Amateur versus Community

Well, for what it is worth, in my experience, when I have talked to friends and work colleagues and family about my theatre exploits/current show etc and used the term "community theatre", I was oft asked "what's a community theatre?" and then had do go on and explain by using the word "amateur", so I think we have made assumptions of these terms based on our inside knowledge. There is still a lot of ignorance about the non professional theatre, and still a lot of the wider community that still do not know we exist at all(a situation not helped by the previous Arts editor of the West Australian who ignored us for well over a decade). To my mind calling ourselves "Community Theatre" is apologist in its approach, whereas "Amateur" means "for the love of it". I dont think those of us with a passion for performing live really need a distinction - theatre is theatre no matter what context it is presented - or how politically correct the terminology we give to it. I does not matter if it is amateur, co-op, pro-am, or professional,we all know that all reach great heights, and sink to great depths - paid or unpaid. I call it theatre, period. My Five Cents Worth Robert. :-)