The True Meaning of Community Theatre

"...doing the best you can with what you've got."
"working together, to make the show better"


Yes, but how is this different to ANY theatre?



"bringing together of a group of individuals enthusiastic and good-spirited enough to have a great time performing for the wider community, its making theatre accessible to the average person and children alike, in the end its more about the audience having a great time than the sometimes bloated head of the performer..."


So far, this is getting closer to defining community theatre. But there are still elements that are also a part of much professional theatre...so what is it that distinguishes the two apart?

I can also cite examples where the community show was more about the PARTICIPANTS having a good time, bloated heads or no, while the audience patiently allowed them their indulgence. This is exactly the opposite of the above point, but it also seemed to me to sum up the nature of community theatre..

??

Perhaps an element, which I am likely to be taken to task for for suggesting, is a notion of quality. So before I get jumped on, I'll be first to admit that one, quality is very subjective and hard to define, and two, it exists in just as many amateur shows as it sometimes does not exist in professional, and vice versa.

But emphasising the word COMMUNITY seems to me the key, that the community experience is given a higher priority than the quality standard. This is not to say that both can not coexist. But the number one priority is that community members get to participate, learn, watch, enjoy each others successes and failures, and just HAVE A GO....regardless of skill standard. Obviously, the more chances you get to have a go, the greater chance that skills will improve. With a community emphasis, there is far more forgiveness, far less expectation....which leads to greater trust, and probably more fun. The show may be bad, but it doesn't matter so long as the community of cast, production team and audience are all supportive. If the show is good, that's just another reward but it's not the main goal.

To me that seems to be the point of the word 'community'. Professional companies have a different agenda, and even though they are frequently involved in community projects, there is always an assumption about the standards expected by the professionals involved. Amateur companies that have no community agenda are also motivated by quality first, within their limited means.

Community theatre can incorporate aspects of both the professional and amateur world, but essentially it's a grown-up version of what we do when we help kids create theatre. The main reason it exists is for the kids to have a go and have fun.

Community theatre is an excuse for us to be kids.

What better excuse do we need?


Cheers
Craig

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