Bandon Playhouse director Mike Dempsey is fond of quoting N. Richard Nash's play “The Rainmaker.”

“It's a small dream, but it's my dream,” says character Lizzie Curry.

“The Rainmaker” is opening tonight at the Sprague Community Theater in Bandon. That's good news for Playhouse members who have anticipated reviving the story of a young woman who dreams of romance while nurturing her family through a drought-ridden farming season.

Lizzie's sentiment is revisited each time the Bandon Playhouse dreams of bringing a production to the stage. Playhouse President Bill Binnewies admits that every production is unpredictable.

It's ultimately the commitment of volunteer cast and crew members which keeps the 31-year-old Bandon Playhouse producing shows, despite unexpected complications.

But depending on the nature of the complication, the maxim “the show must go on” doesn't always apply, at least for local community theater groups.

For example, the 2003 playhouse board elected to cancel “Man of La Mancha” when the project fell behind in rehearsals. Little Theatre on the Bay recruited Ken Erskine and music director Steve Simpkins to co-direct the musical with Don Williston. The show played at LTOB with most of its original Bandon cast, including Binnewies.

Cast member Annie Ohlsen explained why she continued with “La Mancha,” through the delay and change of venue.

“The cast had established a camaraderie,” said Ohlsen. “I thought, ‘If they're all going through with it, I'm not going to jump ship.'”

When a family emergency ousted a principal actress from Bandon's 2005 “A Midsummer Night's Dream,” director Sally Ford took the role of Snug from Martha Keller, and Keller assumed the role of Hermia just two days before opening.

“If I hadn't been willing to try, all that work would have been for nothing,” said Keller. “It was stressful. I had to call for lines once or twice the first show. But it worked.”

Under the direction of Francis Braduc, Encore Productions brought “The Rainmaker” to Bandon's Harbor Hall in the early 1990s. Since then, “The Rainmaker” has seen two revival attempts in Coos County - neither of which made it to the stage.

Richard Costa, who plays Deputy File in the current production, was cast in “The Rainmaker” once before, in 2003. But scheduling conflicts deferred that playhouse production before rehearsals even began.

Another cast member, Jeff Norris plays con-man Starbuck. Norris was drawn to the role by Dempsey's professional experience as playwright, actor and director - that, and the fact that Norris memorized the script in 2001 for the Waterfront Players of North Bend.

“I've never been off-book this early in a production before!” Norris said.

According to Norris, the 2001 Waterfront production was first delayed when a cast member was injured in rehearsal, then canceled when a second cast member dropped out.

Dempsey volunteered to direct “The Rainmaker” because its rural setting reminds him of Coos County. The humor and frustration of Lizzie's female assertion in a male-dominated environment have resonated with “Rainmaker” audiences since 1954. Nash adapted his popular script as a stage musical, television movie and an Academy Award-nominated film.

For local actors and theatergoers who have endorsed a “Rainmaker” revival, the production promises a happy ending.