Judy says it does. So there!

Recently I had coffee with a journalist in town who was interviewing me for a column he was to write for a local newspaper/journal. We chatted about my relationship to local theatre, various roles I had played, productions I had directed, my childhood, my introduction to theatre and various other topics that left me feeling a bit self-centered and narcissistic. To talk about yourself for over an hour and leave not feeling slightly on the self-important side is a talent I haven’t yet mastered. However, towards the end of the conversation my friend, the journalist side-swiped me with a question I hadn’t anticipated and one that I wasn’t necessarily prepared for. His question was quite simple: “Do you think community theatre still has a place?”. I was dumbfounded. Immediately taken aback at the audacity of someone to even ask such a thing or to somehow doubt that something that I hold so dear has a “place” in our community, I was almost became defensive. Of course it does! How could you even ask such a thing?

Days later I was still thinking about this question and I began to understand where he might have been coming from. Those who aren’t involved do not automatically see the significance of something that they aren’t necessarily passionate about. How incensed do you think the local ladies’ quilting bee would be if I waltzed into their meeting and asked “Hmmm, do you really think you all NEED to be doing this? Is there really a ‘place’ for you?” Well, it’s been a few weeks since our conversation and I’m still thinking about it. My answer is the same. But as always I’ve chewed on it almost daily since the question was posed and I started to think about why community theatre does have a place, and more importantly, why it should.

When I was young I lived in Southern California. On Sunday afternoons, after we watched Popeye, a show came on called “Family Film Festival” where this man, who I seem to recall looked like a combination of Mr. Rogers and Jack Lalane, would introduce various movies from the 1930’s through the 1960’s. I remember watching all of the old school “Pippi Longstocking” movies and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang” on the “Family Film Festival”. But it was “Summer Stock” an old Judy Garland movie, that I remember with the most fondness and that I still catch from time to time on AMC.

In “Summer Stock”, a big band of crazy theatre folk are using some Judy’s barn and farm to rehearse and put on a big ole musical. I seem to recall that she had a very stodgy husband/boyfriend and that she’s not in the show, but that she’s somehow involved in the production and the lead female is a real brat and the male lead is a stiff poser and that somehow she and Gene Kelly end up starring in the show and falling in love and all that mess. It wasn’t really the love story that was of interest to me, it was that there were all these actors and singers and dancers and designers and directors and musicians AND they were all living on this farm together and they would rehearse their show ALL DAY. I was fascinated. I mean, how cool would that be?

Everything they did was infused with a heightened sense of camaraderie, a “pull this show up by its bootstraps” spirit, and the collective knowledge that “we’ve got to get this thing done and it’s going to be the BEST SHOW EVER!!!!”. Add in the various and sundry “Show-mances”, the drama of recasting, and the discovery of real and fresh talent and I was completely hooked. Years later, this is still what I want community theatre to be and it is still why I keep going back, over and over again.

So I guess my answer is this: Of course community theatre has a place. If the insinuation is that live community theatre is an outdated form of entertainment, that crowds are dwindling because of a wealth of new entertainment options, that children and adults alike have other things they would rather be doing with their increasingly decreased amount of free time, then you may unfortunately have a point. Times and tastes do change.

But go to a rehearsal of 30 eager teachers, doctors, lawyers, retirees, sound engineers, secretaries, students, parents, etc. who are giving everything they’ve got to bring songs and characters and sets and sound to life. Go to a performance where anywhere from 100 to 500 eager audience members are hanging on the actors’ every word, watch childrens’ faces light up when Peter Pan flies high above the stage, watch adults cry as Grizabella sings “Memory”, buy in to the infectious laugher and sense of community you feel when you are laughing your guts out surrounded by a mass of other people who are also laughing their guts out. Get the real stories behind the actors, the crew, the organization: the marriages, engagements, divorces, deaths, diseases, graduations, birthdays, friendships, heartbreaks, successes and the romances. Watch the infectious energy, the undying spirit, the unwavering support, the admirable dedication to doing yourself, each other and your community proud. This is what community theatre is and should be all about.