You can spend hundreds of dollars to see spectacular musical
theater on Broadway, or travel to the nearest major city to see touring
productions. But, in the heartland of America quality theater thrives. They are
not Equity actors and the sets do not include multimillion-dollar turntables
hoisting a two-ton barricade. Community theater occasionally gets a bad reputation, it’s
amateur, critics decry. Yet, I argue, community theater can be captivating and
engaging ways that professional theater can fail to do.
In my hometown of Jonesville, Michigan, The Sauk Theatre (formerly the Hillsdale Community Theater) is performing one of the very first
licensed amateur productions of Les Miserables. The President of The Sauk
Theatre, Trinity Bird delivering his curtain speech commented that when the current
revival announced its plan to open on Broadway this spring, Music Theatre
International nearly pulled their license to perform the play. It was the simple fact
that the theater had fewer than 250 seats that saved the day.
I began my theatrical career in that very theater back in
1972 when I was eleven years old. My first shows included productions of 110 In The Shade, Carousel, The Music Man and Oliver! The casts were large, the 1974 production of Oliver! had a cast of 62, and families and friends built the
sets, played in the orchestra, helped sew costumes and sold tickets. Many of
the younger members of those casts in my era caught the performing bug. Some
went on to study the arts, having careers as varied as actors, singers,
playwrights, a local television anchor/editor and even a world-class magician. Even those among my generation who grew up in the arts and chose different career paths found that this experience with the performing arts still
affected their lives in a positive way.
That’s what community theater is really all about.
As I revisited my earliest theatrical home I smiled as the
cast of 49 beautifully sang and acted Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg’s
incredible score. The ensemble includes students, teachers, a pastor, a nurse,
yet they all convincingly portray the downtrodden masses of Paris, and the
idealistic firebrands that are the doomed university students at the barricade. Unlike on Broadway these students at the barricade are actually students, making their doomed uprising that much more poignant. The orchestra occasionally rehearsed in the First Presbyterian Church's coffehouse, Grounded In Grace.
Packed houses. $10 a ticket, $ 8 for seniors, $5 for students. A cast of 49.
An orchestra of 15. A crew that built a modest set and barricade and sewed costumes. All
volunteering their time.
That’s what community theater is really all about.
So raise a glass, not to the “Master of the House”, but to :
A father of five with a degree in music who hopes to become
a teacher with the voice and soul to match the many Valjeans who have graced
the professional stage and screen
A young lady planning to study opera in college
A ten-year-old charmer stealing his scenes as Gavroche
A young woman excited to be playing her dream role of
Fantine
An elementary resource teacher who would only give up her
profession to become a back-up singer for a rock star
A veteran of community theater making his return to the stage
after a 13-year absence who is a band and choir director and has served his
country for 30 years in the US Army and Army Reserve
An eight year old making her stage debut.
That’s what community theater is really all about.
Les Miserables is being performed at The Sauk Theatre in
Jonesville Michigan through June 29, 2014. Good luck getting tickets, but if
you happen to be traveling through the town on US 12 in rural southeastern
Michigan, give the box office a call at 517-849-9100 or online www.thesauk.org.
If you aren’t in the neighborhood, seek out the community
theater in your neck of the woods.
You’ll discover the arts are thriving there as well.
That’s what community theater is really all about.
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