Friday, February 13, 2015
The Importance of Small Theater Companies
Selling Out: Trip Venturella is very interested in ecosystem, specifically, making space for theater in Boston. His HowlRound article lists some ideas for helping small theater companies — which he believes are important avenues for young artists and new audiences — thrive.
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2 comments:
Everyone has to start somewhere. Small theaters are often the places where passion is discovered and creative journeys are born. Without them people won’t know if they want to shoot for the top level jobs. Nobody in their right mind says I have zero training onstage I want to go audition for Broadway. That just doesn’t happen because your lack confidence. The confidence grows from the experience and the same experience of getting down and dirty and doing it all. Because once that is accomplished there is a foundation that is built long with a personal lists of do’s don’t’s and never again’s. So sure small theaters are putting out Broadway level productions but they are trying and they are giving people a chance and that in itself should be celebrated. Without small theater the Broadway shows would not be as grand as a comparison and it leaves a lot of people who are theater enthusiasts out of a wonderful and healthy outlet.
Theatre is the ultimate mirror of the world around it, and yet theatre groups tend to be insular sections cut off from the surrounding neighborhood. I appreciate the fact that - especially in recent years - many attempts have been made by theatre companies to integrate into the larger whole in order to hold their ground. But this kind of exchange is much more symbiotic than it initially appears - theatre groups provide a host of opportunities within a neighborhood. In addition to providing jobs, a theatre can become a powerful learning center, able to introduce kids to the arts and raise a generation with more appreciation for these small theaters.
The value of popular culture is highly debatable, but in many cases the association between popular culture and art becomes damaging as the public begins to perceive all art as a kind of superfluous decoration. By allowing these symbiotic partnerships to take hold between theatre groups and their surrounding ecosystems, there is great potential to reduce and even end the move to push theatre and arts centers from neighborhoods.
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