Comments on: Theatre of joy

By: Nagging « Alison Broverman Writes Words

Nagging « Alison Broverman Writes Words — Sun, 02 May 2010 16:40:06 +0000

[...] couple of years ago, I wrote about my love of community theatre for what was then the Praxis Theatre blog. The joy and delight I wrote about for Praxis (plus a [...]

By: ian mackenzie

ian mackenzie — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:43:00 +0000

“A good portion of the audience know the performers and are so proud and delighted to be there.”

I think this is sometimes a source of shame for independent and community theatre makers. As if it’s some kind of admission that the only audience the show managed to scrape together was made of friends and family.

I like the idea of celebrating this kind of audience. Friends and family really do have an investment in the show, and, as you say, it adds to the excitement.

By: mary

mary — Wed, 21 May 2008 23:56:00 +0000

I’ve been hooked ever since my siblings and I used to write and put on plays for family during every holiday get-together. I don’t know about the audience, but it was very exciting for us! Even in a musty old basement.

By: mike

mike — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:42:00 +0000

righto! that’s how i got into this racket - doing community theatre at St. Aidan’s church in ye olde Beaches (yeah, that’s right - beachES). these shows were not great, or well, even mediocre, but they got me hooked on the fun and excitement of putting a show together.

incidentally, for all you slings and arrows fans, that’s the same church they put on Lear in full community theatre style in season three -the same stage where William Hutt plays Lear for the last time - passing the torch to Sarah Polley in the awesomest conclusion of a Canadian tv show ever.

the craziest part was -they use an actor’s POV camera for a lot of the shots, so what they were filming was EXACTLY what i saw through my very own eyes when that was how i was rolling in the mid 90s.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 21 May 2008 13:32:00 +0000

You’re absolutely right about that, AB. I’ve had a recent similar experience myself. A lot of that passionate “amateur” spirit needs to be transplanted to (fill in name of drifting, complacent “professional” Toronto theatre company here).