The LTG has survived for 59 years with love, talent, dedication, perseverance and often by the seat of its pants. The archives reveal a history of charitable deeds, artistic achievements, drama, comedy, absurdities and many laughs that have bestowed upon the theater its never-ending story.

Contributions

Contributions to local charitable and cultural institutions include:

• LTG’s donation of two iron lungs to the San Juan de Dios Hospital that helped save many lives during a severe polio epidemic.
• The Red Cross
• The Caravan of Good Will
• Barrio Cuba Day Nursery
• The Salvation Army

And more recently:

• Gail Nyström’s Fundación Humanitaria Costarricense
• The Santa Ana Orphanage
• Hogar Tom & Norman, a home for abandoned people in Guápiles — proceeds from the Angel of Love Concerts and donation of chairs

Over the years our members have donated scholarships to the Women’s Club of Costa Rica to help high-achieving students pay for their education. This year, also through the Women’s Club, the LTG sponsored a high school student in Guanacaste who wants to study music.

Support on the Cultural Side

In 1983, Youth Symphony members were given assistance to study at Baylor University in Texas. More recently the use of the theatre was donated to Opera Nova for a performance to raise funds to send a student opera singer to Germany to study.

Artistic Achievements

In 1960, the production of Wake Up Darling performed at the National Theater was simultaneously translated into Spanish by the use of earphones and the show was an outstanding bilingual success. The LTG’s production of A Sound of Music at the Centro Cultural rehearsed for nine months and every performance was a sell-out before the show even opened!! Since moving into the Blanche Brown Theatre sell out performances and standing ovations abound. Noises Off a frantic, hilarious comedy about a play within a play was definitely a challenge when it came to set design. Would the LTG’s audience be shocked, walkout or accept The Vagina Monologues? This thought-provoking piece of theatre was highly praised and some audience members came back a second time. Kevin Glass’s tour de force, one-man performance in A Christmas Carol is still talked about and You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, the only musical produced at the Blanche Brown Theatre, delighted audiences of all ages. All these shows and many more have been recorded in the archives as part of the artistic growth and accomplishments of a vibrant, healthy theater that’s not afraid to face the challenges their choice of plays present.

Drama, Comedy and Laughs

No Sex Please We’re British represented all three. The drama took place off stage! A new director, claiming fame in L.A., we’ve had a few of them at our door, was still sitting around reading the script ten days before opening night! There was mutiny among the cast and one actress took over until a substitute director was catapulted in and the comedy of errors became a barrel of laughs, which opened on time. Do actors get the “Jitters”? They certainly did in the play by the same name when they heard the playwright would be attending opening night. The leading man started to make an effort to learn his lines — lucky for us — and even luckier the playwright cancelled his visit! No matter what transpires “the show must go on” and hopefully, the audience is oblivious of what has happened in the wings.