For the next two weekends, Hopewell Theatre plans to take audiences to “The Twilight Zone.”

And just like it would have been for television viewers between 1959 and 1964 when the anthology series aired, the theater wants to surprise audiences with what they will see.

That’s why Hopewell isn’t publicizing which five episodes it will present at its Youngstown theater.

Director Christopher Fidram wasn’t alive when those episodes originally aired, but he watched them in syndication growing up.

“I think back to when I started watching,” he said. “It would come on TV, and you’d get the same intro all the time. We never knew what episode was going to be on, so we’re sort of keeping it like that. If we say what the titles are, people go, ‘Oh, I’ve never heard of that one’ or ‘That’s not the one I want to see.’ You may have seen the episode of it, but we’ve reimagined it for the stage, and I chose episodes that I thought would best work to be transferred for the stage.

“A lot of those episodes that I absolutely love, there’s no way we can stage because the surprise moment relies on a close up or an extended pulling of the camera back to reveal something. On stage you see what you see. With film and TV, the audience doesn’t see something until the camera is ready to show it to you. But I did choose a variety of different themes and genres.”

This is the second time Hopewell Theatre has dipped into Rod Serling’s work.

Hopewell got permission to do a stage show based on the series in 2018, and it was granted permission to do it again this year with two caveats.

The first was that they could stage only episodes that Serling penned, which wasn’t a problem since he wrote or co-wrote 92 of the 156 episodes.

The second was they could not use the title “The Twilight Zone” to promote the production, because that title is owned by CBS, hence the name “In the Zone with Rod Serling.”

There’s nothing to prevent a newspaper story from using the series name, but more than once Fidram said, “The Twi…” before stopping himself and saying something like “the series” instead.

Fidram, who was an actor in the 2018 production, gave himself an additional challenge. Many directors start thinking about blocking and staging long before auditions are held. Fidram decided not to finalize the stories he would use until he saw how many actors turned out for auditions.

“We had an incredible turnout,” he said. “We’ve had actors show up from the local area and also a lot of actors in PA and from Akron because they’re fans of the series and of Serling. I wanted to tap as many people as I could, because I knew how excited I was to perform in it. I had narrowed it down to about 10 episodes, and I thought, from there, maybe I’ll pick four. But the turnout was so great that the Hopewell and I agreed, well, let’s do one more.

“Without the commercials and those long exterior shots, they move rather quickly. My thing was, I know people love the series. I want to give them their money’s worth and also give as many actors opportunities as possible to perform in them.”

The cast features Stephanie Cambro, Connie Cassidy, Jenna Cintavey, Renee Cuerden, Rhonny Dam, Steven Fraley, Bob Gerdes, Collin Goddard, Brenda Hickman, Matthew Liller, Mel Lyon, Chase Miles, Haylee Mohn, Casey Murphy, Bill Rees, Karianne Retauno, Mario Ricciardi, Terry Shears, Richard Smiley, Brian Suchora, Sarah Whitlatch, Chuck Wilcox and Brenda Zyvith.

Some of the episodes have larger casts, and many of the actors appear in multiple stories. Fidram made some script changes to reflect the talent pool — some of the male characters now are female when it made sense dramatically — but he did not attempt to modernize those stories written more than 60 years ago.

“The series is as much about the era and the time in which it took place as it is about the stories, so we wanted to give it that 1950s sort of noir feeling, because you want the audience to travel back in time,” Fidram said. “When you’re younger, it’s like, ‘Oh, this is spooky, and it’s eerie, and it’s kind of scary,’ but at the same time, the show made me feel comfortable. You’re watching these allegories about life — greedy people, selfish people, ignorant people and you kind of watch them getting their comeuppance. The show’s just kind of saying to you, ‘Hey, be decent. Don’t hurt anybody, and you’ll be OK.’ And I think there was something very satisfying about that.”

“The Twilight Zone” always appealed on multiple levels, and Fidram said Hopewell’s staging of “In the Zone” tries to continue that approach. Since these scripts originally were broadcast on television, there’s nothing inappropriate for younger audiences. And despite their age, many deal with issues and ideas that still are relevant today.

“You can really admire how brilliant Serling’s writing was or you can just look at it as pure entertainment and escapism,” Fidram said.

If you go …

WHAT: “In the Zone with Rod Serling”

WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday through Nov. 8 and 2 p.m. Nov. 9

WHERE: Hopewell Theatre, 702 Mahoning Ave., Youngstown

HOW MUCH: Tickets are $22.50 adults and $17.30 for students and senior citizens and are available online at hopewelltheatre.org and by calling 330-746-5455.