GOOD OMEN We are subject these days to so much severe criticism in the world of
the theater, and with some justification, perhaps, because standards have, perhaps, wavered rather severely in the face of much material which is now, more or less commonly accepted as being normal in films and other forms of family entertainment.
I was pleased to find that the citizens of a small town in the Valley of Virginia - a community known as Crimora, Virginia, has started its own community theater. The first production is set for tonight at the Community Center, which, is, I assume, the old, school house building which was "consolidated out" of existence some years ago. That's a good thing for towns to do with their discarded school structures, too.
The first play is a comedy, which has a cast of over twenty, showing that someone in the group knows how to go about starting such a theater. Choosing a comedy means people won't worry so much about it all and take it too seriously at first. They will take mistakes in stride. Audiences will be more receptive, understanding and encouraging. Every on-stage personality needs offstage support and that's where a lot of individuals can really "star" in a Little Theater group. Twenty or so cast members - plus all the others needed - will pretty much "cover" the town's potential.
I have seen a small town revitalized at first hand by this dramatic method. I was a member of the Little Theater of Radford, Virginia in the 1930's and I have often been amazed at all it has meant to me. We did three plays and one set of Three One-Act plays each year. The short plays became schools in which new acting talent was developed; new stage hands, painters, directors and generated wider, stronger town support because we touched the lives of more and more residents.
I left home after several years to go to college and the writing I have doing since then in newspaper and magazine jobs, in radio and television has been very often been echoes of things I learned on-stage, back-stage and away from the actual stage doing PR work to help make it all move.
Congratulations Crimora, Va on the Opening Night of your Community Players! It will take work and dedication, but it will be a joy in ways you cannot possibly know until the curtain comes down on a series of plays which as affected the lives of those who participated, and in doing so ,enriched the life of the community at large and possibly became a special blessing to some talented unknowns in your area. Break a leg.
A.L.M. February 18, 2005 [c456wds]
