Here in Charlottesville, we have the pleasure of being surrounded by several theatre venues: Paramount Theater, Live Arts, Play On!, and UVa’s Department of Drama. None of these theatrical venues have the designation of LORT (from the League of Resident Theatres), nor do they purport to be professional theatrical venues.
Now, the Paramount is a unique venue from the others, in that it is more likely to bring in an outside touring show or event, rather than produce a play in the traditional sense. For the others, however, when they obtain the rights to produce a play, they do not seek out actors, directors, and stage managers from the Actor’s Equity Association (AEA), nor technicians from IATSE (International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists, and Allied Crafts of the United States, its Territories and Canada).
So, the question is what is “community theater” and why is it so important to Charlottesville? (If, in fact, it is significant). Mainly, why is Charlottesville’s community theater (in all of its iterations) important to you?
Does “community theater” mean volunteers coming together after they’ve been harassed and taffy-pulled by their “real” jobs to make a bit of something called art? Does it mean that the people involved are *only* doing it because they *love* theater?
Do the plays performed actually comment on the unique community that is Charlottesville? Do they enhance our community in more ways than by simply bonding its members together in a team effort to produce a good play?
Just let us know what you think of the various forms - good, bad, could do without, or can’t live without?
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Tagged as: charlottesville, community theater
I think community theatre is no more or no less important than any type of locally produced art. Local music for example just has it often times easier to find an outlet. Theatre, as well as larger scale music (say a local musician who writes for orchestra), need a bit more established infrastructure like a community center or theatre building. So yeah, I am very glad that these structures are in place but would also like to see them for any other type of performative art.
Personally I would like to see more daring, cutting edge productions (like the Squidmonster, Hedwig or Mother Courage were to an extend) mostly because it’s my personal taste, but also because I don’t see the point of putting together a more conservative production that has no connection to the here and now and could therefore be done anywhere by anyone.
That being said, the productions I have seen at Live Arts where usually very impressive and enjoyable.
I’ve given this question some considerable thought over the years.
I’ve lived here from 2005-2008, and in that short amount of time I’ve witnessed a series of highs and lows w/in the tides of community theatre, here.
First and foremost, community theatre IS important here in C-Ville. We’re offering a different type of story-telling w/ theatre, here, no matter what the content of the piece is. What makes it a different type of story-telling? It’s live. Actors, directors, and technicians are taking the time to make these stories happen in real-time right in front of you. You can’t get that from TV, can’t get it from movies, either. It’s breathes. It’s fleshy. You’re watching the action unfold in front (or sometimes from all sides) of you in constant motion. Theatre is a living organism.
Second, I think there’s a multitude of reasons why people get involved. Could be to escape the rat-race, could be for the love of theatre. Both very valid reasons, but still, can’t really answer it. However, when it comes to the progress of the rehearsals week after week, you can see what everyone has been “doing” despite their particular reasoning for being there: people have come together and have made something that is truthful, meaningful, and bigger than themselves.
Now, when it comes to catering to the community at large, it’s a crap-shoot. Some people want to be challenged while others don’t. Some people get off by watching the edgy stuff. A rare breed, in my opinion. But, then, you get some instances when, say, someone uses direct address on stage to a handful of people in an audience. A wife will turn to her husband (or a husband will turn to his wife) and say, “I thought this was a play. Where’s the music? Where’s the dancing?” I’m not trying to sound presumptuous, but sometimes I don’t think people even know what theatre is anymore.
Will people go see a “Mother Courage?” One would think. Brecht definitely speaks to a comminuty at large. Yes? Well, we saw the attempt that Live Arts made in April. How did that turn out? Good show. Good-good show. Weak attendance. Good on Live Arts, still, though. I’m very hep on Live Arts, and I commend them for doing it.
On the flipside of this, HRT can put on a no-brainer Tony Award Winning musical in a 500-seat house and not even break 100 every night. I don’t even think it’s the titles venues pick to attract the community that are causing poor turn-out. We have season-selection commitees who take months and months of preparation to come up w/ seasons! The problem could be (and I hope it’s not): It doesn’t matter who we cater to. People just aren’t coming to the theatre anymore.
Bleak oulook, sure, but if you’re sitting in houses month after month, and you see it happening, it’s pretty hard to ignore.
Wow, Jombie, I hope you are wrong with your prediction, but it seems to ring very true. A few months back there was a thread on here that reflected a similar problem with the local music venues and another with art events as well. So many of the more interesting music venues have gone (and I realize that “interesting” is a completely subjective category) and the few inter-genre art events (artini, shentai, wunderkammer) don’t seem to be happening again any time soon. On the one hand Charlottesville can be glad that this kind of thing is not happening only here, but that Charlottesville had been spared from this general development for a long time. On the other hand it leaves the theatre, music and art people who do put in a lot of work rather frustrated and helpless. I guess it’s just the way of things and all we can do is keep supporting each other.
There is nothing I love more than live theatre. Like Jombie says it is an organic being of sorts, breathing and filling your senses with a type of entertainment and expansion of the mind that TV cannot even come close to. I tip my hat to all the people who make the productions work. We are so lucky to have people who care and put so much time and energy and thought into the shows. Part of the reason I love living here is that I can go and see live theater almost any day I choose. Sadly, I have realized that a great number of people I know turn their noses up at theatre. They act like it is something that is boring and not hip, but if they just would forget about the Shakespeare productions they saw in high school and actually stepped into the theaters here I think they would be pleasantly surprised.
Byard and Jombie - I love all the points you brought up.
Byard, I especially resonated with your point that community theater is a lot like other local art that springs up at various venues and in various ways.
Jombie, I love theater, too … it holds a very important place in my life and I think the experience is different than film in great ways!
In terms of practicing theater, I’m personally more interested in educational, thought-provoking theater, too. I love Brecht and Mother Courage is one of my favorite shows. It was hard seeing people leave at intermission, but I honestly expected it. Realistically, I don’t think there are too many Brecht plays that, when performed in America, will keep the entire audience the whole time.
For Mother Courage’s audiences, it could also be a factor of the times we’re in. All the nuanced and dark movies about war and politics aren’t doing well at the box offices. It’s hard to watch a Brecht play about war when your country’s fighting one. I’ll be honest - if my relatives had still been stationed overseas when Mother Courage was running, I don’t know that I could have gotten through more than performance - it would have hit too close to home.
I actually find it hard to say that generally (in this community), people just aren’t coming to the theater. Noises Off pulled in sellout crowds a couple years back, as did A Raisin in the Sun. (I don’t know any stats for Play On, so it could be they’ve had house-filling shows, too.) I think Disney’s HS Musical is shaping up to be close to a sellout. And just last month, String of Pearls sold out many nights of their run.
So obviously, there are times when the community here turns out in a big ways to support theater. It would be nice if we could figure out what brings them in (other than just word of mouth “This play is awesome”), so more community members would support theater here on a regular basis!
I love the community theater here in Charlottesville. I hope others will post so we can gather more experiences and opinions!