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
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