Occasionally the “it’s only community theatre infection” spreads and we all need to step up the antibiotics. Some studios have too many folks convinced that one or two proprietary productions per year barring all other local and regional theatre experience qualify paying students for a professional stage career. As actors, directors, students, teachers, fans, and patrons of all forms and forums of theater, we must disagree with any suggestion that an exclusive relationship between student, studio, and stage is a good one.

“But it’s only community theater,” right? Tell that to a patron or volunteer who’ll never have an opportunity to do anything else anywhere else. To some, it’s Broadway. To some, it’s his or her opportunity to be “star for a day (or ten).” It’s too easy to take the community for granted. It’s just as easy to underestimate the community.

We discourage the closing of auditions and pre-casting. We applaud the openness and honesty of such a decision, but we feel it takes the “community” out of “community theater.” There’s no crime in “notioning” certain individuals for certain parts. It happens. It’s unavoidable. The crime is committed when there’s an effort to eliminate the risks involved with casting the unfamiliar by pre-casting. When “excluding” underlines a production, one removes the foundation of community theater.

Sometimes we all take for granted how easy it is for us to step in and get involved whenever we choose (usually however we choose). Some allow opportunities for those uneducated in theater to direct the inexperienced in theater. Now that’s opportunity. But there was a time when it wasn’t so easy and we shouldn’t ignore or exclude or deny any opportunities for those fresh faces it isn’t easy for now. In essence, you never know who you’re gonna share a stage with. You’ll never know who you could have shared a stage with. Ask those who shared many a community theatre stage with Tom Hanks.

Community theater is about involving new people and the ongoing process of trying to involve new people. People. Community. Experience. Networking. Encouragement. The art of community theater is “re-volving” and balancing the fresh faces with the old. As opposed to survival of the fittest-equity houses, there’s a responsibility to preserve the delicate integrity of good community theater. When excluding, dismissing or discouraging infects a theatre community, one threatens to remove the foundation of community theater.

We are on- and off-stage theatre professionals who’ve chosen to commit much of our careers to community theatre. We tour(ed) professionally, and collectively for decades. Community theatre passion is far easier and more satisfying to cultivate and harvest. That procurable passion nourishes our community theatre commitment. When you graduate to the professional level, it too often becomes about “what the next job is,”—not for all, but for many. When you reach your one-thousandth performance of (insert musical here), the awe and discovery become harder and harder to invoke. You can “see it with your ears” and hear it with your eyes. It’s not quite the “hit it and quit it” passion you get to deliver as a temporary company. Professional expectations are naturally higher. Patrons of professional tours experience this contrast when they attend quality community theatre productions.

There’s beauty in finishing strong and walking away from it. We have good friends and colleagues who regularly tour. They’ll find themselves 498 performances into “Bye Bye Birdie.” Good luck with “Put on a Happy Face” at 499! We tease. There’s beauty and joy from both perspectives. But it’s important to fairly weigh community theatre. We can participate in a wider variety of productions in a wider variety of ways with a wider variety of artists in a shorter period of time, pursue other interests, and raise a family if we choose to.

No one theatre or theatre community is unique to any problem and we all have an opportunity to raise, set, and maintain community theater standards. Keep the “community” in “community theater.” In the immortal words of Willow Smith, “Hop up out the bed, turn my swag on, Pay no attention to them haters… Don’t let haters get me off my grind.” Dunno what that means, but it sounds positive.

Jeff Hartman
Artistic Director