Six Things I've Come to Know About Community Theatre

​By Elissa Hill

1. If you don’t already have a key set piece, you can probably create it from something used in the last show.
Just because you don’t have an antique hope chest doesn’t mean you can’t make one from the last show’s dog house.

2. Competing with the local school district for coveted auditorium time never gets any easier. 
Are you sure they need to set up for the jazz band concert five weeks in advance?

3. Your older sister in one show could easily become your mother or grandmother in the next. 
Age is relative in theatre, especially when you only have a small pool of actors to cast from.

4. While your musicals aren’t Broadway productions, having a live pit is something that everyone involved is proud of. 
That rival theatre group from the next town over is going to be so jealous of our live musicians this summer.

5. None of the members are in the productions for money or fame—they truly love the art of theatre, and there’s something beautiful about that. 
After all, you must really love something if you’ve spent 20 hours a week on it for the past 30 years.

6. While the people you meet can be eclectic, you’ll likely never meet a more caring, passionate, and tight-knit community. 
These people saw your awful first acting attempts and still loved you, and even taught you enough in a few years that they could cast to be the lead in a later show. That’s scary-awesome. Community theatre is the best.

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