Community Players president reflects on first show

I’m not sure what motivated the Bigfork Community Players to recruit me to their board of directors and then to elect me as president, but I’ll have to say that, slightly over six months into office, I’m having the time of my life.

We just finished the first show of our season, the ladies’ version of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple.  I saw all four performances from behind the control board in the light booth.  

We do community theater.  This means that the shows we do are produced by the community for the community.  The actors, all volunteers, are members of the community.  And the audience is also made up primarily of members of the community.  The experience that results is — well, community.

We’re different from the two other theater companies in town, the Bigfork Summer Playhouse and the Bigfork Playhouse Children’s Theater.  The Summer Playhouse recruits actors from around the country and produces professional music theater for three months each year.  The Children’s Theater recruits enthusiastic local kids and produces theater for kids and adults, usually musical, during the other nine months.  We recruit mostly adults and produce non-musical theater, primarily comedy.  All three companies produce their shows in a common venue, the Bigfork Center for the Performing Arts.

Live theater isn’t a movie.  There are no spectators.  Everyone, whether they be members of the cast, members of the audience, or the guy in the light booth, has a critical role in making the event what it is.  A good performance onstage spurs an enthusiastic response from the audience.  And that enthusiastic response inspires the actors onstage to even better performances.

Community theater done well is a significant asset to a community.  If community theater is sometimes thought of as a place anyone off the street can, with minimal preparation, can get up on the stage for a moment of glory, that’s unfortunate.  It’s also untrue.  I watched as the actors who ultimately appeared onstage in The Odd Couple auditioned for their roles, rehearsed several nights a week for more than two months, and wandered the streets talking to their iPods as they learned lines.  I watched as the director coaxed and cajoled the cast members to better and better performances.  I observed as experienced consultants coached the director and the actors to fine tune those performances.  And I saw the ultimate result.

We’re determined to do community theater well.  A performance should should leave the actors proud for having left the audience delighted.  Hearty laughter at the comic lines is essential.  Tears at the touching moments are appreciated.  Rapt silence at the climactic conclusion is expected.  But that’s not enough.  When the final lights go out or the final curtain falls, the audience has to be changed for the better.  Changed in the sense of being excited to live life fuller or relieved that, compared to the characters onstage, their own life decisions have been wiser.   Shared experience makes us closer, makes us a community.  Community theater provides shared experience.

We have two more plays planned this season, both by Neil Simon.  We’ll be casting Rumors in the next month or so for a February opening. Jake’s Women, opening in April, will be about two months later.  And, in the meantime, we’re honing our skills.  Many of the actors in community theater begin their acting careers as adults.  And acting is more than standing onstage reciting lines.  Fortunately, though, it’s a skill that can be learned, rather than an innate talent.  And we work on those skills.  We just finished a two-day workshop on directing, both from the perspective of the director and that of the actor.  We’ve got more workshops planned.

Bigfork is a community and there are many ways to get involved in a community.  Acting onstage in full view of your friends, neighbors, relatives, and coworkers is a quick, total immersion method for getting involved in community.   We’re intent on enhancing the Bigfork Community Players’ contribution as a significant part of our community.  

Membership in the Bigfork Community Players is open to everyone interested in being a part of this aspect of our community.  Dues are $10 a year.  Get an application at our website, www.BigforkCommunityPlayers.com, and come play with us.