Surely there's a serious-minded group of theatergoers in metro Atlanta who study a play before the show, then analyze what they've seen. Armchair Shakespeare scholars, perhaps, who like to identify obscure sayings and quote soliloquies over salad.

These women are not that group.

Jason Getz/ jgetz@ajc.com (ENLARGE)

From left, Blythe Jeffers, Kay Sharpton and Elizabeth Aiken enjoy a glass of wine with their snacks on the patio in front of the Conant Performing Arts Center before Georgia Shakespeare performs at Oglethorpe University.

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One warm evening before a recent Georgia Shakespeare production of "As You Like It," the six Junior Leaguers and longtime friends sipped wine and nibbled cheese at their beautifully decorated table. They joked and laughed and quizzed artistic director Richard Garner on hot actors to look for in the upcoming play.

"We have Daniel May playing Orlando, and he has a wrestling scene toward the beginning of the play. He's a young man without a shirt, so you'll get that," says Garner, who knows his audience — and makes it his practice to give the women a two-minute synopsis before each show.

"Does he work out?" asks Blythe Jeffers, one of the ringleaders.

"He's in good shape," Garner assures.

"This will be fun!" Jeffers says, clearly delighted.

Look beneath the surface, and you'll find true theater lovers who have been seeing plays together since 1995 — including virtually every Georgia Shakespeare production. Other women have their book clubs and their knitting circles. For this group, which varies in size, the play's the thing.

They are marketing professionals, special education teachers, financiers and homemakers. Some have loved going to plays since childhood. Others, like Laura Cutter, knew little about theater before joining.

"I never saw or read a Shakespeare play before coming here — and that's with a private school education," says Cutter, a former financial executive who now trades stocks from home.

Now, they relish their theater nights. After challenging or edgy plays, they'll sit around to compare notes. But mostly, they have a good time.

"We do follow certain actors. Daniel May, Chris Kayser, Rob Cleveland. They almost feel like friends and family — we've seen them in so many plays," said Kelly Iacobelli, a marketing director.

"We've gone to the Fox Theatre to see the Broadway series. We've seen plays at Horizon Theatre, the Alliance," she added. "We always come back to Georgia Shakespeare. This is our constant."

It all started 13 years ago as a Junior League volunteer project. The women needed to fulfill the league's requirement to do community service, and at the time, the league's focus was on the arts. They decided to work as volunteer ushers at Georgia Shakespeare.

"We picked theater because it sounded like fun," said Jeffers, a consultant at Turner Broadcasting.

Soon, they were hooked. In recent years, some of the women have turned 40, the age at which Junior Leaguers are no longer required to volunteer. So they transitioned from volunteers to patrons.

Husbands aren't invited to the theater nights — one of them actually fell asleep during a play — but men are welcome at Shake at the Lake, the annual outdoor performance/picnic in Piedmont Park. After all, someone has to carry the coolers.

During dinner before "As You Like It," the women had napkins with painted-on bloodstains that read, "Out Damned Spot," after the famous line from "Macbeth." The napkins were a gift from Elizabeth Aiken, who had just returned from a visit to the Globe Theatre in London. (She also handed out magnets with another "Macbeth" reference: "Something Wicked This Way Comes.")

The women had planned a group theater trip to London, but nixed that because of rising airfares and the falling dollar, Aiken says.

Theater, of course, is a highly social experience — and that's a big part of its appeal for groups who attend theater together, says Tim McDonough, associate professor of theater at Emory University, and artistic director of Theater Emory. "We come together to be reminded what it means to be human, what we have in common with the other people in the audience."

The Bard emphasized this in his plays, McDonough says. "During climactic moments and great speeches, Shakespeare has someone or other call attention to the fact that they are all in a theater. It's a reminder that we're all in this together."

Atlanta has had a number of theatergoing social groups, including a now-disbanded Shakespeare club that prepared themed Elizabethan meals, said Garner, the artistic director. Still, it would be hard to match the Junior Leaguers for their dedication and high spirits, he says.

Jeffers, Aiken, Iacobelli, Cutter and friends still remember — and laugh about — an ill-fated attempt to dress up to fit the theme of a play. It was the 2001 premiere of "The Genes of Beauty Queens" at Horizon Theatre in Little Five Points. They put on tiaras, blue jeans, and had sashes printed up with whimsical titles, such as "Miss Communication" and "Miss Understood."

"We thought it was going to be a really fun night, a play about old friends getting together," Jeffers said. "It turned out to be a really depressing play. We totally misinterpreted the play. We don't claim to be theater experts."