This year they celebratetheir 40th season running Woodminster. He has been producer and director of more than 110 musicals and 10 plays without music and she has choreographed the majority of the musicals and overseen operations, subscriptions and staff.

"That's a good question," Jim Schlader said when asked what inspired them to take over the theater. "You've got to be nuts. It helps."

With a warm directness and a partially-smoked cigar as a prop, he brought to mind an earlier age of entertainment, a la George Burns.

Back in 1966, Oakland city officials were looking for theater professionals to run Woodminster. Jim and Harriet, newly arrived from New York City, teamed up with two partners who weren't in the theater but loved it. After that first season, the other partners moved on. The Schladers decided to try to make it work.

"I never imagined 40 years, but I don't think you ever think about things like that. It seems like any other season, another year. The important thing is we've stayed here through a lot of difficult years," Harriet said. She says she "was" a dancer, but witnesses say she can still kick her leg over her head. "And then take a lot of Motrin," she said, laughing.

They stood on the stage in bright sunlight, surrounded by the majestic trees of Joaquin Miller Park. Crew members were building and painting the set for "Ragtime," the show that opens the season July 7. A large and complicated production, it has 61 actors — several play a number of characters — and close to 200 costumes. Harriet said the seamless nature of the play's structure is also challenging.

Joel Schlader, their son, is the director. He remembered growing up with the theater as his playground.

"My friends at school looked forward to the summer. We would play make believe in the theater all day long," he recalled. His mother remembered the children swinging on a rope, attached to the trees, through the stage door. One of his "spatially challenged" friends wiped out.

Joel made his stage debut at 8, playing little Jake in "Annie Get Your Gun."

"He was great, and he had a song too," Jim said. Joel has been in 40 to 50 shows, but he said his brother Todd holds the record. The family tradition continues with the next generation; Jim and Harriet's 15-year-old granddaughter, Megan Jaron, is a regular performer. Not to be forgotten, Tetley is the family's stage dog, although he lost his part in "Annie" after pulling the young leading actress off stage while she tried to sing.

Many of the regular audience members have been coming for generations. And at least one of the other child performers is a third-generation Woodminster actor.

The Schladers boast that the theater has one of the youngest audiences in the country, with an average age of 40. They credit the theater's "Kids Come Free," program — a child under 16, accompanied by an adult, gets in free.

"You get kids out to see live theater, the whole experience, that's the audience of the future," Harriet said. The theater even provides a walkway where parents can push fussy children in strollers and continue to watch.

The Woodminster casts include amateur and professional actors. Harriet said the mix allows people who aspire to be performers to observe professionals at work. They proudly list the actors who started with Woodminster and have gone on to professional roles.

"One of the big rewards is to see people succeed," Jim said. "To see doctors, dentists who have never had the idea they could perform. At first they're paralyzed and then they get to be good. Another dimension blossoms."

Harriet said musical theater must be preserved.

"Musical theater is an American art form, along with jazz — those are the two American art forms. It needs to be preserved and encouraged. Performers need to learn the repertoire."

"Besides food," Jim added, "you need a little culture."

"Ragtime" at Woodminster Summer Musicals, Joaquin Miller Park, will be produced at 8 p.m., July 7, 8, 9, 13, 14, 15 and 16. It's an outdoor theater, so be prepared for the fog. "That's part of the charm of the place," Jim Schlader said. "You never know what you might get."

Tickets range from $21.50 to $34.50 and are available at woodminster.com. The season continues with "The King and I," Aug. 4-12 and "Disney's Beauty and the Beast," Sept. 1-10.

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