dichotomy

Caught.

Mo has caught me in my own dichotomy. Sort of.

In the comments to the blog below, Mo has pointed out that I earlier wrote about community theatre in a rather negative view. First of all, I'd like to point out that Mo has only mentioned a portion of my blog of June 24, 2005. Where he left off I went on to write:

• So why do we do it? Well...it is live theatre, and if not for the community theatres, sadly, many people would have no other theatre experiences in their lives. The more unfortunate part of community theatre is catering to the audience with the stock of plays which you can predict were either done in the last five years, or will be in the next two seasons. The communty theatre audiences don't want to be enlightened or moved, or made to think. They simply want to be entertained. Just try doing a communty theatre play that has a cuss word and see how many complaints are lodged. I'm about to see RUMORS. ... And truth be told...I'm looking forward to it, because I enjoy going out to the theatre.

What this tells me (and yes, I already knew this about myself) is that I am one of those people that I mention who take a dim view of attending community theatre. I expect it to be "bad art." As I recall, my blog of June 25 was about my surprise at how much I enjoyed the community theatre production I had seen.

I am someone who will go out and see professional, semi-professional, as well as amateur theatre. I do this, in part, because, as I wrote on June 24, "I enjoy going out to the theatre." I don't usually look forward to the community theatre productions I attend, and I usually attend them because I have to. However, I am almost always pleasantly surprised at the quality in the shows I have seen. In fact, the worst play I have ever seen was a semi-professional theatre production of a new work titled, "Dick of Death." (Sad how the worst sticks with me, like a fish-bone lodged in the throat, while I'm hard-pressed right now to name a "best" play I've ever seen.)

But no matter what I expect, or do find, in a community theatre play, the role they play as a provider of art is still vital.

The words Mo has pulled out are a bit harsh. They show me just how much of a snob I am when it comes to theatre. I truly must not have been looking forward to seeing a community theatre play that night, despite the fact that I said I was was. "...not even a step below watching a sitcom"? Ouch.

Community theatre has it's problems. Talent can be one t(hough often it's not as big a problem as people [me] expect). Variety is another. What often makes community theatre undesirable to me is the lack of variety of material that will be put on stage. This is not because the organizers of community theatre want it to be that way, but because they know that their audience base (the people who do see this community theatre as the epitome of art in their community, the people for whom sitcoms are golden) won't shell out the bucks to see something provocative.

Most community theatre organizations recognize the balance -- providing art and entertainment within their audience's tolerance.

I'll do my best not to slam on community theatre again, Mo.