the actor playing Sebastian fell off the front of the stage during his big dance number.

that might be all i need to say re: this particular production.

but i’m going to say a little more, i guess. oh, community theatre. you are the reason i went down this crazy-ass career path. when i was 19, and home from college for a summer, i attended the Boise Actors Guild’s (BAG) production of Three Penny Opera. it was so bad that, well, it was the moment i decided that if i was going to do theatre, i’d have to do it right, do it professionally. hobby theatre would be worse than not doing it at all.

it’s like running. running is an all-inclusive sport. there’s room for super fast elite runners, and for middle-of-the-packers like me, and for joggers/trotters/run-walkers, and everyone else. and there’s room in this world for all kinds of theatre. even hokey community theatre. it’s just that me personally, i don’t want to get stuck in the start corral behind the women who are going to link arms and walk the entire marathon 4-abreast any more than as a theatre artist, i want to see plays that have awkward pacing and timing, a gaudy concept hung awkwardly on the framework of a play that, while perhaps not his best, is still shakespeare, sets painted by interns and design concepts clashing with one another, overall aesthetic abandoned in favor of each designer, each moment being served individually, equity actors with classical training struggling gamely through scenes with community players for whom shakespeare simply eludes their tongues and hearts.

uh, yeah. that’s how i really feel. i do love shakespeare under the stars. but my standards are high. i’m not a purist, by any means. put rollerskates on hamlet if you want, whatever. just create a concept that serves the play, rather than trying to force the play to serve your concept.

next weekend, oregon shakespeare festival, and the week after that cal shakes. i’m feeling more optimistic about those ventures.