At Moxie Theatre ^[2], Delicia Turner Sonnenberg has the lofty title of artistic director. But she’s not above getting her hands dirty.

“When we have a new show, I don’t hire a crew — I work with a hammer, staple puller and nail gun,” says the administrator who also stages productions and even sells tickets. “Our whole staff works on everything. We do whatever is needed.”

On a modest annual budget of $100,000, Moxie fulfills its mission to create “more honest and diverse female images for our culture” by presenting what the company calls “kick-ass chick plays.”

In so doing, the four-year-old troupe is true to its name, which means energy, courage, determination and know-how. Moxie even received the prestigious honor of being selected as the La Jolla Playhouse’s 2009-2010 resident theater company.

Yet this isn’t the only local group with moxie.

Despite the challenging economy, the can-do spirit is flourishing in San Diego, one of the leading theater cities in the nation. Not only has San Diego produced a slew of Tony winners, it also sends the most shows to Broadway.

In response to the cash crunch, many companies are trimming budgets, recycling sets and costumes and doing everything they can to attract donors and ticket buyers. As they seek to balance their budgets, they remain devoted to the qualities that help distinguish the local arts scene in general, and theater in particular.

As mayor Jerry Sanders recently pointed out: “San Diego carries on, ensuring, in the finest tradition of theater, that the show must - and will - go on.”

To Sam Woodhouse, artistic director and co-founder of San Diego Repertory Theatre ^[3], San Diego area theater has what it takes to survive hard times.

“A theater scene is created by two things: passionate theater artists and a hungry and enlightened audience. We’re blessed with both,” he says. “People commit their lives to theater. That’s essential to the vitality.”

Adds SDNN theater critic Pat Launer: “There’s undaunted exuberance. People believe in theater and believe that it makes a difference in how we see ourselves as human beings, both in good times and bad.”

According to the San Diego Performing Arts League, the area is home to approximately 75 theater companies. In terms of the sheer number of groups, theater is the largest local performing arts genre, far surpassing dance and classical music/opera.

Related stories:

San Diego’s State of the Arts: Dance ^[4]

San Diego’s State of the Arts: Visual arts ^[5]

San Diego’s State of the Arts: Classical music/opera ^[6]

San Diego theater also has a national reputation, thanks to the success of Broadway shows that were nurtured here.

The long list includes “Dr. Seuss’ How The Grinch Stole Christmas!”, “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” and “The Full Monty,” care of the Old Globe Theatre ^[7], and “Jersey Boys,” “The Who’s Tommy” and “Big River,” from the La Jolla Playhouse ^[8].

The Playhouse’s enthusiastically received 2008 musical, “Memphis,” will move to Broadway this October, staged by artistic director Christopher Ashley, who also directed the Playhouse production. And the world premiere of the musical “Bonnie & Clyde” will be presented here in November as part of the 2009-10 season ^[9].

So never mind the dip in donations and salary and hiring freeze. The Playhouse, whose roots stretch back to 1947, continues to experiment with the kind of imaginative productions that audiences have come to expect.

Consider “Your Life, Our Stage,” ^[10] the Playhouse’s Internet-based, autobiographical project with the social media marketing company Brickfish. The idea is to invite people to submit ideas for a play based on their life. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Doug Wright will turn the winning entry into a short play, to be presented by professional actors at the Mandell Weiss Theatre.

Plans are also percolating at the Globe, which commemorates its 75^th anniversary next year. The institution has trimmed its budget without diminishing its artistic muscle.

Anticipation is building for “The First Wives Club,” the new, Broadway-bound musical based on the popular movie and book. It opens here in July as part of the Globe’s 2009 Summer Season, which includes the long-revered Shakespeare Festival.

And December marks the opening of the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, site of a state-of-the-art, arena-style theater, an education center and more.

“This incredible re-imagining of our facilities is coming to fruition and will help us ensure the long-term vitality of the Globe,” executive producer Lou Spisto has said.

What helps make San Diego’s theater scene so robust is that each company has its own purpose, its own sense of self.

San Diego Rep’s mission is to produce “intimate, exotic, provocative theater. We promote a more inclusive community through vivid works that nourish progressive political and social values and celebrate the multiple voices of our region. San Diego Repertory Theatre feeds the curious soul.”

No one characterizes that quest more passionately than Woodhouse, the director, producer, actor and administrator who considers himself “insatiably curious.”

Woodhouse says that he and his Rep colleagues “spend a lot of time thinking about what makes us unique.” They find answers in gutsy productions of such works as Brecht’s “The Threepenny Opera,” which Woodhouse directed earlier this year. It did so well at the box office that ticket revenue projections were exceeded by 50%.

Because of financial challenges, the company will focus on smaller productions with fewer performers during the Rep’s 34^th season, which opens in September at downtown’s Lyceum Space.

“A three-character play can be just as powerful as a 12-character play if the production values are smart and sophisticated,” says Woodhouse.

He’ll take an acting role for the first time in four years, portraying the sinister Mr. Lockhart in Conor McPherson’s “The Seafarer.” And he’ll serve as the director for “boom,” which is billed as a “cataclysmic comedy.”

