The Spotlight Players, a tight-harmony vocal music group based in Gadsden, is celebrating 40 years of making music with two Christmas concerts at the historic Ritz Theatre in downtown Alabama City.

The concerts, at 7 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Sunday, feature the five members — Wayne Cornutt, Kent Back, Linda Clayton Robinson and Kay Norton Daniel, with keyboard player Lana Cornutt — performing classic holiday favorites for all ages to enjoy.

In the summer of 1982, Actors Community Theatre (the predecessor of Theatre of Gadsden) had a successful production of the musical “110 in the Shade.” As planned, the proceeds went to a local charity. So, the group needed to find a funding source for its next big summer show, “The Music Man.”

Judd McCluney, who had been in numerous local shows, came up with the idea of a musical and comedy troupe that could travel, do shows almost anywhere and raise money to fill the theatre coffers. The Spotlight Players were born.

Original members were Wayne and Lana Cornutt, Robertson, Derek Worley, Sylvia Cornutt Coleman, Kristi Brown Martin (now deceased) and McCluney.

The group's first performance was at a sold-out dinner theatre. After that, the bookings began to roll in. At times, guest comedy performers Vic Giamalva and Jennifer Graves would join the troupe for performances.

When Worley left town to follow a theatrical career, Back took his place. When Sylvia Cornutt Coleman moved to Ohio because of her husband’s job, Daniel took her spot. McCluney and Martin left for college and were not replaced. When Daniel moved out of state, she was temporarily replaced by Gina Albert Garmon, then Daniel moved back to Alabama.

Over the years, and with personnel changes, the group began to concentrate more on close harmonies and eventually dropped the comedy routines from their act. They have performed at Bomber Squadron Reunions, countless class reunions, numerous dinner theatres and many fundraising events.

Busy Christmas season: Check out these Etowah-Gadsden area activities

Christmas lights:New trains will be running at Christmas at the Falls

The Spotlight Players started rehearsing and preparing for this year’s Christmas show in mid-September.

“Specifically for the Christmas concert, we try to do all types of Christmas music,” said Wayne Cornutt. “We select songs from different genres. We start with those that might have been performed by The Carpenters, Andy Williams, Bing Crosby and others. We bring in new, updated arrangements of well-known Christmas songs and carols. More importantly, we blend in songs that tell the story of Christmas.

“We look for those great songs that have a wonderful accompaniment and close, tight harmony,” he added.

From “old standard” songs, new songs, updated jazz tunes, and arrangements that just “click,” the Spotlight Players have a versatile repertoire of enjoyable music.

“The enjoyment you see on people’s faces when you sing a song they haven’t heard in a long time makes it all worthwhile,” Back said.

The members agree that performing together for as long as they have makes them a musical “family.”

“We work very hard to do the very best job we can any time we perform. That's very important to each of us,” said Robertson.

Daniel said, “Obviously we all love the music, but my favorite part is spending time with such a wonderful group of friends. The truth is, we spend about as much time talking and laughing as we do singing.”

The close relationship the members have with each other contributes to their ensemble sound.

“For me, (performing as a group) is that aspect of being part of something that is bigger and better than you can be alone,” Cornutt said. “Singing harmony requires that you hold up your part, and at the same time depend fully on those singing with you. Being in the moment of a performance and feeling the emotion of everything being ‘right,’ is something that is hard to explain.”

Give back:Gadsden Fire Department accepting toys, cash for Toys from Santa drive

Parades:Here are times, dates for area Christmas parades

The group has one ultimate mission for their concert for the community: share the feelings and meaning of Christmas.

“We want to sing music from different eras but we also want to sing music that can spur the memory of a time and place — or even a person — that was special to a listener,” said Cornutt.

Robertson said, “We are doing some of the standard Christmas songs, but we have also included songs that speak to the real meaning of Christmas.

“If I had to pick one song out of the whole program that is my favorite, it would be ‘All Is Well/Silent Night,’” she said. “One of the verses says, ‘All is well, all is well. Lift up your voice and sing. Born is now Emmanuel, Born is our Lord and Savior, Sing Alleluia, Sing Alleluia, All is well.’

“Kent’s daughter-in-law, Celeste Back, is playing the flute on this piece with us, which makes it even more special,” Robertson added.

Back said, “We want to create an evening where (the audience) can forget everything and enjoy getting in the Christmas spirit, leaving with the feeling that it’s Christmas,”

Daniel added, “I just hope the audience enjoys it half as much as we do,” Daniel added.

Tickets are $20 for adults; $18 for seniors, students and military veterans; $15 for groups of 10 or more; and $13 for groups of 30 or more.

For more information and to reserve tickets, visit www.theatreofgadsden.org or call 256-547-SHOW (7469).

Memories of songs past

The Spotlight Players reflected together on their favorite memories when looking back at their 40 years together as a group.

“When we reminisce, we seem to talk about the events that created laughter or that were meaningful and emotional,” Wayne Cornutt said. “The best memories are those of all the people involved and how much laughter is involved with rehearsing, and the friendships we have made and that have become family over time.”

The high points:

• “A World War II Bombardier Group Reunion in Huntsville, where the entire room stood up as we sang ‘God Bless the USA’ and at this same show, the room was filled with the veterans singing ‘The White Cliffs of Dover.’”

• “A time when we were getting ready to sing for the Committee of 100 in Montgomery, and we were still in our blue jeans and sweatshirts as we finished setting up our equipment. The entertainment chairperson was extremely nervous about this group from Gadsden that no one knew. She approached us and in a worried, pure Southern drawl, asked this concerned question: ‘You do have costumes, don’t you?’ We trust that our formal dress was good enough when we sang for them, but we still ask ourselves this question as we are preparing for performances decades later.”

• “A freezing Christmas performance at the Fort Payne Opera House: It is like a fish story. Some say the temperature during the performance was 54 degrees, and others say it was 45 degrees, but the known truth is that the outside temperature was single digits and there was no heat in the Opera House. We sang a full program, and there had to be fewer than 10 audience members (and two of those were family). The best part of this experience was an evening meal at a steak restaurant in Mentone with our families and the technical crew that worked on the show.”

Daniel: “I'll add that we ladies were wearing open-toed shoes, and my dress was sleeveless on one side and off the shoulder on the other. In retrospect, we should have just worn our coats for the performance like all the audience members were. Maybe our brains were frozen along with the rest of us!”

• “Practicing for hundreds of hours in the basement of the former Gadsden Business College getting ready for the first dinner theater in 1982; the laughter involved with the impossible task of trying to get non-dancers to perform a dance number with top hat and cane for ‘A Chorus Line.’”

• “Singing on the Alabama Shakespeare Festival stage in Montgomery.”

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Spotlight Players to host two Christmas concerts at Ritz Theatre