The Grand, Ellsworth’s Main Street cultural center with its art deco marquee, was the recent scene of a memorable tribute to its longtime director of community musicals.

With Mr. Stack sitting in front row center, 37 citizen performers of musical productions of the past 17 years honored him with songs and skits drawn from shows dating back to “South Pacific” and “Oklahoma!” and extending up to the more recent “Full Monty,” a farce about blue-collar factory workers turned strippers that was one of the most popular in the history of the old former movie house.

Some came from afar, including Ben Lehman, who starred in several shows and now lives in Boston but misses Ellsworth, including the stage where he stood out as Jubilation T. Cornpone in “Li’l Abner.”

The songs were old favorites like “There is Nothing Like a Dame,” “Get Me to the Church on Time,” “I’m Going to Wash that Man Right Outta My Hair,” “Some Enchanted Evening,” “Bali Ha’i” and, of course, “Oh, What a Beautiful Morning.”

Someone had put together a screened series of scenes from past musicals, with conversations by the singers who had appeared in them. But the biggest treat was the singing directed by Bob Bahr, the former executive director and frequent music director at the Grand, at the piano. The evening ended when Mr. Stack was coaxed on to the stage for a standing ovation and the presentation of a huge cake.

After a long and demanding career as director at the Grand, owner and operator of the Acadia Repertory Theatre on Mount Desert Island, director of shows at the Bangor Community Theatre, and 11 appearances as Ebenezer Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol” at the Penobscot Theatre Company in Bangor, he has turned to a regular job as a full-time teacher at Husson College and the New England School of Communications in Bangor.

Besides honoring Mr. Stack, the evening raised about $2,500 toward a new curtain for the Grand’s stage.

Mr. Stack is far from finished with what he likes to call the “second oldest profession.” He told the Bangor Daily News: “Theater is what I do. This is who I am. I’m not a bad teacher, but what I do best is putting plays on the boards.”