After months of planning, Mimi’s Community Theater will stage its first production

WINTER GARDEN For several years, Lorraine Patria talked about starting up a community theater in Winter Garden.

After retiring last year, she decided to turn her words into actions.

“I said to my husband, ‘I think the time is right,’” Patria said.

After months of planning, Patria’s new community theater will put on its first show, called “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” this weekend.

The concept for the community theater began to take shape during the weekend of July 4, when Patria was approached by leaders of the Winter Garden Masonic Lodge No. 165 F.&A.M. They had learned of her project through her husband, who has been a member of the lodge for 16 years, and offered the use of their building for all the community theater’s needs. 

Patria immediately accepted their offer and named the new theater Mimi’s Community Theater.

“My grandkids call me Mimi,” Patria said. “So everybody will think their grandmother owns this theater, and it sounded very wholesome.”

Having dreamed about opening a community theater for several years, Patria said she was surprised how quickly things came together once a plan was put into motion.

“It came together almost like nothing,” she said. 

Over the last several weeks and months, Patria has gone through hours of auditions and rehearsals for this weekend’s show. “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” tells the story of a church that is putting on a Christmas pageant and all the frustrations and drama that it endures for the show to go on.

“I’m hoping we will get it so perfect that people will have a little tear,” Patria said. “What I want people to know is the story of baby Jesus.”

Having never worked with children before, Patria said this first play - featuring a cast of nearly 20 children - is proving to be a challenge, albeit a good challenge.

“It’s all about the kids,” Patria said. “That’s what I want.”

And with opening night on Friday, the kids are excited to get their first taste of the spotlight.

“It sounded like fun, like something I would like,” 10-year-old Hannah Brewer said about trying out for the Christmas play. “And my mom always says that I’m really dramatic.”

One of the most interesting things about “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever” is that it’s a play about a play, said Jackson Crawley, 14.

Following the Christmas production, Patria plans to have a play at Mimi’s Community Theater every few months, with the next play scheduled for mid-February. And the genre of each play will almost always vary, Patria said, from children’s plays to musicals.

Her goal for the theater is to make it self-sufficient.

“Ten years from now, I want the community theater to still be going,” she said.

Contact Brittany Gaines at [email protected].