“We strive for tradition,” Domer said. “We get 3,000 to 4,000 viewers each summer that come out with their picnic blankets and dinner hours before the show starts.”

The theatre chose to celebrate its anniversary with a play that showed the tradition of the theatre and the people who have performed in it, said Anne Levy, a professor of theatre at MSU.

“There’s an excitement for me,” Levy said. “We are doing a story that they started the show with 50 years ago.”

“Blithe Spirit” is a comedy about novelist Charles Condomine, who is haunted by the ghost of his ex-wife, Elvira, after she is summoned by the local clairvoyant, Madame Arcati. After constant bickering and accidental fatal mishaps, Charle’s wife Ruth dies in a car booby-trapped by ghost Elvira.

Characters are portrayed by East Lansing residents and MSU students in full wardrobe, which creates what Rob Roznowski, the head of acting and directing for the Department of Theatre, said was a “town and gown.”

“Be prepared for a nice molding of faculty, students and the community,” Roznowski said. “This week (the actors) are uppity British people. Next week, they’ll be from Jersey.”

When the theatre began in 1961, the performances were held in Demonstration Hall and shuffled to the Kresge Sculpture Court in 1970, when the program was revived, Domer said. The outdoor venues have been a unique part of the theatre, but occasionally causes problems for the performances, Levy said.

“We’ve had one show that never had the chance to be seen because it thundered every night,” she said.

Rain or shine, the Summer Circle troupe tries to do everything it can to put on a performance for its audience, Roznowski said.

“There are a new set of challenges each summer,” he said. “We’re outside, with the bugs and flood plains because of the river, and geese and traffic, trains and drunk college students.”