Community Theatre (from before the Crisis)

It definitely seems like a different world now, but I thought I would get a few thoughts down on community theatre as a reminder of what is on pause right now.

I guess it can be a fairly thin line between community theatre and the black box theatre that I generally favour.  I suppose the main difference is that, for the most part, the actors in community theatre accept that they are are not on a professional track and they are a bit older than the artistic troupes at black box theatres.  Perhaps this is not universally true...  What does seem to be true is that they lean a bit more heavily on broad comedies, so Norm Foster is commonly programmed, for example, whereas in the past it might have been Neil Simon.

I don't think I saw much of what would be considered community theatre in Chicago, but there were actually two groups in Vancouver that shared the Jericho Arts Centre out at Jericho Beach (I will say it was a lot easier getting out there after I signed up for Car2Go!).  One was the United Players of Vancouver and the second was Ensemble Theatre Company.  I thought I had seen another show by the United Players, but the only one that I am sure I saw was Alan Bennett's The Habit of Art in 2013.

I'd say Ensemble Theatre was a little more ambitious, usually taking on a Jacobean play each season.  I saw them doing Middleton’s Women Beware Women in 2013. I can't quite remember why I passed on seeing The Alchemist in 2012, but it probably was related to the theatre being pretty far from my house and I don't think I had Car2Go at that point. As I indicated, they do seem to be a bit more ambitious, and they are relocating to a theatre on Granville Island, so maybe they shouldn't be counted as community theatre any longer.

I don't really put Alumnae Theatre in the same category as community theatre, though it probably is one notch below professional theatre.  It's conceptually much closer to black box theatre (in a quite nice theatre space), though Toronto Irish Players (which rents out space from Alumnae) fits reasonably well into the community theatre grouping.  I've never actually seen anything by Theatre Etobicoke, and they seem to only put on one show a year.  The Scarborough Players are a lot more active, but I haven't gotten out that way to see anything by them either.

I've seen a handful of performances by the Village Players out in Bloor West.  I had a couple of bad experiences out there (Ken Ludwig's Fox on the Fairway was particularly terrible) and had largely written them off.  But then this season they were doing Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie, and I thought this would be a good one to take my son to, and the acting was solid, as was the overall production.  So I decided to be a bit more open-minded towards them.  I then saw Lindsay-Abaire's Good People (just before the hammer came down on live performances) and the acting was very good.  They definitely have a tendency to pick weak but crowd-pleasing comedies, but I'll definitely give them a shot in the future on a case-by-case basis.

I've probably seen the most plays over at East Side Players, which probably not coincidentally is the one closest to me (performing in the Todmorden Mills Heritage Site in the Don River Valley).  They do put on high quality performances, but I do find myself frustrated with their decisions.  There was nothing I wanted to see in the 2017/2018 or 2019/2020 seasons (though I might have gone to see Disgraced if Mirvish hadn't put it on just a year or so before).  However, the 2018/2019 season was solid (and would have been amazing if they hadn't swapped in Shelagh Stephenson's The Memory of Water for MacDonald's Good Night, Desdemona; Good Morning, Juliette).  I really disliked The Memory of Water and left at intermission, which I think is the first time I've bailed on them.  Note that I'm not the only one that strongly dislikes this play (see the very critical review in Variety).

I have enjoyed these plays the most at East Side Players: Speaking in Tongues by Andrew Bovell, Wonder of the World by David Lindsay-Abaire, Office Hours by Norm Foster and Time Stands Still by Donald Margulies.

One thing that is particularly nice about East Side Players is that the building they are in almost always have art on the walls for sale.  One time there was a small photography exhibit (linked to the Scotiabank's Image Festival).  This was probably my favourite of the bunch.

Calvin Lee, Rain

While most of his recent work features photos of dancers hard at work, Calvin Lee also has a portfolio of textures, from which this photo is drawn.

So that's a bit of an exhaustive run-down of the community theatre I've seen in the recent past.  Here's hoping it isn't too much longer before they can get back on the boards!