Once More with Feeling

I recently sat down with Pat Roman, one of the founders the community theatre company Mask & Mirror, to talk about the ins and outs of the greater Portland area’s community theatre scene. The conversation is part of a longer project that explores the community theatre fandom that I have been working on for the past several months. I am observing their process as they mount a production of Trip to Bountiful, which will go up February 27.

I started the project because I want to understand why anyone would support theatre in this way. If fandom is about supporting an art form or an aspect of an art form, then why isn’t volunteering, regular ticket buying, or donating enough? Why go through the trouble (and expense) of putting up your own show?

Pat’s answer to these questions got me thinking about my own twisting path through the theatre industry. Like many of my friends and colleagues, I got into theatre in high school. In my case, I was encouraged to take the basic theatre courses by a family friend, Paula. I was already in the firm grip of puberty and Paula’s promise of finding the girl of my dreams finally lured me into my high school’s Little Theatre auditorium. I was lucky, the theatre program at my high school was very active, doing four or five productions every year. Each semester offering a new set of social and theatrical discoveries through productions like Cabaret, The Elephant Man, Jesus Christ Superstar, and  Marat/Sade, which became the foundation for the work I would do in college and later as a professional.

While all of the memories I have of those productions have the same rose-colored texture, one in particular throbs red in my memory: The Who’s Tommy. Our production coincided with an anniversary of a visit that the Who had made to our theatre auditorium on an obscure a leg of one their American tours many years ago. As such, our production was massive, complete with rented truss work, scaffolding, and a powerful set of moving concert lights. Auditions were also equally contentious not just for Tommy, but also for the Gypsy Queen, the Pinball Wizard, and Captain Walker. Hundreds of hours were spent together perfecting the music, programming lights, constructing costumes, and memorizing dance steps. I think we all felt a sense of responsibility to each other, to the material, and to ourselves to put forward our best.  To this day, the opening riff of any Who song (Pinball Wizard in particular) sends chills dancing across every nerve ending in my body.

As an adult working in the theatre industry, that same sense of responsibility and joy are still present but are often tempered. Many of us end up doing commercial work or filling administrative roles in theatre companies so that we can do work that we are passionate about while still putting food on the table. Pat pointed out that many of the people who do community theatre are chasing that feeling, that connectedness that can only be found in a heathy production. It’s an empowering feeling that can be felt months and years after. 

In reality it is what fandom is all about; returning to a place where we felt powerful. It’s doesn’t matter if it’s recreating that moment of discovery in a fictional world, putting on the vestments a storied moment in your family’s history, living in that moment where you wanted to be a rock star, or that time you first stepped into the limelight. We all desperately want to relive that moment, to touch that font of power, even if just for a moment.