From the moment the actors step on the Very Little Theatre’s stage, the audience is transported: Lilting Southern drawls fill the high-ceilinged theater. A courtly tree centers the stage, and sun filters through the branches in beams of golden light. Flowing dresses and hats with lacy, cascading veils affect an air of Southern style.
It is the essence of 1930s Alabama, which is the setting for the Very Little Theater’s latest play, “The Grass Harp,” which opens its four-week run Friday.
Based on a Truman Capote novel, the play tells the story of Dolly, a shy, compliant woman who learns to stand up for herself and discovers what she wants in life. The play explores themes of love, self-discovery and friendship.
Gloria Lagalo, who plays the leading role of Dolly, will make her first opening performance with the theater. Having read the novel, Lagalo said she fell in love with the part and decided she would take a chance and read for it.
“It’s very exciting to play in something like this because Dolly is not an ordinary person,” Lagalo said. “She’s an extraordinary person.” Capote’s work is centered around Dolly’s personal triumph, as she becomes an independent woman, Lagalo said.
Barry G. Carroll is cast as the judge who is attracted to Dolly.
“The play is about relationships, what we hide, and what we reveal about ourselves,” Carroll, who was unfamiliar with the novel prior to auditioning, said. “I knew it was by Capote, and that alone really speaks well for it.”
Director Suzanne Shapiro said she also fell in love with the script. “The Grass Harp” will mark the sixth time Shapiro has directed a play for the Very Little Theatre since she joined the theater in 1993.
The Very Little Theatre, which puts on five productions annually, is one of the oldest operating community theaters in the country.
Inside the theater, its arching, wooden roof provides an intimate setting where characters’ voices project, and a high level of interaction exists between the audience and cast. With a capacity of 220, every seat has a clear view of the stage.
Wrapping around the walls of the theater’s lobby is a timeline of nostalgic black-and-white photographs dating back to its first production in 1929.
Because of its age, the Very Little Theatre has developed one of the best collections of turn-of-the-century costumes in the West, said Scott Barkhurst, the theater’s publicist.
The theater is an entirely volunteer-based, nonprofit organization, supported only by ticket sales, said Barkhurst, who has been volunteering at the theater since the 1970s. The theater has more than 100 members and holds open auditions for all of its productions.

Membership is gained by helping with productions and other activities for the theater, but membership is not required to participate in productions.
Carroll, who has lived in Eugene for three years, has participated in each season since his arrival. “Of all the community theaters I have worked in, and I’ve worked in a few, this is the best organized,” Carroll said.
Barkhurst said the community embraces the Very Little Theatre, regularly donating costumes and props to the theater.
“The theater is not just a bunch of actors putting on a play,” Barkhurst said. “It’s a chunk of the community.”