Sometimes it's easy to forget that people who aren't students also perform in State College.

The Next Stage's production of Lettice and Lovage not only reminded the audience of these local actors, but also of the purpose of theater: to entertain and to form a connection with the audience.

The British comedy was written by Peter Shaffer in 1987 and is being performed in the upstairs studio space of the State Theatre, 130 W. College Ave. The Next Stage production company, composed almost entirely of community members, performs three plays a year at the theater.

The story was centered on Lettice Douffet, played by State College resident Michelle Miller-Day, a Penn State communication arts and sciences professor. Douffet's character is a tour guide in a British historical house who believes the actual history of the house is too boring.

Hence, she decides to embellish the events that took place in the house with dramatic details, which are convincing but false.

Douffet's boss, Lotte Schoen, played by Elaine Meder-Wilgus of State College, fires Douffet for her dramatizations. However, the two became unlikely friends through their shared love for history and language.

Sometimes that love of language produced subtle wordplay between the characters that was easy to gloss over, but most of the time the comedic touches shined through both the vocabulary and the British accents the actors used.

The friendship between the two characters pits Schoen's strict, proper personality against Douffet's flair for the theatrical. The two find common ground reenacting famous executions, complete with costumes and historical dialogue, on Friday nights at Douffet's flat.

The upstairs space of the State Theatre is only about the size of a room in the Willard Building, and it holds about 50 audience members.

One viewer, a white-haired gentleman in the front row sporting a hearing aid and cane, seemed visibly entranced by the performance, leaning in toward the actors or slapping his knee with laughter during certain scenes.

His noticeable energy and the reactions of the other audience members made the performance even more enjoyable and intimate.

Because of the small space, there was no stage or set and only a few props for Lettice and Lovage, which worked to the advantage of a play with four cast members.

A limited reliance on outside elements allowed the audience to focus directly on the actors, who delivered an enthusiastic performance that connected the audience to the story.