‘You do this for the love of theater,’ says a homemaker playing a gangster’s girlfriend.

After working all day at a variety of jobs, members of the Manhattan Beach Community Church spend their nights having fun with theater.

With an eye on tonight’s opening of the ‘30s musical “Anything Goes,” the 40 cast members began rehearsing five nights a week in March to polish the singing, tap-dancing and acting that goes into the shipboard comedy sparkling with classic Cole Porter tunes.

And if that weren’t enough, some of them scoured secondhand stores for costumes or joined in building the handsome ocean liner set in which the orchestra occupies the top deck.

“Sweet poison” is how the musical’s director, Lyn Coulter, describes the church’s venture into community theater, where folks with professional experience mingle with the likes of teachers, homemakers and aerospace engineers in putting on at least two shows a year.

“The creative instinct of all of us is involved,” said Coulter, an insurance agent who calls herself an “old song-and-dance girl” because of stage appearances she made as a teen-ager. “It’s a chance to get away from everyday life and put on some sequins.”

The church, which is affiliated with the United Church of Christ, began doing theater 41 years ago when two church members, one a writer and the other a musician, started staging original plays.

Over the years, the home-grown works were replaced by shows with Broadway pedigrees that are presented in the 300-seat Community Hall Theater. They have included musicals such as “The Sound of Music” and “Guys and Dolls,” as well as “You Can’t Take It With You” and other plays. The church quaintly labels these non-musicals “talkies.”

While casting for the shows is open, leading roles go only to church members. And judging by the varying demands of “Anything Goes,” the church has more than enough professionals and other able people to draw on.

Kriss Light, who plays Reno Sweeney, the evangelist turned nightclub owner, works professionally as a country-Western singer.

Her real-life husband is Tom Killam, who several years ago performed with the Los Angeles Free Shakespeare Festival and did TV comedies. In “Anything Goes,” he’s Billy Crocker, who finds himself in trouble after being mistaken for public enemy No. 1.

Pat Edwards, who plays the girl Billy is in love with, has sung with the Roger Wagner Chorale and is a member of the Jane Hardester Singers at El Camino College.

“Years ago, I tried to make living as an actor,” said Killam, who is a general contractor. “But then I got married, had children and needed a regular paycheck.”

Killam said it was the church production of “No Time for Sergeants” that got him back into theater two years ago. “I had a ball,” he said.

“You do this for the love of theater,” said Lois Bourgon, a homemaker and one-time nightclub singer and dancer who has the showy role of a gangster’s girlfriend in “Anything Goes.”

But not everyone comes with a resume that includes professional work. A chorus of sailors includes two engineers, an astronomer and a stockbroker.

Killam said: “It’s amazing how many talented people there are around this church.”

What: “Anything Goes.”

Where: Manhattan Beach Community Church, 303 S. Peck Ave., Manhattan Beach.

When: Today, Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 7:30 p.m.; Thursday, 7:30 p.m.; next April 14 and April 15, 8 p.m.

Admission: $8, adults; $5, seniors, students and children.

Information: 318-2894; 372-3587.