SOUTH PORTLAND – As Ellie Foss emerged from the darkened hall at Lyric Music Theater into the South Portland sunshine Saturday, she blinked once at the blinding light, blinked twice, then looked up at her mother.

“I think I did OK,” she beamed, shielding her eyes from the cloudless sky.

But even though Foss had just belted out 16 bars of “It’s A Hard Knock Life” – not to mention dancing and shrieking on cue – the precocious 7-year-old was a tad too shy for a reporter’s question about why she wanted to be in the upcoming production of the popular musical, “Annie.” Instead, she quickly burrowed nose first into her mother’s blouse. Still, the answer, when it came was unequivocal.

“I like the movie,” she said.

“She loooooves the movie,” said Foss’ mother, Anna Grave?l of Freeport.

Grave?l owns Portland-based Through the Door Productions, which makes movies, commercials, documentaries and music videos. For her, auditioning for a part is old hat, but for Ellie, trying to become one of Orphan Annie’s raggedy band was a first-time affair, one her mother hopes will lead to a lifelong love of the arts.

“I do so much film and acting and stage work that she’s used to it. She’s acclimated,” said Grave?l. “But I was surprised when she said she wanted to audition. I tried to play it cool. I actually didn’t think she was ever going to audition for anything because she told me she didn’t want to be on stage. But it was ‘Annie,’ her favorite movie.”

For her first audition, Foss was joined by nearly 40 other young hopefuls from across southern Maine, each vying for one of 12 juvenile parts in the 1977 award-winning Broadway musical.

“Annie” is a production Lyric Music Theater has returned to a half-dozen times in the last few decades, in part because it’s such a strong magnet for children, whose participation in the well-known show can lead to a lifelong appreciation of, if not active participation in, live theater. Building an audience for art one generation at a time is a hard way to raise a curtain, but Lyric officials say the effort is more vital now than ever before, as the local theater community makes a slow rebound from the national recession.

“Ever since the economic crisis, the arts have been hit really, really, really hard,” said Celeste Green, chairwoman of Lyric’s board of directors and choreographer of “Annie.” “And, in a small community like this, it hits even harder because there aren’t that many resources to go around.

“Nobody gets paid here,” said Green. “All of our staff here have 40- to 60-hour-per-week jobs. Then we come here and work 40 to 80 hours. We clean the bathrooms. We staff the box office. It’s an all-volunteer organization. But we do it because we’re dedicated to being a center that allows people to really explore the arts in ways that can further develop their lives in other aspects.”

Any Lyric production could include a third or fourth generation descendent of the team that founded the theater 61 years ago. But as much as 40 percent of any Lyric show, including those backstage and working the house, will be walking by the footlights for the very first time. Taking an active role in the theater, particularly for young people, board members say, can lead to increased ability in public speaking, greater physical coordination from dancing, or even just confidence built by fostering a sense of play and creativity in everyday life.

“I was in New York City going to acting school on Sept. 11, [2001],” said “Annie” director David Surkin. “My acting teacher told us, we do this because the world is so tough. When we do theater we make art and when we do that we create a special kind of beauty and that is what challenges us in the world.”

With that in mind, Lyric has changed its mission somewhat in recent years, partly in response to the economic crash, partly to fight a post-modern cultural malaise.

“For us, it’s become more about reaching out to the community and becoming a theater for the community instead of a community theater,” said Green. “It’s about fostering a sense of art in children and their families and their extended families, and trying to spread that throughout the community. It’s a challenging time, but it’s a really exciting time.”

And that’s what makes a show like “Annie” so important, because, as assistant director Sean St. Louis-Farrelly said, “It’s the perfect kids show.”

But that attempt to reach out to young people comes with a special sense of responsibility.

“This is the foundation of theater,” said Surkin, “This is where kids get their start. Every girl that’s on Broadway right now was ‘Annie’ at some point in her life, in community theater or in a small theater in some town.

“This can be the first theater-going experience for a lot of children, either in the cast or in the audience,” he said. “So, the responsibility is so much greater in a show like this, in terms of the art of theater. Their entire theater life will hinge on this one production.”

“It’s very important to create a positive, hard-working environment. That allows us to turn out a great product on a very small budget,” said Green. “It’s all about passion.”

And, of course, it’s also about family.

For Grave?l, it was “agony” having to stand outside the audition door while her little girl marched in on her own, to sing and dance, and pretend to be an orphan.

“She did a great job today,” said Grave?l, afterward. “I was really proud of her.”

Foss’ competition ran the gamut, from 10-year-old Summer Lee Bowns of South Portland, a veteran of stage productions who practices her singing in the car and has won awards performing “Annie,” to Paige Long, 9, who caught a bit of the show-biz bug from her older sister, but “just wants to have fun, not a career” and said, energetically, that if she doesn’t get a part in this show, she’ll “just try out again.”

Good advice, said Grave?l.

“I’ve tried to encourage Ellie to be prepared for whatever happens,” she said. “I’ve prepared her probably more than most kids are prepared for the fact that she might not get in, because that’s the reality of the situation. I told her to just have a good time and do your best.”

But, as much as Lyric hopes to touch kids with “Annie,” inspiration also works in reverse.

Meagan Thornton, 8, of Scarborough, is the veteran in her family, having performed with the Biddeford City Theater, the STAGES Performing Arts Academy for Kids and in Waynflete Camp productions. She also sings regularly with an all-girls chorus. Her older sister, Shaelyn, 10, also performs. But her mom, Kristine Dorer, hasn’t been on stage since taking a turn in her senior play 30 years ago.

“Since the kids have got into it a little bit, I got a little bit inspired,” she said. “The director said come on by, so I grabbed a piece of music and totally winged it. We’ll see how it goes, but just trying out was fun.”

“If both my mom and my sister get in the show with me, that would be really exciting,” said Thornton. “That would be so good.”

Parts have been cast and players are being notified this week. The show opens Dec. 6.

At the Sept. 7 tryouts for “Annie,” the second show of the upcoming 61st season at South Portland’s Lyric Music Theater, choreographer Celeste Green leads a group of young hopefuls from across southern Maine through a few dance steps to test their coordination. Following along are, from left, Elsie Maxwell, 6, Sophie Lean, 7, and Cathryn Sullivan, 9, while behind Green are Ellie Foss, 7, and Ryan Phipps, trying out for the part as Sandy the dog.Following tryouts Sept. 7, the team behind Lyric Music Theater’s upcoming production of “Annie,” including, from left, choreographer Celeste Green, director David Surkin and assistant director Sean St. Louis-Farrelly, works to winnow a field of nearly 40 young actors, aged 6 to 14, down to the 12 juvenile parts, including the eponymous lead, to be cast in the show.