Saturday at the Stonington Community Center, where people are being asked to recall their favorite Players-production memory.

It is certainly an anniversary worth marking, since Stonington Players survived even as many other community theater troupes dissolved, particularly in the 1980s and '90s. Like all organizations, it has shifted and morphed over the years. It recently developed a night of original one-acts, whose popularity has led to its becoming a recurring event.

A trio of the Players' current and past board members recently sat down to reflect on the group and its history.

Stonington Players started essentially as a social activity. Eve Aldrich, a former board member who is gala chairwoman, recalls hearing about the origins after she joined in the early 1970s: "What I remember was, winter was long. They were sailors and so they needed something for winter. What was it (early Stonington Player Victor Boatwright) said — it was a bit of a cultural desert — and maybe it would be nice to do some theater."

Regan Morse, a current board member who likewise first joined Stonington Players in the early 1970s, thinks that probably the most important person in the establishment of the group was Louise Wimpfheimer, who had stage experience and loved the theater.

"She was the one who said, 'We are going to do it, and let's have fun.' And they did — they had a wonderful time. It was all the old timers, the old Stonington families that were involved," Morse says.

The families that were integral to the organization during those early years included the Wimpfheimers, the Boatwrights and the Trowbridges.

The group had a focus, too — raising money for the Stonington Community Center, which is nicknamed the Como. (The Wimpfheimers, who owned and ran the Velvet Mill, were very involved in the Como and donated money that helped build the place. Stonington Players perform at the Como as well.)

What the troupe presented was community theater, but it also was ambitious. Aldrich, Morse and board member Vic Panciera spoke about the talent and enthusiasm various people brought to the productions over the years — including the early Stonington Players like the aforementioned Wimpfheimer and Victor Boatwright and Nancy Gibson, who have all passed on.

Gibson was, Morse says, one of the best set designers she has ever seen. Aldrich recalls Gibson's work on the set for "A Shot in the Dark": "I will never forget how fastidious she was about making it look French and making it look old. The night before (the show opened), to me, it looked like the most beautiful set I ever had."

Gibson, though, thought the walls weren't right. So she repainted the whole thing.

Stonington Players tended to stage two shows a year. They tackled different genres and a wide range of works, from "Tom Jones" to "Arsenic and Old Lace" to the not-so-successful "The House of Bernarda Alba," which Morse recalled as "awful ... a lot of women dressed in black, moaning."

The group did its share of elaborate costume dramas, too, because Wimpfheimer "loved glorious clothing," Morse remembers.

"Their opening nights were wonderful," she adds. "They decorated the hall. They tried to make it as much of a grand occasion for everyone to have fun at."

The group has attracted participants from all kinds of professions, from doctors to lawyers. And, over the years, the Players stalwarts have tended to take on all sorts of jobs onstage and behind the scenes. Morse has done lighting, written one-acts, stage managed and did costumes. Panciera figures he's done everything but make-up, saying, "Make-up is the one thing I don't get." Aldrich, who headed up both children's theater and a prison theater program before joining Stonington Players, says she particularly likes doing costumes and props.

As for what stands out from the years, Morse says it's "aching with laughter, being in a group of people after a show, going out for drinks and you are high — there's that adrenaline, you've done a good show and your body is so tired, you can barely move and you are laughing. Everyone else at the table is laughing, too, because it's a joyous, joyous thing."

She gives a perfectly timed pause before adding, "And then, of course, there are the nights you weep." She, Aldrich and Panciera burst into laughter.

The humorous memories always bubble to the top. Panciera and Morse talked about working together on 1981's "Helen at Home." She was acting. He was setting off explosives behind her as she went onstage.

"I did not know Vic very well — and I'm not crazy about explosives," she says, before talking as if she were Panciera: "Honest to God, just get onstage and I'll set it off!"

He chimes with his own version: "Don't worry — it won't hit you!"

As happens, organizations flow and ebb, and the community-theater scene in the area changed dramatically. Entertainment options expanded. A lot of tech people — lighting people, carpenters — left community theater to work at the casinos, and others left for the now-defunct American Musical Theater. The O'Neill Awards, which had honored community-theater productions in the region, ceased. A number of community theater groups in the once-flourishing scene folded and, although Stonington Players didn't, it transformed. The group continued to stage at least one event each year, even if it was a variety show.

New notions percolated, and a winning one developed. Starting in 2007, the Stonington Players began staging nearly annual versions of "Tables & Chairs," their night of original plays that each run no more than 15 minutes and feature no more than five characters.

Since "Tables and Chairs" are short plays with small casts, it was easier for Stonington Players to convince people who had jobs that it wouldn't be too onerous a responsibility to rehearse and be part of a one-act.

"We tried to change to keep it going, like putting in 'Tables and Chairs' and doing new work. I though that was trying a new idea to see if something would catch on and bring people in," Aldrich says.

It did.

Morse says of Stonington Players, "It does change, and that's part of the fascination and then the joy of it."

k.dorsey@theday.com

Twitter: @KAgDorsey

If you go

What: Stonington Players' 50th year gala

When: 6 p.m. June 13

Where: Stonington Community Center, 28 Cutler St., Stonington

Details: Dinner, followed by show and tell, where people are encouraged to "bring or wear, tell and share" their favorite memory from their favorite Stonington Players show

Tickets: $25

Reservations: (860) 536-6619