While The Globe, Playhouse and San Diego Rep are the most celebrated local theater institutions, the big magnet for musicals is Broadway/San Diego ^[13]. As the major importer of touring shows, with performances at downtown’s Civic Theatre and the Balboa Theatre, the organization usually presents eight productions during its September-through-August season.

Among the many upcoming attractions are the mega-hits “Wicked” and “The Lion King” as well as the 2008 Tony-winning musical, “In the Heights.”

“We’re broad-based in terms of appeal,” says general manager Diane Willcox. “We consider ourselves entry-point theater. We hope that we’re an opportunity for people to discover theater for the first time.

“They come to see one of our shows and that may lead to more theater- going,” she adds. “They might attend The Globe, Playhouse or Rep, or go to other companies.”

Though Broadway/San Diego’s ticket sales declined last year, due to a shortage of mega-musicals and first-run tours, tickets were recently up 30% over the same time last year. Part of the reason is the appeal of the featured productions.

Another factor is that patrons can choose their own three-show subscription packages — a marketing tactic that’s new to Broadway/San Diego.

“It has worked really well,” says Willcox. “People know what they want and they’re not willing to compromise because their dollars are precious. They want entertainment on their own terms.”

There are dozens of other groups that span the dramatic spectrum, creating a diversity that is nothing short of remarkable. They include Lamb’s Players Theatre ^[15] and Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company ^[16] as well as ion theatre company ^[17], to name only a few.

Cygnet Theatre Company ^[18] was named for a baby swan and has matured beautifully under the nurturing guidance of Sean Murray ^[19]. Its ambition and versatility are reflected in the 2009-10 lineup, which ranges from Noel Coward’s “Private Lives” to August Wilson’s “The Piano Lesson.”

Yet some companies are doing better than others. While Moonlight Stage Productions ^[20]plans to present its 29^th season at its new Stage House, starting in July, Starlight Theatre ^[21] nearly faded away due to financial troubles and was only saved by an emergency fundraising appeal.

Given the troubled economy, you might assume that the atmosphere has been tainted by competitiveness. But that doesn’t appear to be the case.

“There’s a cooperative spirit among the theaters in town,” says veteran critic Anne Marie Welsh. “When people talk about the theater community, that’s really true. They’re competing for dollars and good reviews. But people are generous with one another. Good things happen.”

Just ask the staff at Moxie.

“We make five dollars work like 20,” says Sonnenberg, who founded the company with fellow theater professionals Jo Anne Glover, Liv Kellgren, and Jennifer Eve Thorn. “Other theaters have been very generous to us.”

Moxie has borrowed stage platforming from San Diego Rep, a stage curtain from New Village Arts Theatre ^[22] and props from Diversionary Theatre ^[23], which has rented its University Heights theater space to Moxie and supplies valuable advice.

Now in its 23^rd year, Diversionary is the country’s third oldest LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) theater company.

“Our audience is loyal — that’s one of the strengths we have,” says executive director/artistic director Dan Kirsch, noting that while subscriptions rose 11 percent this season, the current budget has been cut nearly 10%, due to financial pressures.

“People want good theater,” he adds. “They want companies to succeed. And because San Diego has such a big pool of actors, directors and designers, it makes it easier to do challenging productions.”

Lamb’s Players needn’t go far to find such talent. Rather than rely heavily on outsiders, the Coronado-based institution is an ensemble theater that has a full-time roster of about 20 actors, playwrights, directors and designers in addition to other staff members.

“We’re a group of artists who determine the direction of the company,” says producing artistic director Robert Smyth, who has worked at Lamb’s for 32 of the company’s 38 years.

Lamb’s is in the enviable position of having not one but two theaters. In addition to its historic Coronado home base, where march king John Philip Sousa once performed, the company produces long-running shows at the Gaslamp Quarter’s Horton Grand Theatre. The most recent: Mike Buckley’s comedy “The Hit,” the hit of Lamb’s 2007-08 season, which closes its engagement June 14.

“This theater is the second engine we needed,” Smyth says of the Horton Grand. “We were always using other spaces around town. We really needed something we could control.”

At the same time, Lamb’s is keeping a tight rein on spending. The annual budget was reduced by 10%, to $4.5 million. There’s a hiring freeze and nobody’s expecting a salary increase any time soon.

The frugal outlook also affects sets and costumes. The preferred method is to make do rather than make new. Instead of installing a slat wood floor onstage, the floor is more likely to be painted so that it looks like wood.

Freshening up a gown can be as simple as putting on a different set of bows. That’s what happened to the dress that was seen in the 2003 production of “1776″ and was recently recycled for the comedy “Room Service,” in Coronado.

While Smyth approves of such cost-cutting measures, he doesn’t favor layoffs.

“The easiest way to save money is to cut labor,” he says. “But for the heart of a company it makes no sense. Those people are so valuable.”

He’s right, of course. The work being done at Lamb’s — and at dozens of other local organizations — is what makes San Diego a vibrant theater hive, alive with artistry.

Valerie Scher is the SDNN Arts & Entertainment editor. You can reach her at valerie.scher(at)sdnn.com