"We Could Make That!"...AKA Community Theatre

"We Could Make That!"...AKA Community Theatre

(repost of entry from January 2012)  

Kids today. They think you need a hundred dollar wooden puppet theatre kiosk with a real red velvet curtain and gold-leaf trim to put on a puppet show. My poor child (or lucky child, depending on who you are) was born to a mother who tells her to “make it yourself”. It’s my response to practically everything.  All you really need is a box with a hole in it or a curtain rod in a doorway with a baby blanket over it.  Boom. Puppet theatre. One of her favorite things to play is  house in the 4-wheeler box.  You start with a box.  Cut some holes for windows so people can see in/out, decorate it, put some baby dolls in it, get in and act like you’re somebody you’re not in a place you’re not. hmmmm.  It’s more like theatre than I thought. 

This week has been an adventure in jerry-rigging... fliers out of video stills, music boxes out of greeting card recordings.  I wish that *poof* a PR person would appear.  Or a costumer. There’s a small staff at this theatre and my show isn’t the only thing going.  So I’ve been fiddling with photo layouts, compiling databases,  shopping at thrift stores, looking for tiny recording devices.  And I’m learning to knit.  That’s a blog in itself.  Don’t forget, the whole reason I started this blog was to promote “The Last Flapper” at South of Broadway Theatre Company opening January 20th.  Don’t miss it!  www.southofbroadway.com.  But I digress.

Are there actors whose only job is to act?  I’m not sure. Maybe that’s what happens when you hit it big. But it would be like being a mom and only being around to tell the bedtime story. Truth is, the collaborative process is one of the best parts of putting a show together. Alot of “actor homework” is all in your head...memorizing, making up pretend memories for your character, etc.  The “collaboration” is usually done on the stuff that nobody went into theatre for...pouring sodas at intermission, folding newsletters, sawing lumber.  In true community theatre it doesn’t really matter who you are, somebody’s got to clean the toilet.  My suggestion to anyone starting out in community theatre is this: when you buy all those headshots and workshops, buy a good cordless screwdriver.  That way after the last performance, after the crowd has gone and everyone sets about tearing down and cleaning up, you will be high on a ladder dismantling a pretend living room rather than spending your afternoon with rubber gloves and a toilet brush.  Communicable, community....same root , now isn’t it?

My friend, Danny Jones, did a terrific documentary about just this do-it-yourself aspect of theatre.  Let’s watch!  Just click on the pic at the top of this story.