I just read a very interesting article. I'd encourage you to take a moment and read it yourself.
Go ahead, I'll wait....
http://www.clydefitchreport.com/2014/01/is-your-theater-a-community-or-a-clique/
There... see! Not too painful I hope.
This article got me thinking about the community of theatre in the theatre community (or the lack thereof) that I have seen. Made me think about some of the theatre 'experiences' I've had over the past 20-odd years.
Some of it wasn't pretty... especially when I started out.
I believe I had much the same starting experience as many others had. I came to theatre a bit later than most, being a band geek for the majority of my high school career. When in college, I joined the student theatre group that was producing comedies and musicals and, unfortunately, due to poor grades, was unable to audition for the fall show my sophomore year. It was a small production of "George Washington Slept Here", an older comedy/farce, with a rundown home of historical significance as the show centerpiece, which slowly breaks its new owners. Think "The Money Pit" with Tom Hanks, but for the stage.
Without naming names and pointing fingers, I can say that it wasn't a great show. It actually had quite a few difficulties. Originally written and produced in the early 1940s, the script need updating to be a bit more current and the transition to fall of 1990 was not as clean as it could have been. Most of the cast was composed of the incoming freshman class, and the rest were completely new to Harrington Theatre Arts Company. It was a transition show, as many of the "Old Guard" had just graduated. It was somewhat profitable and many years later people still laugh about how bad that show was.
But that show was the "clique builder" for the next 3 years of my college theatre career.
And I wasn't in it....
If you were not in the cast or on the crew of that groaner of show, you were an outsider. That horrible experience was the common touchstone for the movers and shakers of the student theatre company from that point forward. It was the show were everyone met and bonded. If you were an 'outsider', you became one of the people NOT chosen to be a significant part of any shows that were to follow.
And this was my path for the next several years. All of college in fact... and even a little beyond.
It was a hard lesson to learn as a member of the only group producing musical theater. The only way I was able to crack that mold, even a little bit, was by auditioning for the only other student theatre group, E-52 Student Theatre, and land a staring role as Pale in a production of "Burn This". That show both shocked and surprised many of my peers, as most were unaware of what I was capable of. Truth be told, so was I, until that show. Through the character of Pale, my rage and frustration were on full display. Which may have made me even MORE of an outsider...
Even a great performance can do so much. And that break was not enough. Or maybe it was even too much. And some of the 'lessons' I learned while in college were very hard to unlearn as I moved out into the arena of community and regional theatre, once I graduated college.
Take a moment and think about your current theatre experience... how is that working for you? Are you an insider or an outsider? Leader or follower? Is your theatre a clique or a community? Nothing is truly black and white, so take another look at the article tagged above. If nothing else, I hope it starts a conversation.
More on cliques and community and theatre later... for now, I will simply...
EXIT, PURSUED BY A BEAR...
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