MR. REECE'S NEW STAGE

"New Start in New York," as the script was called, never got produced outside the family's garage. But nearly a half-century later, the devoted son of Marietta who ran Pebblebrook High School's vaunted performing arts program for 14 years is getting a "new start" at the theater that helped introduce him to the arts.

Reece, 59, is executive director of the newly renovated Earl Smith Strand Theatre, a 1935 art deco gem on the northeast corner of the picturesque town center. (The Strand is named after Marietta builder Earl Smith, who spearheaded the $4.2 million renovation of the 531-seat theater.) It's a high-profile gig for a guy who remains very much a small-town boy at heart, and a role that Reece seems to be relishing as much as the fried okra he's dunking into the creamed corn at Gabriel's restaurant on Marietta's Whitlock Avenue on a recent afternoon.

During the interview, people stop to compliment Reece on his snazzy tie and jacket —- or pat him on the back for helping return the Strand to its former glory.

"You don't know me, but I know you," said one kindly gentleman, who turns out to be Reece family friend Charles Green, father of Michael Green, former president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

"I just wanted to congratulate you on the wonderful job you've done at the Strand," Green said. "I know you are proud."

A 'lasting legacy'

A few minutes later, Reece refills his jumbo cup of iced tea and gets behind the wheel of his silver Honda Accord to show a visitor his neighborhood. He drives past his first home, in the historic heart of Marietta, recalling how he struggled to make the $289-a-month payment.

Today, he and his wife, Terri, both retired from full-time jobs with the Cobb school system, live in a handsome, two-story brick home in a west Cobb subdivision.

Reece, who is never without his gold "ER" signet ring or a monogrammed oxford-cloth shirt, said he can't show the house because it's being repainted. "My wife would have a fit," he said. It seems the antique-loving couple is never without a home improvement project.

About 13 miles south, in Mableton, Reece pulls into the parking lot of Pebblebrook High School, where he was director of the Cobb County Center for Excellence in the Performing Arts from 1990 to 2004. The former educator is credited with turning the magnet program into one of the nation's best high schools for the performing arts.

At the sight of the Earl Reece Performing Arts Theatre, named for him upon his retirement, he seems almost embarrassed. "It was a real honor and one that should not have happened," he said humbly.

Inside the complex, Reece greets former colleagues and peeks into a master class led by an artist from the Dance Theatre of Harlem. In another class, taught by former student Cindy Mora, he singles out a dancer. "You have the talent to dance professionally," Reece said.

The gray-headed fellow with the thick Southern accent ought to know: To date, Pebblebrook graduates have appeared in 26 Broadway shows.

"His lasting legacy has nothing to do with what's going on at the school," said Reece's successor, Frank Timmerman. "The lasting legacy is that there are kids performing all over the world who would not be doing what they were doing if it were not for Earl Reece."

Reece and his wife don't have children. But every Father's Day, he said, he gets 30 or 40 calls and text messages from his kids.

Drama as diversion

Oddly enough, Reece never trained as a performer.

He jokes that he majored in "partying" at Georgia Southern College in Statesboro. (Actually, his degree is in English.) After college, he got a job teaching middle school in rural Tattnall County, near the state prison at Reidsville.

For the teaching neophyte, it was a "rude awakening" —- like something out of Pat Conroy's film memoir "Conrack." "If an announcement came on and said, 'Teachers, secure your room,' it meant a prisoner had escaped." Reece recalls a kid who brandished a large fishhook as a weapon and flushed a classmate's wig down the toilet.

The young teacher decided that performing a play might help his kids with their reading and behavior problems. The school's auditorium had been boarded up for 10 years, but Reece and his kids cleaned it up and put on a show.

After two years, Reece returned to Cobb, got a job teaching at Awtrey Middle School (where he started a drama program and ran it for 15 years) and was eventually recruited to run the Pebblebrook program.

There, he used his considerable people skills and political prowess to persuade the school board to turn Pebblebrook into a conservatory-style environment. The school's enrollment has since doubled, to about 300, and graduates are routinely accepted at places like the Juilliard School and Carnegie-Mellon University. As the program administrator, Reece left most of the teaching to the pros. But he always found time to direct the high school musicals.

Call him 'Mr. Marietta'

Now that Reece is running the theater he frequented as a boy, he's hoping to turn it into a beehive of community-driven work. Big names can play big venues, he said. He's more interested in booking homeboys like Billy Joe Royal and Joe South, or creating a tribute to Motown's 50th anniversary. On Feb. 28, Johnnie Gabriel —- cousin of food star Paula Deen and owner of Gabriel's, Reece's favorite spot for Southern veggies —- will do an onstage cooking demo.

Of course, musicals will always be on the Strand menu.

"He has a passion for musical theater," said Brandt Blocker, director of the Atlanta Lyric Theatre. Last summer, the Strand enlisted the Lyric as its resident theater company, and Blocker credits Reece with spurring that partnership. (The Lyric's "Smokey Joe's Cafe" runs today through Feb. 1.)

Everyone says Reece's homespun demeanor and Southern charm make him a perfect fit for the Strand. As his impromptu hometown tour winds to an end, Reece heads to City Hall to make an announcement. It's Marietta's 175th anniversary, and he's been charged with co-chairing a yearlong celebration.

"I call him Mr. Marietta," Blocker said. "If he hasn't taught you, he's probably taught your children."

CLASS ACTS

Pebblebrook High has had more than two dozen graduates appear on Broadway. Here are some of Earl Reece's former students and their credits:

> Chauncey Jenkins

National tour of "Mamma Mia!" and "The Color Purple." Broadway cast of "The Color Purple."

> Sarah Jane Everman

Broadway: "Shrek," "Wicked" and "The Apple Tree."

> Tyler Hanes

Broadway: "A Chorus Line," "The Boy from Oz" and "Oklahoma!"

> Jody Reynard

Broadway: "Taboo," "Saturday Night Fever" and "Fosse."

> Meg Gillentine

Broadway: "Cats," "Fosse," "The Frogs."

> Abbey O'Brien

Broadway: "Spamalot" and "Pal Joey."

> Justin Patterson

Broadway: "All Shook Up," "Young Frankenstein," tour of "Spamalot."

> Chris Compton

National tour of "Movin' Out." Toronto cast of "Dirty Dancing."

> Todd Burnsed

National tour of "Movin' Out." Toronto cast of "Dirty Dancing."

> Billy Tighe

National tour of "Dirty Dancing."

> Colt Prattes

National tour of "A Chorus Line."