During his theater career, John Viars has directed nearly 200 plays, 160 of them at the Des Moines Playhouse, where he is in the middle of his 24th season as executive director. With Viars at the helm, the Playhouse has gone from three-person staff with 1,200 subscribers and a $180,000 budget to an operation with 12 full-time staff members, about 4,000 subscribers, a children’s theater and a $2.8 million budget in the 2004-2005 season, with even bigger plans for the coming years. Despite his worldwide travels, “I haven’t seen anything as good as what we do right here with our talent,” Viars said. Though his job is usually a 14-hour-a-day, 7-day-a-week commitment, he enjoys cycling, reading – his book club discusses serious works such as David McCullough’s “John Adams” and “It Can’t Happen Here” by Sinclair Lewis – and writing, even dreaming of one day writing the great American novel.

What sparked your interest in theater?

I did some minor things in high school – a couple of shows – but I had no intention of going into theater. I went to college for a chemistry degree and was there about two days and realized, “Boy, this I don’t like.” I was able to transfer majors over to the liberal arts side and stumbled onto theater.

What was the experience like of being on stage?

I used to have terrible stage fright. And really what I remember about it is waiting to go on stage and thinking, “Nothing that happens out there can justify the way I feel right now.” So I gave it up as soon as I could. A lot of my colleagues come into these theater jobs and set it up so they can go on stage at a moment’s notice if somebody is sick or has to leave the production. I always made it clear from the beginning that I will not act on stage.

What do you enjoy about directing?

You get to shape the artistic message of a play. I suppose it’s heaven for a control freak to be a director, and I fully admit that that’s who I am and I’ve gone through all the counseling and come to terms with it.

Of the nearly 200 productions you’ve directed throughout your career, what are your favorites?

I like all of them really. I have a couple unfavorite ones. One was “Sherlock Holmes,” which is one of the worst shows I’ve ever seen, and I directed it. We had good people in it and they were trying very hard, but the concept didn’t work and it’s a long show and they talk a lot in it. That was in the mid-80s, and I always judge everything on, “Is it as bad as ‘Sherlock Holmes’?” I haven’t found anything yet. I love “Cabaret,” I love “Chicago.” It really is the show that I’m working on, but in the fall we finished a production of “Masterclass” that I think is some of the best work we’ve done at the Playhouse.

Why have you made your career in community theater?

There’s a devotion to it and a passion that the people bring to it that you don’t get very often in professional theater. This isn’t just a job for the people involved. It’s something they give a tremendous amount of time and effort to because it gives them a satisfaction and so they’re highly invested in little things. They become so passionate about it, and it becomes so important to them, that there’s an energy and commitment that’s energizing to me.

Have there been any disastrous moments during your tenure at the Playhouse?

There have been some terrible moments. There were some things we did that we deemed a success because nobody died and we weren’t sued.

Have you been able to travel extensively to experience community theater in other states and countries?

With the American Association of Community Theatre, I did a lot of adjudicating with various state, regional and national festivals. In 1989, I was lucky enough to go to Monaco to see the international festival there, which included about 15 plays from all over Europe. Some years we’ve done seven New York theater tours in one season, and I do all of them. So I see just about everything on Broadway and a lot of off-Broadway stuff. And I got to see a lot of theater in London.

What are some of your favorite selections from your book club in the past year?

“Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare,” was certainly one of them. We read a book called “Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books,” which is about the repressive regime in Tehran and how some people were trying to work around it in terms of censorship. We read a book on John Adams, which was wonderful. My book is up next – “Andrew Jackson: His Life and Times.” The book club reads some pretty heavy stuff – a lot of history, a lot of military, a lot of sociology. I love reading historical fact, and it generates some lively discussions.

Have you ever considered writing a play?

I like to write, and a few years ago I took some creative writing classes at Drake and was able to crank out what was necessary for the classes. I loved that, but I’m trying to force myself back into it. I like short stories and I’m trying to think of novel-length (topics). Interestingly enough, I’m not interested in writing plays at the moment. I would adapt things, but I do like narrative better than plays. (Writing plays) just doesn’t feel like it would be as rewarding to me as writing fiction.

Would you eventually like to write a novel?

Oh, yeah. And it’s my problem; it’s not the job that keeps me from doing it. There are some people who have turned regular lives into literary lives. They create the time to do it. Ted Kooser, a Pulitzer Prize winner and the poet laureate for the United States for the second year in a row, was an insurance executive who wrote the bulk of his poetic works over a 20-year period from 5 to 7 every morning before going to work. So it’s possible.