Robidoux Resident Theatre plans on giving St. Joseph entertainment lovers one more reason to cheer.

The community theater group announced for its 30th anniversary season that it will debut The Bravo Series, a new performing arts series that adds three performances to the 2009-2010 season.

And believe it or not, the series may not even exist if it wasn’t for Ron White.

When the “Blue Collar” comedian performed two sold-out performances at the Missouri Theater back in October, Jeff Haney, business manager for RRT, couldn’t help but notice something about the crowd.

“Most of the people that came to Ron White had never been inside the Missouri Theater. Ever,” Mr. Haney said.

So RRT decided to create a new series that would bring in touring productions that would be a minimal cost for RRT to produce, while still being popular or recognizable enough to lure in theatergoers as well as an entirely new audience.

“It is a different type of theater than we’d normally do,” Mr. Haney said. “We wanted to make sure nothing competed with us.”

The first show in The Bravo Series will feature The Glenn Miller Orchestra on Sept. 29, followed by “Rave On! The Buddy Holly Story: A Musical Revue Starring Billy McGuigan” on Nov. 6. The third and final show in the series will be the one-woman comedy production, “Late Night Catechism,” on Nov. 15, an interactive show that features a Catholic figure that the city seems to love.

“The nun seems to be a funny frickin’ character in St. Joe,” Mr. Haney said, referencing the numerous “Nunsense” musical productions that have been performed in St. Joseph over the past few years.

Mr. Haney said The Bravo Series has a lineup that will help bring back older theater patrons and hopefully grow the audience that attends RRT productions.

“I think it just became the hip thing in grant writing to talk about what you are doing to be a little more hip. What they found was that, yeah, you may have gotten a little more grant money, but you have lost a huge segment of your audience in the process,” he said. “If you look at our entire season, it is a hugely diverse season that should include everyone in our entire community.”

Tickets for The Bravo Series go on sale July 1, and RRT season ticket members will receive an additional 10 percent off a Bravo Series season ticket. For more information, contact RRT at 232-1778 or go to www.rrtstjoe.org.

Blake Hannon can be reached at blakehannon@npgco.com.