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Did you see Albuquerque's Neil Patrick Harris on the telecast of the Tony Awards?

Harris, who, by the way, turns 34 today, has acted in TV ("Doogie Howser, M.D.," "How I Met Your Mother"), movies ("Clara's Heart") and on the Broadway stage ("Sweeney Todd," "Proof," "Cabaret").

Sunday night, on stage at New York's Radio City Music Hall, Harris talked about live theater and its importance - at every level - to performers and audiences.

As he spoke on national TV, I could not help remembering that Harris' own career was launched from the stages of Albuquerque community theater.

In 1988, the year before he started his four-year run on "Doogie Howser," Harris played the role of John in a production of "Peter Pan" staged by the old Albuquerque Civic Light Opera Association.

Today, the Albuquerque theater scene is more active than it has ever been. At least 33 groups are doing - or trying to do - theater in and around the city.

Ray Orley, a member of the fledgling Albuquerque Theater Guild's steering committee, said an informal survey suggests there is more theater per capita in Albuquerque than in any other U.S. city, except Cleveland.

"I'm astonished by how rich the theater scene is here," said Orley, who during the past seven years has appeared in productions on various stages around town. "It may not all be Olivier, but it's rich anyway."

Area theaters include deeply rooted organizations, such as the Albuquerque Little Theater, the Adobe Theater, the University of New Mexico's theater department and the Vortex Theater, and those of more recent vintage, such as Tricklock, Desert Rose, the Fusion Theater Company and Sol Arts.

Tonight, Sol Arts is celebrating its third anniversary in its space at 712 Central Ave. S.E. with food, music, song and a silent auction (admission $20). Other theaters, such as the Box and Auxiliary Dog, are just months old.

What all these theaters have in common - from the smallest black box to the largest room, from the most well established to the most freshly painted - is the challenge of selling enough tickets to keep the curtains going up.

"It's all about behinds on seats," said Michael Blum, co-artistic director of Teatro Nuevo Mexico, Albuquerque's bilingual theater company.

Blum, also a member of the Theater Guild's steering committee, thinks theater gets short shrift - such as not enough newspaper coverage - in Albuquerque.

"We are looking for something that can give us a little more clout," he said.

Which is where the Guild, born out of a January meeting of theater folks, comes into play.

By marshalling the forces of the Albuquerque theater community - estimated at 200 or more individuals - under the Guild's banner, Guild supporters hope to make a bigger impact.

"If you can combine efforts, you can work toward this common goal of making people excited about your art form," said Jessica Barkl, a Guild steering committee member as well as managing director and programming assistant at Albuquerque VSA North Fourth Arts Center.

One of the Guild's best ideas is establishing a Web site that will include a complete list of area theater productions; previews and reviews of shows; local theater news; r‚sum‚s; and photos of local talent, audition announcements, etc. Perhaps, at some point, patrons might even be able to buy tickets through the Guild Web site.

The site also would be an avenue of communication among theater companies, reducing the possibility of different companies doing the same play in the same or adjacent seasons.

Beyond the Web site, Guild supporters said, the alliance of theater companies presents the possibility of general auditions once or twice a year, going in together on advertising to minimize the financial burden on smaller companies, creating theater festivals, maybe even organizing a local theater awards show.

It sounds promising.

"But it has to be a cooperative group effort," Orley said. "It can't just be something five people are doing."

Plans call for dissolving the steering committee on July 21 and electing a Guild board of directors.

After that, the hope is that, if the stage community pulls together, more audience members will start taking advantage of the abundance of live theater here.

Blum said that once people put their behinds in theater seats, they usually discover how much fun plays can be.

Who knows? They might even see the next Neil Patrick Harris.