You've got to be low on marbles to keep a traveling English-language theater company on the road for over 20 years in this country. That could explain why the Light Opera Group of the Negev (LOGON) rehearses at premises provided by the Beersheba Psychiatric Hospital. "Yes, there have been a few jokes doing the rounds about that," admits Bob Gilmour with a smile.

"But, we are very appreciative of the place and the fact that the hospital director allows us to rehearse here free of charge." Gilmour is the producer of this year's LOGON show, Meredith Willson's musical The Music Man, and has been with the company since 1989. British-born Gilmour was a spectating resident of Haifa when he first encountered the merry bunch of traveling troubadours from the Deep South. "I used to go to their shows when they came North," he recalls.

"They used to do Gilbert and Sullivan - I'm crazy about them. When I got the chance to relocate to Beersheba, LOGON was the first thing I looked for in my leisure time." Keeping a non-profit amateur venture like LOGON afloat for 21 years requires - at the very least - dogged determination, a well-developed sense of humor and a willingness to "muck in." Director and choreographer Rosa Howden displays all of the above traits, along with not a little natural talent and professional training. Howden's initial foray into the arts world was somewhat inauspicious.

"I was literally dragged screaming to my first ballet class when I was seven years old," she laughs. "I wanted to go to a friend's house instead." Evidently, Howden recovered from her initial trauma and has been a dedicated thespian, dancer, choreographer and director ever since. "I remember all these little girls dancing in a circle and that was it.

I was hooked." Imaginary childhood choreography sessions were followed, several years later, by formal drama and dance studies at London's Arts Educational College, and Howden the young dreamer became a fully-fledged professional. However, despite chalking up years of acting, dancing and singing in dramas,

classical dance shows, musicals and all entertainment points betwixt, Howden's directorial debut took place only last year when she oversaw LOGON's production of Carousel. "The first time was a bit daunting but I feel very much in control now," she says.

"I have developed the ability to be in control of everything even if I can't see it all." IF YOU'RE going to try to run a theater company with very little funding it helps to have a close-knit and supportive team around you. LOGON is very much a family- and-friends operation with Howden's husband Stephen filling the leading role in The Music Man and their daughter Victoria also on board in an acting role. Mind you, mixing extracurricular activities with home life can sometimes be a bit taxing on domestic harmony.

"Last year we almost had the whole family, with two of our three children involved in the production, and that sometimes got a bit much," says the leading man. "We have tried to keep LOGON out of the home this year - it can get a bit intense with all these artistic temperaments." In fact, the troupe's familial ambiance spreads beyond the Howden household. "For me there's a wonderful, family, team feeling between everyone," says Stephen.

"Everybody pulls together and you get to know people so well. We've made so many friends through LOGON." The Howdens became involved in LOGON purely by chance. Currently residents of Ashkelon, in 1997 the then-Jerusalemites agreed to speak about their thespian experiences at a meeting of the British Olim Society as a last-minute replacement.

They devoted most of their address to anecdotes about their past roles in the musical Oklahoma!. As luck would have it, Bob and Frieda Gilmour were in the audience that evening and the LOGON gang was just getting ready for their next production A meeting in Beersheba between the Howdens and some of the other members of the troupe was arranged soon after and the rest, as they say, is history. Actually, it wouldn't be quite accurate to describe LOGON as an "amateur theatrical company." Both Howdens gained professional experience in

Britain and here, with Stephen making his acting debut at the age of 16: "I did make some sort of a living out of acting for a while, a very meager one," he laughs.

The musical arranging and conducting is taken care of by David Waldman, a graduate of the Royal College of Music in London who runs his own recording studio.

Despite the presence of professionals and semi-professionals in the group, everyone gets a chance to strut their stuff. "Of course it helps to have people with training and experience in the group but we don't necessarily build a show around them," producer Gilmour explains.

"It just evolves. In this show there are quite a few people with small parts so you get a kind of group enjoyment." So, with spacious facilities readily available at the psychiatric hospital and a certain amount of funding provided by the Ministry of Culture, the Beersheba Municipality and a handful of philanthropists one might have thought that LOGON was set to run deep into the third millennium. But, although the company appears to be in the pink - and thankfully not in the red - there are a couple of question marks over the long-term future.

"It's very difficult to find younger people to join in," says Gilmour. "Generally, people between the ages of university and their 40s are either studying or bringing up a family so it's very difficult to find that age group. We have a few, but not enough." There might be a problem recruiting the in-between generation but, it seems, children are perfectly happy to muck in with the rest of the gang.

There are a dozen youngsters in The Music Man, including 12-year-old Gal Ya'acov, who shares the role of Winthrop Paroo with Gal Lifshitz. Ya'acov is something of a seasoned performer, having already appeared in last year's production of Carousel. While the grown-ups might find it difficult to shuttle up and down the country for performances while keeping their daytime jobs going, for Ya'acov, it's an adventure.

"I enjoy it very much," says the rising star. "Alan [Cohen] brings a guitar with him and we sing Beatles songs on the bus. "I love the way the

people act and sing.

They're very good." Ya'acov says he isn't sure if he'll be available for next year's production. "I'll be in the eighth grade next year and I'm not sure I'll have time for LOGON." Ed Spitz plans to be around for next year's show, as he has been for the last 21 years. Spitz admits to harboring ulterior motives for helping to found LOGON in 1980.

"When I was in college in New York I sang in a community Gilbert and Sullivan group," he recalls. "We did Trial by Jury and I was foreman of the jury and I

always wanted to play the judge. The husband of the director played the judge, so I didn't have much of a chance." Spitz had an opportunity to realize his dream when he moved to Omer, just outside Beersheba, in 1977.

The finishing touches were just being put to the local cultural center and, in 1981, Spitz and some friends managed to put on Trial by Jury there as the second half of a program which also included a performance of some Hebrew songs. LOGON's present musical arranger and conductor Waldman was the conductor of the Hebrew half of the evening's entertainment. For the next 15 years, other than in 1982, LOGON always provided a staple diet of Gilbert and Sullivan.

In 1996 the group decided to try its hand at Broadway musicals and put on Fiddler on the Roof to packed audiences up and down the country. The director that year was The Jerusalem Post's arts writer Helen Kaye. "We had better ticket sales with the musicals and, after 15 years of Gilbert and Sullivan, it was good to have a change," Spitz recalls.

"There's less singing in musicals than operettas so people have the chance to say a few lines and get some of the spotlight as well." While Spitz admits the group has had its fair share of crisis moments, when the future looked uncertain, he feels LOGON is now here to stay. "Now we are, more or less, an institution. Twenty years is a pretty long time." LOGON will perform The Music Man in Beersheba on February 19, and March 21-22; in Haifa on February 21, Givatayim February 26; Netanya March 1; Jerusalem March 5; Kfar Sava March 15.