The Seeing Place Theater - Voyeurism, Simplified: Howard Sherman at The Huffington Post put out an article yesterday about Community Theaters. It's all about how we degrade "community theater", when in reality, some of the most inspiring work happens just there. I want to take this all a step further.
6 comments:
You can definitely see this problem everywhere. I have worked in community theatre, as I am sure everyone has, and what I've noticed is that the audiences love the shows. The audiences, however, are also very limited. Last spring, the community theatre I was TDing for put on the full Fiddler on the Roof using only volunteer actors and tech; half adults, half kids. And yet the show was the best adaptation of Fiddler I'd ever seen. Community theatre is a cheap and local way to see good theatre and going is a good way to show community support. It's a shame theatre is so money oriented...
I agree with his premise that Off-Off Broadway shows can be inspirational and that in a city as large and as expensive as New York, it can be nearly impossible for these small shows to garner the attention they deserve, but I also have a problem with his idea that you can only see great theatre at the very top or at the bottom. In a city with as much theatre as New York has, there are good and bad shows at every level, and it's unfair to call out the Off-Broadway level as somehow deficient or sell-outs. He seems to be saying that the Off-Broadway level has sacrificed doing real art for making money, which I don't think is the case at all.
I also think that even the name Off-Off Broadway gives New York theatre companies a HUGE leg up over "community theatres," I grew up in NY, and while I wasn't a theatre aficionado by any means, I didn't hold any disdain for a show that was designated as Off-Off Broadway. It was still part of the New York theatre scene. The same can't be said of hearing the phrase "community theatre." I hate to say it, but I kind of inwardly cringe.
I do understand what he's writing about, and I definitely know that doing small theatre in NY for actors and technicians alike is difficult, but I'm not sure if I can agree that Off-Off Broadway is facing the same kind of problems that community theatre. New York still adds a level of expectation and excitement to any production that gives Off-Off Broadway a huge advantage.
Being from new York I love Off-off Broadway and I have seen my fair share of community theater (though i have not worked at one myself). The most creative edgy theatre is premiered in the theaters with less than 100 seats and on budgets only in the triple digits. It is great because many of these productions consist of great collaboration between writers, directors, designers, and actors. When I worked on the fringe festival show I was a stage manager, but I was also able to put in my design and blocking opinion.
Well this is nerve-wracking for me. My angle is "doing good, believable work" and "bringing justice to these relevant stories and sharing them with your community." This is exactly what I want to do after college. I guess this provides a lot of insight into why we see so many phenomenally bad, blasphemous experimental works. On the off-chance that their concept might work, theatres are desperate for the attention that their radical concept will bring them, and hoping for just the chance to stand out.
Cat brings up an interesting point about the naming distinction. Off-off-Broadway theatre in NY is almost identical to a community theatre regionally by definition. I've worked with some community theatres that have similar goals to smaller NY o-o-B theatres, but location and lack of unions/etc make them a "community theatre" by our standards. Reminds me of the article from a week or so ago where an artist talked about the pros and cons of moving to New York. "Do you have to go to New York to make it?" she asked. No, not necessarily. But think about this.
It's sad that risky theater can basically only be done where nobody will see it. Without theater that pushes boundaries, what will happen to the state of our art? The lumping together of community and off-off broadway theater seems a bit backwards to me. Community theater conjures the images that aren't so pretty. Off-off broadway on the other hand, has some semblance of professionalism.
I agree with Kat about being able to see great work at more then the top or the bottom levels and the fact that I do have a slight cringe when i hear about community theater.
At the same time community theater can be inspirational and might be the best place to reach the next generation of the theater. With the economy being the way it is, community theater is one of the more accessible ways of getting to the younger audience.
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