The Advantages and Disadvantages of Community Theatre

I was just staring off into space, like I happen to do a lot in the real world and I remembered when I was doing Alice in Wonderland Jr. in the community theatre at home. I was leading a group of children in the green room in a song and the ever helpful parents (they are the Mama Rose type of mothers found in my not yet posted list of people you might meet in the theatre world) had to stop me from giving the children a vocabulary. I was trying to explain what a preview was and why the theatre did not do them when the mother said, "They don't really need to know that," and tried to lead them from there.

I have a lot of my own opinions and I do not like getting pushed around but in a later conversation with the other mothers in the group I learned something I already knew about the small little town where I grew up. "Never Be Better Than You Already Are" is the motto of many members of the community and the attitude is frequently annoying and contagious. I do not know if they realize it or not but sometimes this mindset gets placed into positions of power and there is nothing you can do about it except educate the next generation.

ANYWAY, so off point, what I wanted to write about was why, after being brainwashed by this community theatre, did I go back after I was educated? I will tell you: because it was an experience. 

Not all theatres are the same, community theatres doubly so but they all have some things in common:
- almost everything is done with volunteer work
- the actors usually have no more than their high school drama class and this theatre for experiance
- doughnuts and pizza are always welcome

Sure, they tend to be unprofessional, unorganized and run by people who would be better off running a liquor store or mom and pop shop. There is always the mother who joins the board because she played Clara in the nutcracker every year until she had three kids and grew taller than the eldest male dancer in the town who wants her children, no matter if they are talented or not, in the lead of every production. The smell of stale popcorn is never gone and every actor thinks they know better than anyone else. Any male part over the age of 27 was coerced or guilted into auditioning (or in reality just showing up to sing). Nearly every production will be a musical because they sell better than straight plays (ones with no music). I am not even going to do my usual rant about the sound and light person who barely knows how to use a light switch exclaiming to everyone that they are the only person in the entire town qualified to use the switchboard and no one else is allowed to use it. The props and many of the sets are made of cardboard for every production and everything has at least twelve layers of paint on them.

So why should anyone get involved? Easy. The experience may be stressful and nobody will listen to a thing you say even if you are Steven Spielberg and have brought an entire film crew with you but it will make anyone willing to learn into a better member of the theatrical community. I learned things that worked and a lot of things that didn't. I was a stage manager, assistant director, and technical director of a triple-casted production of Alice in Wonderland Jr. where every actor (all 138 of them) was under the age of sixteen. I learned most of their names, their acting abilities, their mothers, how to produce a chaotic production, and then to never, EVER triple-cast a jr. production by age (or to triple-cast at all). These are only a few things and I wasn't even wearing a costume.

I do encourage getting involved with Community Theatres BUT do not keep bad habits. Try as hard as possible to make it more professional with every production you assist with or act in. Be the voice of change in making them better.

Amen. :) :P

Sarah K

The Success of a Play

What is the difference between the success of a play/musical and the success of a blockbuster movie?

That's right: ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!



Success can be measured by different things depending on who you are and what you want but when it comes to the theatrical world there are two things that make the production a success: You can pay everyone, and you at least break even.

I know it sounds self-centered and inartistic but that is the truth. Unless you live in an utopia state where art is more appreciated than money every production you do needs to understand that if you don't break even you won't get to do another one and if you can't pay your people they won't come back. (Unless it is a community theatre where only the director might get paid, everyone else is there for the sake of being there.)

The same holds true for movies. if you put out a crappy film that doesn't make any money after spending hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars on it (The Last Airbender) you get fired and no one will trust you to make another movie ever again. (I am not even going to mention the freak of nature movies that are awful, or at least not good and that still do well in the Box Office.)

ANYWAY... back to the theatrical world: success is measured in the amount of money you make. If you put on a production of Oklahoma! and not only break even but make enough money to fund the next production, you will be asked to come back. Producers like to see that their investments were not a waste and that they are awesome in every way.



Gotta go, but remember to always dream,

Sarah K

P.S. I promise to write later about artistic integrity...