At the risk of encouraging the Paper Bag Players and their recruitment efforts, it turns out my family has actors in it. My brother was in Humboldt’s community theatre, my sister-in-law was in an earlier production by the same group while my brother-in-law has been in leading roles in several productions in Wynyard, including their most recent one on the weekend. As a result, I have watched a lot of community theatre in my time.
From the start, I don’t know how they do it. After all, just finding enough actors has to be a challenge, given that I have been asked repeatedly to audition in Yorkton. It’s a rare person who has the confidence to be a bit of a goof on stage, especially since comedies tend to be slapstick. But communities with only a few thousand people still manage to get a full cast of actors. Sure, if you have enough people in the room you’re going to find an actor or two – my family is massive so we were bound to have a couple in there, all of whom aren’t me, so Teresa Weber, stop asking – but you’re still trying to fill specific roles and not every actor works for every role. Just getting a cast would be a challenge.
That they do it, and do it well, is the amazing thing about these performances. The actors in Wynyard, the smallest of these communities, are all better actors than Gerard Butler, and he’s cast in real movies with budgets and everything. They’re committed to their comedic beats, they’re putting a lot of work in above and beyond their performances. An actor might also build the set and design the costumes.
I think we need to appreciate these small groups more. Watching their plays is the most important part, of course, but we might even want to expand beyond the city limits. If you have time on a weekend and want to take a road trip, see if anyone’s putting on a play. You could get to see a new community, and watch them put on a performance.
For the young groups, it would help them build an audience and improve their skills. A roving band of helpful theatre fans could easily give good advice to young theatre clubs as they learn and grow.
But it’s not just about helping people get better, Lots of theatre clubs are well established and are professional at this point. They get an audience, but their audience gets a great night out with a fun crowd and an entertaining performance.
We’re lucky to have community theatre, and I don’t know if we realize how lucky we are. At any given moment in Saskatchewan, someone is putting together an entertaining play and our lives would be improved by watching them.
After all, who doesn’t love being entertained?
