For the love of theater; Show business is the business for Smith family.

Byline: Margaret LeRoux

Dan Smith jokes that he used to be the black sheep of the family, the son who didn't join the family business. His parents are Marc and Susan Smith, founders of Worcester's Foothills Theatre Company, so that means show business. Unlike his brother Joe who majored in drama at Syracuse University and acted in Foothills productions, Dan graduated from Northeastern University with a business degree and went to work for Paul Revere Insurance Co. as a medical underwriter.

But the performance gene is dominant in the Smith family. Though he scrutinized insurance policies during the day, Dan was performing stand-up comedy at night and on weekends. After he won first place in the HBO-sponsored "Funniest Comedian in Boston" competition, Dan lied to his boss and said there was a family emergency so he could fly out to Los Angeles to tape his act. By the time he returned to Worcester, Dan gave in to the inevitable and left the corporate world for comedy.

"When I told my parents, they were elated," he said. "My grandmother cried. She thought because I had a job in insurance, I'd be the only one in the family who wouldn't be destitute someday."

In the 12 years since, Dan's life has been rich in experiences - he's been overseas 15 times entertaining U.S. soldiers - and he's not so bad off financially, either. Earlier this year he launched his own comedy touring company and released a DVD.

His brother has achieved his own style of show business success. Besides Foothills, Joe Smith's theater credentials include roles in "Shear Madness" and other regional productions. He appeared in the movie "Princess Diaries 2" and can be seen in commercials for Verizon Wireless, Hertz and Ford Focus. He's cultivated a niche in the voice-over market, recording spots for companies from Cumberland Farms to McDonald's. Joe created, wrote and produced a parody, "Irrational Public Radio," recently released on CD.

Their mother, Susan, is very proud, both as a parent and as the marketing half of the Smith family enterprise. While her husband Marc produces, directs and performs, Susan is behind the scenes, pitching story ideas to the media and developing audiences. From her example, Dan and Joe learned the importance of the business aspects of show business.

"My mother encouraged us to take charge of our careers," Joe said. "I learned to follow up and make connections."

Dan adds that he "got some of my marketing prowess from my mom."

Growing up in the theater, the brothers say they also learned to be comfortable with uncertainty.

"We realize now that encouraging your children to go into the corporate world for job security is no longer valid," Marc said. "Right after Dan left Paul Revere for comedy his supposedly secure job disappeared when UnumProvident acquired the company. So you might as well channel your energy into something you love."

Uncertainty aside, it was love of the theater that led Marc and Susan to uproot their young family and move from New York City to Worcester in 1972. Marc had been offered a job running a summer theater in Atwood Hall on the campus of Clark University. Two years later the fledgling Foothills Theatre Company, the city's first full-time professional theater company, moved to its own quarters on Chatham Street.

From then on, Foothills was a family affair for the Smiths. While their parents worked, Dan and Joe played in the prop room and watched rehearsals from the back of the theater.

"The theater was our life; there was no reason not to fold the boys into it, too," Marc said.

To his sons, Foothills "was the perfect inanimate baby sitter," Dan said. "The prop room had a full-size phone booth, suits of armor and costumes."

"We were there every day," Joe adds. "Mom would let us have one healthy snack and one sweet snack from the concession stand."

On weekends, the Smith family served dinner to the actors between the matinee and evening performances. "We'd eat with people who were in full makeup but wearing jeans," Joe said. "Theater wasn't magical to us, it was just what our parents did."

And continue to do.

Even though Marc retired from Foothills eight years ago, he founded another company, Blue Pumpkin Productions. He wrote a play about the anti-Nazi resistance in Germany, "A Journey to Kreisau," which just made its U.S. debut in Worcester.

Susan teaches a course on audience development, event planning and promotion at Clark University's COPACE division and supervises interns in the master's degree programs in professional communications and public administration. She's still the marketing engine behind Marc's productions.

"Everything we've been through, we've done as a team. We fill complementary roles," Marc says.

Dan and Joe are both based in Los Angeles, though Dan's comedy touring company has him all over the map. In recent months he entertained troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bahrain and Djibouti.

"We've each found our own niche, but we have a common language," Joe explains. When the family gets together for a visit, the shoptalk is often a mixture of theater and business lingo. Sometimes the terminology creeps into other contexts.

"When we talk to our parents about performances, they always ask, `How was the house?' meaning how was the audience - how big was it, how did they react and so on," Joe said. "But sometimes they forget and it slips out in other contexts. Like when I told them about a family wedding they hadn't been able to attend, their first question was, `How was the house?'"

ART: PHOTOS

CUTLINE: (1) Marc and Susan Smith in their kitchen with son Dan; (2) opposite page, son, Joe, photographed in the bedroom he had growing up. Both sons have followed in their parent's footsteps and are at home on the stage. (3) This page: Marc and Susan Smith, founders of Foothills Theatre Company, through the years. After the couple retired from Foothills, they founded Blue Pumpkin Productions. (4, 5) Top row left and bottom row right, Joe Smith performs in "Fully Committed"; (6) top row right, Joe in "Gonzo Night School"; (7) below, Marc Smith on the Foothills stage before the start of the 25th anniversary season; (8) third row, Susan Smith; (9, 10) third row right, Dan Smith entertains troops in Kyrgysztan and, bottom row left, in Saudi Arabia.

PHOTOG: (1, 2) PHOTOGRAPHY/TOM RETTIG (3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) PHOTOS/ TELEGRAM & GAZETTE AND COURTESY OF THE SMITH FAMILY