Bringing professionals to Shreveport to mingle with local actors is what River City Repertory Theatre has been doing since it started. Artistic Director Patric McWilliams said that mission has often been misunderstood.

McWilliams takes some responsibility for that misunderstanding. He said when he and Robert Buseick, president of the RCRT board, were working together at Centenary College’s Marjorie Lyons Playhouse, they brought a high level of professionalism to the local stage. He said it was not professional, although some audiences called it that. “But it wasn’t. It was community, academic theater.”

The goal of RCRT was to bring true professional actors to local audiences. “People throw the word ‘professional’ around,” McWilliams said. “People can work toward professional levels or quality, but you are not professional, and you are not a professional actor until you are a member of Actors’ Equity.”

Actors’ Equity, or Equity as it’s commonly called, is the labor union that represents more than 49,000 actors and stage managers in the United States, according to its website. The union negotiates wages and working conditions for its members, as well as providing a range of benefits, like health and pension plans.

Employing Equity actors costs money, McWilliams said. “People don’t understand that [RCRT] flies these actors [into Shreveport]. We have to house them. We have to rent cars for them to get around. They are paid per diem. We have to pay in the health and pension benefit price that Equity sets.”

Those costs are set by the standard Equity contract that governs professional performers.

Paying those costs could exceed the amount the actor actually is paid by an additional 80 percent. “That’s why our ticket prices are where they are now. Truth to tell, we probably need to add to that 20 more dollars, which would take our ticket to $55.”

The current $35 has met resistance from local patrons, McWilliams admits, where other theaters charge as much as $15-$25 less, depending on the type of show. The higher costs are expected in markets where professional actors are seen on more stages in a community.

“Shreveport has no history of professional theater. It has a history only of community theater,” McWilliams said. When his friends in New York hear his shows cost $35, they think it’s a good deal for professional entertainment. McWilliams said they tell him, “You can’t go to a deli [in New York] and get a sandwich and a coke for that.”

The Equity actors aren’t the only expense, McWilliams said. “Everyone is being paid on our productions. Every actor, even the ones that are community non-Equity actors, we pay them. All of our crew is paid, et cetera; there is no free ride. We rent the [performance] space. Nothing is free. Nothing.”

McWilliams said local audiences should not think he’s being critical; he said he and Buseick are as much to blame as anyone for the disconnect between professional ticket prices and community theater prices. He said when he and Buseick produced shows at Centenary, the quality was so high local audiences came to accept that level of performance as the norm. Now, the educational challenge is to make those same audiences willing to pay more for truly professional entertainers.

“We’re bringing people who’ve won Tony Awards, who have been nominated for Oscars, who are in iconic films like Margaret was,” he said. “It’s frustrating, but those of us who believe in what we’re doing, we’re hard-headed, so we keep going at it. I’m not bashing people. We’ve gotten tremendous support from many areas, but some crucial areas don’t realize what we represent to them.”

RCRT enters its ninth season with the Pulitzer Prize-winning show, “The Gin Game.”

The story, by Donald L. Coburn, deals with a couple of nursing home residents who strike up a funny and poignant acquaintance.

This version will star veteran actors Margaret Avery and Richard Folmer. Avery returns to Shreveport for another round with RCRT following her turn in “A Member of the Wedding.” She’s starring in a series on the BET Network and has honed her craft on Broadway and the silver screen. Folmer is familiar to local audiences as an actor and director. His professional credits include touring productions, television and film.

McWilliams urged local patrons to come see what he’s talking about when “The Gin Game” opens Oct. 15 at East Bank Theatre. There will also be an opportunity for the public to meet and talk with Avery and Folmer. For more information and reservations, call 868-5888.