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• Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre

Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre turned 35 on March 3.

Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre, one of Central Indiana's oldest continuously operating playhouses, observed its 35th anniversary March 3 without fanfare.

"It was a quiet celebration," said Doug Stark, artistic director of the theater that puts on eight main-stage productions, including a Christmas show each year at 9301 Michigan Road.

J. Scott Talbott opened Beef & Boards in 1973 with "Tom Jones," an adaptation of Henry Fielding's 1749 English novel. Talbott sold Beef & Boards to a Dallas theater group, which sold to Stark and his then-business partner, Robert Zehr, in 1980.

Stark, 58, who formerly ran Enchanted Hills Playhouse in Syracuse, in Northern Indiana, and two other Beef & Boards locations, has been sole proprietor since 1998. "It's a little more challenging now to run dinner theaters," Stark said, "because after 35 years, the newness has worn off. We're always challenged by our audience to bring them a nice mixture of the new and the old."

Beef & Boards' 2008 season includes "West Side Story," which closes March 22; "Show Boat," March 27-May 11; "Peter Pan," May 15-June 29; "Smoke on the Mountain: Homecoming," July 5-Aug. 3; "The Producers," Aug. 7-Sept. 28; "The Sound of Music," Oct. 2-Nov. 23 and "A Beef & Boards Christmas," Nov. 28-Dec. 31.

To buy tickets, go to the Beef & Boards box office or call (317) 872-9664.