Community Theater

[filkertom]

I thought today's 9 Chickweed Lane might strike a chord with some of you.

Done any community theater lately?

Comments

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Not in nearly 20 years, sadly. These days, it mostly has to do with my work schedule, and being always on call. I just can't commit myself to 6-8 weeks of every night rehersals, which is what I know it takes to put on a good show.

Back in the day, though, I was involved in my local community theatre for about five years, and I had a marvelous time. My favourite part was when I got cast as Jonathan Brewster in "Arsenic and Old Lace". That was a *fun* show.

[ericcoleman]

I gave up on the local community theatre. I suppose having an actual degree had something to do with it ... but mostly I could only take so much teenage angst from folks in their 40s

[eleri.livejournal.com]

There's one less than 5 miles away, and I have yet to make an audition.

I grew up doing community theater.

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

Dunno, does "Hidden Frontier" count? That's been described as the Star Trek fan's equivalent of community theater. [innocent look]

[palenoue.livejournal.com]

I tried theater, but couldn't handle the repetition. First few rehersals went great but as we did the same thing over and over and over and over, I got worse and worse. Now if only they had community theater podcasts, where we only rehearsed a few times then recorded it, that I could probably do (along with the cinematography, editing, etc.)

[hiddenriver.livejournal.com]

Cool! I played Mortimer in highschool*. "Jonathan" and I had a bit of a problem during rehearsals. We kept cracking up every time we looked at each other - only time that ever happened to me.

(*Hey, what do you expect? It was an all-girls' school!)

[glitchphil.livejournal.com]

Did community theater once. It was a play called "Washington Talks" where high school studnets and senior citizens acted in pairs to potray some natives of DC during certain major points in the century. It was neat, but I hammed it up way bad.

[salkryn.livejournal.com]

I am currently involved with the Genesius Guild, a theater company in Rock Island, Illinois that has been doing plays ranging from Shakespeare to masked Greek tragedy for 50 years now. I am in the chorus of elders for Antigone and I also have a very minor role in Henri Gheon's The Comedian. Also, Don Wooten, founder and god-king of the Genesius Guild, re-writes and updates for the modern age a Greek comedy every year.

[salkryn.livejournal.com]

In addition, I am probably one of the few people who can honestly say he has worked in theater with Mike Callahan (he was playing Poo-Bah in our production of the Mikado, and he played Bacchus in our production of the Baccae).

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

Ah, my other community. I do a lot of work with Ann Arbor Civic Theater, where we just finished a successful run of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. I had a few different smaller roles, the biggest being Edsel Mackey, editor of the local news paper. My favorite line was my last one, delivered to muckraker Melvin P. Thorpe, the villain of the piece:

"Melvin, I don't give a damn if folks sometimes want their asses tickled with feathers. I'd kinda like to think that's what heaven is all about."

If I don't do at least one show a year, I get twitchy. I have to study the scripts for next season's shows, and decide what I'm going to try out for.

(Yeah, I know there can be ego issues. Thankfully, this group is mostly free of that, and the BLWIT cast was a real pleasure to work with.)

[daundelyon.livejournal.com]

I miss acting, although it's been a long time since I was actually on a stage. Mostly I've done time as a street character at a ren faire, but I haven't even been able to do that for years. I've been using LARPs as a substitute, but it isn't the same.

[markbernstein.livejournal.com]

I played Dr. Einstein once in my teenage years, and about ten years ago directed a production for the Ypsilanti Players. It's one of my favorite scripts.

[johno.livejournal.com]

Yep, seen that saying in action.

However, we are lucky in that we have a great set of regulars who are talented and dedicated.

We've had super talented folk come through and we wave them farewell as they move on up to professional troups.

Then their are the folks who stick around even when wish they would move on.

[johno.livejournal.com]

Check around on google and itunes, there are several podcasting radio theatres.

[the-dark-snack.livejournal.com]

Not around here. It's far too cliquish and since I'm a reviewer, I have a HUGE disadvantage.

However, it's terribly true.