There’s a whole lot of singing the blues at St. Paul’s Penumbra Theatre these days.

But there’s little unhappiness.

Penumbra is back from the brink. After canceling most of its 2012-13 season in September due to financial troubles, the renowned African-American theater company has scaled down, paid its bills and is back onstage with the blues-laden “SPUNK,” which opened Thursday, March 14.

There was a palpable upbeat buzz in the theater on Kent Street as the cast and crew got the production rolling last week.

“There’s an energy here,” said longtime Penumbra actress and director Austene Van. “To be on the brink of death and come back means something else altogether.”

Penumbra needed $340,000 to get back on its feet and raised $359,000 by the end of 2012. More than 1,400 individuals, corporations and foundations donated to the cause, exceeding the goal by $19,000.

“You can feel it in rehearsal,” Van continued. “Everybody is there and standing at attention and doing their best. It’s so humbling: all this love that poured in from across the nation.”

If that sounds too sentimental, Van has a special attachment to the theater. She grew up in the neighborhood, and her grandmother, Timothy Olivia Van, founded the Model Cities Health Clinic in the building. (The theater is part of the Hallie Q. Brown Community Center.)

“We used to come down and run around here,” Van said of the building. She and her friends and relatives would put on skits when Grandma could get them onto the stage.

“It’s no coincidence to me that this has become my artistic home,” she said.

Van said when she was starting out, an internship at Penumbra’s summer institute kick-started her career.

“I remember having a lot of raw talent and not knowing what to do with it,” Van said. “I felt out of place at other theaters.”

From Penumbra’s artistic director Lou Bellamy, Tony-winning director Marion McClinton and company member Terry Bellamy, Van said she learned to infuse her acting with the African-American aesthetic.

“I felt validated, at home, empowered,” she said.

Just off a star turn this winter in the title role in the Elton John/Tim Rice musical “Aida,” produced by Theatre Latte Da at the Pantages Theatre in Minneapolis, Van said “SPUNK” is a return to ensemble work, which is more familiar.

” ‘Aida’ was hard. Good hard, but I had to use everyting I’ve learned all at once,” she said.

“I’m back to my wheelhouse,” said Van, who was also in the recent ensemble production “The Amen Corner” at the Guthrie Theater and has directed three of Penumbra’s annual family holiday shows, “Black Nativity.” She is an associate artistic director at St. Paul’s History Theatre and will direct a production there next season.

“SPUNK” is adapted by George C. Wolfe from several short stories by Zora Neale Hurston and combines storytelling, blues and dance. The show also features familiar Penumbra faces/voices T. Mychael Rambo, Dennis W. Spears and Jevetta Steele.

The stories are period pieces set in the Harlem Renaissance, featuring costumes “oozing and dripping with style,” Van said.

“The stories are timeless and in a time,” she added. “Everybody will be able to relate to them.”

Penumbra plans to return with a full 2013-14 season.

“When you are about to lose something so beautiful, precious, amazing and unique, you fiercely hang on,” Van said of Penumbra’s ordeal. “You give your blood and your best.”

Kathy Berdan can be reached at 651-228-2096. Follow her at twitter.com/KathyBerdan.

What: “SPUNK”

When: Through April 7

Where: Penumbra Theatre, 270 N. Kent St., St. Paul

Tickets: $40 adult, $15 students; 651-224-3180 or penumbratheatre.org