Community theater is a running joke in the world of performance. People have their best on-stage horror stories, funniest photos, and worst costume malfunctions on their small hometown stages. However, this is one of the few things all performers have in common. We all began in front of audiences made up of our neighbors. Artist’s journeys begin when someone gives them a chance, and a platform, to express themselves. Every member of a community, no matter what age, creed, color, belief, or financial status should have access to art. Art is an inclusive universal language. It can give a voice to the mute, an outlet to the pained, and joy to the common. The theater is a form of art that everyone should have the chance to experience. The ability to dress up, play a part, and create a story from thin air brings a personal side to performance unique to any other. No matter what size of the stage, from a high school to a church auditorium, good theater is possible. The medium does not matter as much as the art. No matter how great or not-so-great your resources are, the theater is possible on all levels. I’m here to help you figure out how to make it work, no matter what. There are three key elements to ensuring your productions produce quality, time after time. I’ll be exploring all three through this blog with insider tips on how to make it happen. I’ve been in your character shoes before.
Community Outreach
Community theater is just that, a community. Art is not possible without resources. Money, audiences, tools, space and so much more are needed to create. By fostering relationships within your community, you can build up your local theater’s reputation. By creating good content time after time, by making yourself fun and easy to work with, and saying thank you appropriately: you create relationships that will feed your program. Just like William Shakespeare said, “All the worlds a stage” and on that stage, you are constantly auditioning. While it takes time, patience, and work - relationships within your community pay off big time. From making friends with the local seamstress to having local business funding your shows you can create an empire within a community, small or large.
Utilizing Performers
The thing about community theater is its luck of the draw. Your show might require a cast of 15 and you only have 15 people audition, or even worse you only have 8 auditions and you have to go hunting for other performers. You are not dealing with world class talent in community theater, just locals with passion and hopefully pitch. I firmly believe that everyone can be a performer. They may not be the best performer, but they can put on a show, more specifically, your show. There are several ways to make actors better. Good direction is the beginning. Even with an awkward actor, good staging, costumes, lighting, inflection and storytelling can cover that and make them into a character. It is your job to pull the best out of your performers, whatever their best may be.
The Technicals
While theater starts from the heart, it certainly can’t stay there. There is so much that goes behind the scenes of a quality production. Lights, sets, costumes, makeup, hair, microphones, stage crews, ushers, and so much more are the cogs in the machine to make a masterpiece. Finding a balance between your stage and these technicals can be extremely difficult. You don’t want to waste your limited budget only on costumes, but you want people to look good on stage. One stage makeup may look great in one lighting, but horrible in the next. But these details are what make or break the quality of your show. I have tips on how to find, borrow and make most of the props you need, along with lighting a stage even though you barely know how to change a light bulb.
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