It's a heady time to be a theater lover in Coweta County.

With productions of the Newnan Community Theater Company selling out on a regular basis, the theater company knew it was time to find a new space to replace their increasingly cramped location at the Manget-Brannon Center for the Performing Arts on Hatchett Avenue in Newnan.

Artistic director Dale Lyles began looking for a new site three years ago, but the momentum picked up last December when Kevin McInturff volunteered to help the group find a site.

“He announced at our inaugural gala in January that we would be in a new building in 18 months. He did it in six,” Lyles said.

The theater company signed a lease on the old Johnson Hardware warehouse late last month, just across the street from its present location.

Lyles said the company hopes to stage its annual musical version of “A Christmas Carol” at the new facility in December and is excited about the new possibilities for the company.

The warehouse is three times as big as the old theater company's digs and provides 25,000 square feet of room.

In its years at the Manget-Brannon Center, the company was unable to do a children's theater program Saturday mornings because the space was being used for set construction.

“We perform more than half the weekends of the year, with four Mainstage shows and umpteen Second Season productions popping up all the time. That schedule was getting tighter and tighter with rehearsals overlapping and set construction time at a premium,” Lyles said.

The new spacious setting will allow the theater to have more than a 200-seat performance area, lobby space, a scene shop, rehearsal studio, classroom space, costume shop and storage.

Residents who want to get a glimpse of the theater company's work can sample Christoper Durang's “Beyond Therapy” running this weekend and next weekend. Shows start at 8 p.m. and tickets are $6. The play is intended for mature audiences only. For information phone 770-251-0571.

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