Community Theatre

In 2009 I attended a gathering of the Società delle Idee in Florence.  The theme of the event was ‘From Galileo to the Gas Bill.’  An intriguing theme that opened the door into a many-sided discussion.

Galileo said: We cannot teach people anything. We can only help them discover it within themselves.  Discovery, questioning, exploration, risk – this is theatre.  But my question at that meeting and still today is: does that discovery occur only with the event on the stage, or is there a wider view necessary in order to experience ‘theatre’ as a responsive and relevant art form?  In defining my work in Florence and now with The Global Theatre Project I often confront a distaste for the word ‘community’ from my fellow colleagues.   ‘Community theatre’ evokes a great prejudice and even negative connotations in certain conversations.  There seems to be an agreed-upon divide between community theatre and ‘real’ work.  But without community, without an active engagement with community, we cannot aspire to the obligation I feel artists hold: which is to be guides toward a more expansive possibility of who we are and what we are capable of.

We have something invaluble to offer not only through our performances, but through out engagement with our societies.  We know something that, for one reason or another, we allow ourselves to experience and re-experience.  We know pain, and beauty, celebration and connectivity.  We know the glory of a truly mundane moment approached with such absolute curiosity that it is lifted to artistic realms.  We are some of the bravest beings on the planet because we explore the one thing that many others run from: what it is to be human.

But why should our work as ‘professionals’ be defined by the confines of a designated playing space?  And why should we feel there is a diminishment of our ‘professionalism’ if we engage with the very people we live amongst, want to reach and often reflect on our stages and in our stories?

There are so many ways to engage the community. Sometimes that means being in performance together.  But there are many other ways to stimulate creative thought and participation.  For me it has always been important to motivate collaboration through inquiry.  Through a theme or a response to an issue.  I think, in looking back at that day at the Società delle Idee, it was important for me to begin my own inquiry into how deeply a creative organization can connect to the community.  How much it can give.  And give.  And give.

‘From Galileo to the Gas Bill’ can be interpreted in a variety of ways.  And, at that meeting, many ideas and thoughts were shared.  We each pay a gas bill… if we participate in our local municipality.  We each put something in in order to get something back.  And, when we are all contributing, society works.  I feel strongly that now is the time in our history where theatre artists must consider more about what they give than what they get.  The ‘get’ will be inevitable.  But the ‘give’ is where all the creative possibility lay.