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From "Urinetown the Musical" to "Pajama Game" and "Godspell," the Damascus Theatre Company has introduced many local residents to musical theater.

In its 25-year history, the community theater company has mounted original productions, children's shows and classic musical comedies and along the way it has created a theater family, said Ellie Swink of Damascus, a long-time member of the group.

This weekend, the company will celebrate its quarter-century anniversary with "Silver Anniversary of Song," a show that will feature the stars of some of its best productions reprising songs from the shows.

"It's great to hear people sing the songs they did 14 or 15 years ago and new people," said Stephanie Miller of Gaithersburg.

Miller, 28, will be reprising a song she performed with the company when she was in high school from "How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying." She only returned to the area in August and immediately reconnected with the Damascus Theatre Company.

"It's exciting to be back," she said. "It's so much fun to get together with a group of people who love theater."

Miller was about 7 years old when her parents took her to see the company's production of "The Music Man."

"I was pretty much bitten by the theater bug," she said.

Although she took dance classes and participated in church and school productions, she did not audition for the Damascus Theatre Company until she was 14 and the company was staging "Fiddler on the Roof."

She won the part of the fiddler because director Shelly Horn envisioned the fiddler as a dancing role and Miller was able to choreograph her own performance as well as that of others in the show.

"It was so much fun," she said.

When she went to college, "I knew I wanted to do something in the arts and Damascus Theatre Company helped give me confidence," Miller said.

In addition to performing in this weekend's show, Miller is choreographing the company's spring production, "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change," which will be performed at the Gaithersburg Arts Barn in February.

By day, Miller teaches music at Clopper Mill Elementary School in Germantown.

The Damascus Theatre Company has inspired several of its child performers to pursue careers related to music or theater.

Brad Nacht has been an understudy for a major character in "The Producers" on Broadway and took on the role with the traveling company. His sister Allison is performing on cruise ships. Megan May performs with Doc Scanlon's band.

And Celia Blitzer, 27, of Rockville, another of the company's former child stars, has returned to the area to direct the spring show.

When she was about 11, Blitzer's parents took her to see the company's production of "Hello Dolly."

"It was definitely one of the greatest experiences of my life," she said.

Afterward she wrote a letter asking if she could audition for the next show. She was placed in the children's ensemble of "Bye Bye Birdie" the following year and performed in many subsequent productions. Blitzer majored in musical theater at American University.

"If I didn't make a production at AU, I came home and did one in Damascus," she said. "The theater and I have been together for half our lives."

"It's a passion," Blitzer said. "There's just something about theater — that stage bug bites you and you're hooked."

Jeannine Jacobs, a new transplant to Damascus in 1984, also had a passion for the theater. She placed a notice in The Plantations community newsletter looking for other people interested in theater. Marie Stanton replied and the Damascus Theatre Company was born.

"We were young women," she said. "We didn't really know a lot about it. It all fell into place."

Emerson Slacom had wanted to get a theater group together, too, Stanton said. He donated about $200 he had collected for that purpose to the new company and they were off.

The county Department of Recreation allowed the company to use schools free of charge and also donated some funds, Swink said. No one has been able to find Jacobs for the anniversary celebration, she said.

The first show, an original musical comedy, "On the Road to Damascus," was written by J. Patrice Kaluza and Duane Nystrom and performed as dinner theater at Damascus High School in 1985. The school's restaurant management program cooked the food, Stanton said.

"The community was young then," she said. "I think people were excited about this young venture."

Veterinarian David Goodman was relatively new to the community when he joined the first production and became the company's second president.

"It was just a lot of fun. There's people I still know [from the company]," he said. "I'd still love to do it, but I can't imagine where I'd get the time."

A changing cast of dedicated volunteers has kept the company going, said Stephanie Bonte-Lebair of Gaithersburg, the current president.

"As long as there are volunteers willing to do the work, it will keep going, she said.

The Damascus Theatre Company will perform "Silver Anniversary of Song" at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at Damascus United Methodist Church, 99700 New Church St.

Tickets can be purchased by calling 301-253-6210 or at the door. Prices are $18 for nonmembers, $15 for members, $12 for children ages 6-18 years and free for children age 5 and under.

The company is looking for photos and memorabilia from the early shows. Anyone who has anything to share should call 301-253-6210.