The 2000’s saw a large increase in the number of shows and venues the group used to present its seasons. 2001 saw Theatre IV return to All Saints Episcopal Church for our first dinner theatre production Greater Tuna and a number of subsequent productions. Portions of the 2003-04 and 2004-05 seasons were produced at the theatre at Barnes and Noble Booksellers in West Bloomfield with a number of straight shows including The Petrified Forest and Dracula.

2003 also included one of Theatre IV’s most ambitious projects. In cooperation with The City of Sylvan Lake, we produced four years of Shakespeare during the summer with “Shake at the Lake”. Beginning with A Midsummer Night’s Dream in 2003 through The Complete Works of William Shakespeare…Abridged in 2006; seven different productions were presented outdoors at Sylvan Lake. Some of the shows were also produced at the Starlight Theatre in the Summit Place Mall.

The number of productions continued to grow until the 2006-07, when nine shows were produced, and 2007-08, when seven shows were produced. After those years, the number of productions was returned to four or five per season. Other productions presented during the 2000’s have included musicals L’il Abner, Scrooge, Spamalot, Into the Woods, and The Producers; children’s shows Young Jane Eyre and Pinocchio, Our Only May Amelia, and Disney’s The Jungle Book Kids (with Lakeland Players) and straight shows The Diary of Anne Frank and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Foreigner, Aye Do, Steel Magnolias and The Crucible.

2008 also saw Theatre IV begin a yearly review with our 40th anniversary show 40 By IV. 40 By IV was a special show for Theatre IV, many members from seasons past returned to reprise songs they had performed in earlier productions. Founding member and early group President Lyn Holiss even returned to Theatre IV from his retirement in Tennessee to perform songs he had done in our shows dating back to 1971. This review, presented as a dinner theater, was such a success, we have continued a yearly review through 2016’s production Aspects of Love.