MARS HILL, N.C. (828newsNOW) — Mars Hill founded its Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre in 1975, and the spotlight has never dimmed since.

Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre, affectionately known as SART, is concluding its 50th season with the play “Taking a Chance on Love,” written by founding SART member C. Robert Jones. The show alternates between 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. performances and runs until July 28 with Friday to Sunday performances.

The romantic comedy follows the collusion of past lovers, three generations of family and a few rogue players in one Charleston, S.C. beach house over the course of a fateful weekend. The show has a classic rom-com set-up, which is fitting, as “Taking a Chance on Love” is a classic show at SART.

“Taking a Chance on Love” premiered at SART in 2006, the 32nd season of the theater.

Eighteen years later, director Bill Gregg decided to put on a play that Jones had written as a nod to the founding member, as well as a retrospective of his own career. Gregg had directed the original production of “Taking a Chance on Love,” and came out of retirement to tackle its revival.

While it would have been easy for the director to bring a somber energy to such a weighty undertaking, Gregg sought to end the SART season on a breezy note.

“We decided we needed something of lighter fare, maybe a comedy, and this one fit the bill,” Gregg said.

Extending the spirit of comedy from his show, the director introduced the opening night of the production with a brief acknowledgement of SART members past and present.

The SART alumni present in the audience, Gregg told the room, were actually called “Sartians.”

One such Sartian was Alyssa Kennedy.

Nearly two decades later, Kennedy returned to the SART stage as Roxana Rutledge Gomez in “Taking a Chance on Love,” the role she originated in 2006.

“I tell Alyssa, ‘Now you’ve grown into your part,’” Gregg said. “‘You did a great job before, but you might’ve been a little young for the part.’”

In the show, Roxana is one of two ex-wives contending for the attentions of ex-husband Edgar Rutledge, a winsome newspaper editor whose son is to be married to a much older woman.

As the show unfolds, Kennedy plays the role of antagonist, her Roxana accosting other characters with primadonna pomposity. There is a clear affection for the character and history with the character which Kennedy displayed on the stage.

Kennedy was not the only Sartian in the cast, however.

Alison Gripentrog may not have been in the original production of  “Taking a Chance on Love,” but its revival nonetheless heralded a return to the stage for her as well.

“I left acting around nine years ago,” Gripentrog said. “This is the first show back. So this show has particular nostalgia perhaps for me because it is at SART where I’ve done a lot of shows and it’s with Bill.”

Gregg had directed Gripentrog in several productions at SART, where she began performing at the age of 22. His encouragement led her to audition for the 50th show in first place.

Gripentrog plays Solange Moret, a young French woman who is the daughter of Rutledge’s son’s older fiancé and a chaos agent in the wedding preparations — in traditional rom-com fashion, the relationships between the characters are a tangled mess in “Taking a Chance on Love.”

“It’s a fun role. It’s flirty. It’s just so incredibly enjoyable,” Gripentrog said. “To be able to come back after nine years away, feeling rusty, bats in the belfry, every metaphor for being out of shape for it that you can think of, it’s delightful to be able to come back to an area that I feel safe to explore.”

While the Sartians of Mars Hill may be exploring familiar terrain, audiences for which SART is a new frontier are certain to feel the love put into the production.

Folks curious about taking a chance on “Taking a Chance on Love” can find tickets at www.sartplays.com/box-office.