Now that the final curtain has fallen on the Youngstown Playhouse’s historic centennial season, it’s time to shine a spotlight on one of its signature qualities that has well withstood the test of time: resilience.

Throughout its history, the granddaddy of community theater in the Mahoning Valley has overcome with panache innumerable internal dramas and even some life-threatening tragedies.

In its early years, for example, actors and crew members plied their trade in a horse barn off Lincoln Avenue that had been set ablaze twice. They later made their home in an abandoned movie house on Market Street that all too soon became too cramped for comfort. Nonetheless, the then-named Youngstown Players soldiered on until the 45,000-square-foot 450-seat modern edifice took shape and opened off Glenwood Avenue in 1959.

That space, which has stood tall for about two-thirds of the theater’s life, at long last provided the troupe with a state-of-the-art space and ushered in the golden era of community theater in the Valley with such lavish productions of such crowd-pleasing favorites as “Oklahoma!” “Cabaret,” “Cats” and “Death of a Salesman” to name but a few.

Yet even during its long run on Playhouse Lane, dastardly nemeses attempted time and time again to upstage its success.

Back in the late 1960s, summers of race rioting in the theater’s backyard kept many would-be theater-goers at home in front of the boob tube. In the 1970s and ’80s, the demise of the steel industry and massive population loss in the city shrunk the available pool of audience members. By the time of the Great Recession of the early 2000s, financial struggles forced the theater to temporarily shut down.

Fortunately, that shutdown lasted just about as long as a one-act melodrama. That’s because in that crisis – as well as many others – the Playhouse has been blessed with thoughtful, resourceful, talented and committed leadership motivated by the quintessential credo of the stage: “The show must go on.”

Those head honchos included such stalwarts as Broadway directors Arthur Sircom, James Cameron and Ella Gerber. But no list of superlative executive directors of the Playhouse could be complete without Bentley Lenhoff. He and his trusted team shepherded exponential growth and national renown for what was then known as the largest community theater in the nation.

His leadership, as well as that of those before and after him, was predicated on setting stratospherically high standards. Even though the Playhouse falls into the often pooh-poohed community theater genre, nothing less than professional-quality skills have been demanded.

Those high standards help explain why so many Valley natives who began their career there have jettisoned to national acclaim. Among them have been Joe Flynn, star of the long-running ABC comedy “McHale’s Navy,” Academy Award actress nominee Elizabeth “Biff” Hartman and Ed O’Neill, best known for his lead roles in the immensely popular “Modern Family” and “Married With Children” TV hits.

Some of the Playhouse’s current batch of successful national artists attended the theater’s recent gala centennial celebration. Among them were Tony Award-winning Broadway producer Marc Routh of Liberty and Kayla Boye of Howland whose credits include rave reviews for her national touring one-woman show “Call Me Elizabeth” dramatizing the life and tumultuous times of screen legend Elizabeth Taylor.

Those and many other success stories born at the Playhouse testify to the enduring value of the South Side arts institution. Not only does the theater nurture creativity and artistic growth, it and its youth theater offer hands-on educational opportunities. The theater also adds vitality and cultural enrichment to elevate our community’s profile in the watchful eyes of potential investors and developers in the Valley.

Clearly, the Youngstown Playhouse has earned a rousing round of applause for its long and storied legacy. But don’t think for a moment that the hubbub and excitement of the centennial now will grind to a halt as the theater turns 101. No way.

Next season, under the passionate guidance of Board President and longtime Playhouse devotee Dr. John Cox, the theater will take its show on the road with the opening of the downtown Playhouse on West Boardman Street. That addition not only will provide a larger and more appropriate space for smaller-scale productions, it also will play a leading role in adding more pizzazz to downtown nightlife and commerce.

With a future that shows great promise and a past that has enriched Youngstown and the entire Valley, the theater’s reputation as a community gem cannot go unappreciated. As such, the thousands of actors, actresses, backstage crew members, ushers, front-office staff and leaders of the landmark community theater have more than earned a spirited standing ovation from a most appreciative Mahoning Valley audience.