Actress and theater teacher Anita Sorel has had a long-held dream of creating a community theater for the Town of East Hampton, and her dream has finally been realized.

The board of LTV Studios has given her permission to start the Studio 3 Playhouse at LTV Studios in Wainscott. Sorel, who lives in East Hampton, explained that this will be a volunteer, non-paying theater, supported by the local community. A forum to introduce the theater will be held on Wednesday.

“Many people don’t understand the meaning of a community theater, and they think we are hiring people and paying salaries,” she said. “But this is an all-volunteer effort, and no one gets paid—they just do it for the love of the art, and to enrich their lives and the lives of others.”

Sorel said there is not presently a community theater in East Hampton, “and with all the talented and artistic people out here on the East End, it’s insane that we don’t have this kind of theater,” she said. “We have art galleries and bookstores and other types of culture, so it makes sense that we should also have a  creative outlet for actors, artists, singers, dancers, and writers.”

A community theater generates a real bonding between people involved in the productions, she said.

“I’m looking for people of all ages and all walks of life to become involved in these local shows,” she said. “I want the fishermen, the firemen, the waitresses…the children and the seniors…the singers and non-singers, to come out and join in.”

Sorel is planning her first production, Destry Rides Again, a western, which was a movie with Jimmy Stewart and Marlena Dietrich, and was also a Broadway show, starring Andy Griffith.

“It’s a musical comedy about a sheriff who comes to a small town, and he refuses to use a gun,” said Sorel, who will be holding auditions at the end of April. The play will run until the end of June, with dates to be announced.

“I decided on this show because it is right for all ages and types,” she explained.

In her long theater career, Sorel went from acting, to directing, to teaching, and she is now working at the Ross School, designing and making costumes for their productions. During the summer, she teaches theater at their summer camp.

“I never wanted to do anything else but theater,” she said. “When I was a child I went to the Ice Capades with my parents, and at that moment I knew I wanted to be involved with performing on stage the rest of my life.”

She started taking ballet, tap dance, jazz and other dance classes at eight years old, and she did summer stock theater in high school, Sorel earned degrees in dance and theater at the University of Utah, and then an MFA in Theater from the University of California at Long Beach, before touring with the National Shakespeare Company, working with the Kansas Repertory Company, and later relocating to New York City, where she acted in Off and Off Off Broadway shows, and also on television.

She and her husband, artist Richard Keys, have lived in East Hampton for 15 years. He also helps design her sets. From 2004 to 2008, they both lived in Kenya, where Sorel taught theater and Keys designed sets, at the International School in Nairobi.

The forum will be held at LTV on Wednesday at 4 p.m., to get input from local people, organizations and village leaders about her new community theater group, and the public is invited to attend.

LTV Studios is located on Industrial Road in Wainscott, and for information call them at 537-2777.