The curtain goes up on the Chestnut Street Playhouse this week. The newly rechristened theater (formerly the Spirit of Broadway) is opening its first production, the "serious comedy" about love called "Almost, Maine."

John Cariani's play consists of nine short pieces that explore love — finding love and losing love, discovering young love and experiencing older love. The vignettes are all loosely connected and set in a fictional northern Maine town.

"Almost, Maine" itself is a bit of an underdog success story. The show had an ignominious Off-Broadway run — it opened on Jan. 12, 2006, and closed a month later. But the rest of America responded quite differently than New York audiences. Theater companies across the country and the world began producing it, and it has enjoyed considerable success. It even has become the play most often staged in high schools in North America (sorry, Shakespeare).

Kato McNickle, who is directing the Chestnut Street production, says, "It's a beautiful, lyrical play, so it has that kind of musical sensibility in its dramaturgy ... I call it a serious comedy about what it means to find love. There are times when this play hits on the melancholy notes or very introspective moments."

McNickle co-chairs Chestnut Street Playhouse's artistic committee, which guides choices of what's produced. The committee was organized earlier this year by the theater's board of directors, which focuses on fundraisers and getting sponsors.

This all happened after Brett Bernardini, who founded Spirit of Broadway almost 20 years ago, retired at the end of 2014. During his run, the venue developed a reputation for staging new or lesser-known musicals, but the business ran into financial trouble once the recession hit.

The people who took over post-Bernardini decided to give the theater a new name and approach — more community-based, with more shows that would appeal to families.

While they aim to be fiscally prudent, they also made sure the ticket prices were low — $20 — and that price was possible because this isn't a musical.

"You pay so much more for musicals ... We had a number of musicals that we were looking at. We just didn't have the budget for it without something happening first," McNickle says, noting that it's a year before the grants the theater is applying for are awarded. "We need something that's going to use the space, and we're hoping to generate enough income from people buying tickets to launch us."

The theater put out a casting call for "Almost, Maine," and McNickle says 14 or 15 people came in. They included three folks living in Norwich who knew there was a theater downtown but had never walked in. One of that trio was a 22-year-old Eastern Connecticut State University student who did plays in school but not locally — and who travelled to the casting call on his skateboard.

Part of Chestnut Street Playhouse's focus is a spirit of inclusion, and consequently, one of the things that appealed to organizers about "Almost, Maine" was its expandable cast. Most of the vignettes consist of just two characters, with one sequence boasting three. So the show could be staged whether only five people showed up for auditions or whether many more did, since actors could play more than one role if the cast was small. A lot of men tried out, which is a rarity in local theater; there are almost three times as many men as women in the Chestnut Street production, with the men each taking on a single role and the women playing multiple ones.

McNickle says, "I've been really loving working with the cast."

She notes the sense of ensemble that developed before the group even moved into production week.

As for the sets, the plan is for simple pieces that assemble and reassemble for the different tales.

One design requirement — an aurora effect — took some creative effort.

"We found this great projector that does it, but then it costs $3,000; we're like, 'Well, that's crazy. We're not going to play $3,000 for that — that's more than the budget of the whole show," McNickle says, explaining that the budget is $2,000, excluding the rights of the show.

They found a project under the seats, but it was older and needed repairs with parts that were on back-order.

Assistant director Rob MacPherson figured out an alternative. He found gobos at the theater; gobos are screens featuring cut-out patterns that might form the light into certain shapes. He discovered that gobos could create an aurora effect. Problem solved.

In addition to McNickle and MacPherson, Chestnut Street Playhouse's "Almost, Maine" line-up includes production manager Shawn Rucker, and, in the cast, Justin Carroll, Tristan Cole, Derek Corriveau, Mary Couto, Helen Cronin, Sean Flaherty, Andreas Halidis, Andrew Houlihan, Kassey Kirchner, Suzanne McCormack, Samuel Mowan,  and Kevin Strauss. Rucker and Corriveau also co-chair the theater's artistic committee.

"Almost, Maine," Chestnut Street Playhouse, 24 Chestnut St., Norwicih; opens tonight and runs through June 28; 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Sat. and 2 p.m. Sun.; $20; available in advance online at  http://almostmaine.ezevent.com/ and at the door.

Beyond 'Maine'

The Chestnut Street Playhouse is planning on a number of other productions this year, including: "The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee" Aug. 13-23; "Rabbit Hole" Oct. 15-25; and a holiday show Dec. 4-20.