MACTEditor’s note: Two weeks ago I published an article by Howard Sherman (https://hesherman.com/) regarding the “put-downs” regarding community theatre. Here are a few of the responses his article got on his website.
From Janis: BRAVO! In many ways community theater is a purer form of art- done for joy alone. No one has a hope of a profit, merely hope of not having to pass the hat among the cast, crew and board at strike. How is this different than doing the same with a inner circle of angel donors? All theater plays to its audience. Professional theaters are the master chefs crafting new and exciting presentations for special occasions and adventuresome palates. Community theaters craft tasty daily artistic fare drawing new ideas from the chefs. But great chefs do not hold classic comfort food in contempt, they make it new and original by reworking it in ways we never imagined to bring us even greater joy.
From Jon: There are many types of community theaters. Some just want to do shows for Aunt Gussie and her friends. I don’t see anything wrong with that, but I have no desire to have anything to do with it. In my experience, many community theaters are committed to doing shows that are as professional as their imaginations and budgets allow them to be. Admittedly, most don’t come close, but some do. I was a professional in theater many years ago. Artistically, I’ve had much more satisfaction in community theater than I did when I was working professionally. Can I direct a show and get a professional result using actors who have day jobs and working with a ridiculously low budget? Yes I can…. sometimes. But I certainly try every time. Do I have the vision? I hope so. Do I have the budget? Absolutely not.
There is no reason why the experience of mounting a show in community theater should be any less rewarding artistically than mounting a professional production. Strip away the things that don’t matter and you get to the core of the art of acting. You can do that in community theater.
From Greg: Community theatre people generally work a full schedule at a “day job,” and then hurry off to rehearsals that run late into the night, and that leave little time for a good night’s sleep, let alone taking care of a family and a household. They struggle to find the time to learn their lines and blocking and to develop their characters. All of that is crammed into six weeks of preparation for a run of rarely more than three weeks.
Not to diminish the talent, skills and learning that top theatre professionals bring to their work, it is the height of unfairness to compare community theatre people’s achievements with those of people whose only job is the current production, and who have the luxury of honing their work through seven or more performances a week, possibly over many months. Most of us have seen community theatre productions that are better than some professional productions we’ve seen. When the pros get it right, they deserve all the accolades we give them. But the fact that community theatres occasionally–or ever–achieve at that level is arguably deserving of even greater admiration.
From Gleatherwood: I played the Tin Man in a Children’s Theater production of The Wizard of Oz. My wife made my costume. The producer/director hauled the sets around in a rented U-Haul trailer and set up outside the grade school where we did the play; once we got to use a real stage in a real auditorium. We had a bunch of little kids for Munchkins and every one of us did a little of everything.
The thrill was watching the saucer eyes of little kids in the audiences who had never seen live theater, having been raised on TV. One little guy had to be stopped by his big sister from climbing up on the stage so he could be part of the scene! We did 24 productions, made a few bucks for the school PTAs and introduced several generations to live theater. No one asked if we were “professionals,” no one cared.
From Octagon: Our local newspaper refuses to acknowledge the existence of our many community theatres, many of which do work as good and sometimes better than the professional theatres. If you just read the paper, you’re getting a narrow, limited view of what’s going on. Thanks to the internet the community theatres have started routing around the media to get the word out about their shows.
There is also a fear among professional actors that doing a community theatre show will make them seem less professional, even though there isn’t enough professional work to accommodate everyone that wants to do it. All it does is build more walls in a theatre town that’s not really big enough for those walls, and everyone would benefit if actors could freely go from one kind of theatre to another.
It takes more than a college education to be a pro. The community theatres are excellent training ground for young actors and disparaging them only hurts the community as a whole.