Hey, if you haven't checked out the comments section on the recent Censorship and Local Theatre entry, you're missing a good discussion!
Just click on the word "Comments" at the bottom of the entry to read it - and feel free to add to the discussion. With 23 comments (at last count), it holds the record for most comments to this blog in its nine-month existence!
Update: Now we're up to 25 comments!
Another Update: Make it 28!
One last update: OK, 29 it is!
It's not over yet: Make it 31!
3 comments:
Man, I love theater. I just wanted to begin with that statement. Being a member of the local theatrical community for almost 30 years makes me old...but it also gives me a perspective of the way things once were.
Back in the 70's and early 80's when The Community Players was running strong, there wasn't anything that wasn't considered. We put on That Championship Season
and you could hardly find a show more racy or with more vulgar language at that time. Did it stop us? Nope. Did people show up? Yep. Were some offended? You bet. Did they come back to the next show? I suspect so, because we kept churning out the shows. It certainly wasn't a questionable show or 2 that folded that company.
Look at the Kanawha Players just 45 minutes away. The Haughts care less about semantic content and more about artistic content. And I haven't been to a show there with fewer than several hundred in the audience. And we're talking non-musicals.
Shifting to 5th Ave. Theatre Company of which I'm on the board. Being owned by The City of Huntington Foundation and, therefore, theater not being priority #1...or even #3 for that matter...every single show is a challenge for us. No one is more vocal about infusing some different kinds of shows into the mix, but when we b-a-r-e-l-y inch into the black for a "crowd pleaser" like The Music Man, it becomes a perpetual uphill battle for me to influence the rest of the board to try some new things. We had The Mystery of Edwin Drood on the docket for a couple of months, but after The Music Man's less than stellar attendance, it was scrapped. I proposed a myriad of other shows that either had never been done in this area, hadn't been done in years, or were simply more challenging than the run-of-the-mill Rogers and Hammerstein fare, all of which were shot down in favor of safe, potentially profit making shows.
There is no outlet for theater organizations to do muicals like Drood, Man of La Mancha, Jeckyl & Hyde or even more of an issue to me is there is no one west of Charleston doing non-musicals. I make every effort at increasing the show schedule for 5th Ave. but as long as it's run by a non-theater entity, it will continue down this path.
There desperately needs to be a theater company in this immediate area producing a 4-6 show season every year. But we all know the one thing that keeps this from happening, don't we? It isn't apathy, it isn't the lack of resources, it isn't a shortage of creative people...it's $$$$.
God bless Danny Ray. ART was the last of this breed and his vision kept it going as long as it did. But ultimately finances did him in. Until we find a theater lover with a comfortable nest egg we will continue to languish through the familiar. Oh sure, there will be a wonderful night or two like the New Works Festival, but I fear it will continie to be the exception instead of the norm. But please don't stop trying, nothing would please me more than to be wrong, I just wish I saw the support that we need to get to make a new theater venture successful.
Man, I hate seeing a half empty glass...
Thanks, Paul! You make some excellent points, and certainly the landscape is littered with more than one theatre group that tried to make a go of it and ultimately had to pack it in. I'm not sure I agree that it takes someone with a lot of money to make theatre work (although it certainly wouldn't hurt). I really think there are several keys to running a successful theatre.
You need lots and lots of help. If just a few people are doing everything, then eventually those people will burn out.
You need to choose shows carefully. When starting out, there's nothing wrong with staging "popular" shows that can be produced cheaply to help build up your bank account.
You need to advertise. People will only come to shows when they know they're happening.
I really do think there's a market for adult theatre, but it's going to take a lot of work to make it happen.
I also think a big threat to local theatre is the fact that there are so many groups out there, and only so much talent to go around. There have been a few shows attempted that had to be dropped when not enough people showed up to audition. With so many shows to choose from, the acting pool may get depleted. The ideal would be if there was some way to share resources - but that was tried once before and it didn't work out. Perhaps someone out there has the answers.
Paul, Paul, Paul... you're singing my song! Head back over to the original discussion thread and check out the latest diatribes from myself, Ryan and Clint... I think you might find it very interesting.
Again, Paul's post proves (with alliteration, I might add) that people REALLY want this to happen, and we MUST OVERCOME those that don't.
Do this, we can. Band together, we must.
Yoda
Err...
-M
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