Brookhaven Little Theatre will kick off its new season Fridaywith the first of six performances of Barbara Robinson’s “The BestChristmas Pageant Ever,” a family-oriented Christmas play directedby Jana Russell.

The play is being presented for the second time as part of thetheater group’s 40th anniversary season. It is the first of threeshows that will be presented during the 2007-08 season.

“It’s a good, family feel-good show,” Russell said of theupcoming play. “It’s about a church Christmas pageant that isinfiltrated by six children of the Herdman family.”

To provide a glimpse of the on-stage mayhem, Russell pointed tothe first line of the play, which reads, “The Herdmans were theworst kids in the history of the world.”

Russell has plenty of good kids on hand to play the bad kids.Roughly 40 children and adults from the Lincoln County area,ranging in ages from 5 to 53, are involved in the production of theplay.

“It’s a diverse but talented group,” Russell said. “Some are oldhats and some are brand new. I’m lucky to have the talent that Ihave.”

Russell needs not only talent for acting, but talent for work.The acting, set and prop construction, and costume design areaccomplished by volunteers.

“It’s all volunteer work,” Russell said. “We’re a non-profitorganization and we try to be as frugal as possible. Our budget isvery little. We’ll always accept the odd donation or two.”

There are six practices remaining before the show goes on nextweekend on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 at and Dec. 2. The play will also beperformed the following weekend on Dec. 7, 8 and 9.

Friday and Saturday performances are at 7:30 p.m. and Sundayperformances are at 2 p.m.

Proceeds from the play will go to Save the Haven, a fundraisingcampaign to renovate the aging theater building.

Russell said BLT is the second-oldest continuously operatingcommunity theater in the state. She said the building is at least70 to 80 years old and probably older than that.

“We have evidence that it was around at the turn of thecentury,” Russell said. “It’s a historic old building. Variouslittle repairs have been done, and now major roof repairs are underway. We were told several years ago that if we didn’t do somethingabout the roof, it would fall in on us.”

Russell said other projects were scheduled to follow the roofwork, such as plumbing and air conditioning repairs.

“The board of directors is working for all kinds of grants:historic grants, artistic grants, small community grants…” shesaid. “The jewel of downtown is what I would like for this place toeventually become. Our downtown area is growing, and I want thisplace to be state of the art – a legacy for downtown.”

When the run of “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” ends, BLT willprepare for the next play, “Dearly Departed,” which will be underthe direction of John Landress. Auditions will be in January andthe performances begin in March.

After that, “Steel Magnolias,” which will be directed by CarrollRitchie, will be performed in May. Audition dates for theproduction have not been set.