The Difference between Community-based Theatre and Community Theatre
Cast of Namaste-WHAT? A Nepali-American Variety Show
As a theatre maker in Akron for the last six years, I regularly attend and participate in theatre of all levels and backgrounds. I truly enjoy experiencing the performances that local artists have worked hard to produce, and often wish that more people not involved in the field would come. I tend to support new works more as a patron, but do enjoy a musical or two when the opportunity arises. As I’ve navigated these spaces, supporting personal friends and making new connections with strangers, I have also been an advocate for my own work with Gum-Dip Theatre. I’ve come to relish in the challenge of sharing an elevator speech in a crowded room with people I’ve just met in the hopes of growing our network for future audience members, supporters, and artists.
However, there is one issue that consistently arises in these conversations when talking about our mission - the difference between community theatre and community-based theatre. It’s a matter of semantics yet an important one to emphasize because it determines the intention of the work. I firmly believe that the words we use are a reflection of how we relate to the issue and a revelation of the personal beliefs and subconscious biases we’ve grown to hold over time. Gum-Dip Theatre produces community-based and -generated theatrical projects that center and highlight community members as culture bearers, storytellers, and artists, as opposed to community theater which uses previously produced plays with community members acting.
Because art requires creation through participation, all art must have a community in order to create. Community-based theatre is an interactive and collaborative type of devised theatre that relies fully on the participation of a surrounding community. Jan Cohen-Cruz begins her book Local Acts with “Community-based art is a field in which artists, collaborating with people whose lives directly inform the subject matter, express collective meaning.” Led by a company of theatre artists, a community-based theatre production presents the stories of community members while including community actors. Much of this type of theatre holds a social and political agenda in giving a voice to underrepresented populations through participation and engagement in the development process of the performance. There is no final expectation when beginning these projects, only the intention to create a play that is based on the stories of the particular community members within a time frame that’s within the community’s capacity. Every production is a tapestry of a community’s stories and values.
Theatre provides an opportunity to examine, laugh at, cringe, cry with, and think about the issues that people in our community have lived, or are currently living. When attending a community-based theatre production, audience members have no expectations of what’s to come. Additionally, the audience members are typically reflective of the actors, so the representation allows for them to be more invested in the story. Community-based theatre goes beyond community theater by considering how this will affect the community and the members who are involved in the process. The performance has a dual purpose of “building and reflecting community in recognition of the fluidity and multiplicity of identities.” This performance is aware of its community, and thus creating a more inclusive production of community identity, as opposed to community theatre, which includes community members but not their identity. Because it is “building and reflecting,” the performance motivates the community to question its own behavior, encouraging agency and potential change. Cohen-Cruz also compares community-based theatre with community theater. She argues that community theater lacks the artistic agency that community-based theatre cultivates.
Community theatre, also known as amateur theatre, is defined as theatre that is performed by amateur actors and singers. It is distinct from professional theatre because actors are not paid and the productions are usually done as a social and artistic activity. Community theatre mostly uses previously created scripts from musicals or plays that have been produced professionally on Broadway and nationwide tours. These scripts are a blueprint of performance for folks to use in creating their productions. It’s a great challenge for artists to practice and learn the lines, music, and choreography of something that has been successful in the past. At community theaters, the talent and experience can range depending on their connections and years of history. It’s a wonderful opportunity to introduce performance to someone new as well. However, it is important to be aware of how these plays and musicals were originally produced on Broadway.
As the most populated city in the United States, New York City is known to be the epicenter of the country because of its social, political, and economic capital. Broadway (and London’s West End) is known to represent the highest commercial level of live theatre in the English-speaking world. The country regards the new works that come out of Broadway to be the best of the best, and a representation of American culture. Unfortunately, there are many barriers to access in attending, producing, or working for a Broadway production. Tickets are generally a few hundred dollars in order to (hopefully) cover the high expenses of the space, equipment, and artists involved. It is an unequal system that disempowers artists who have less capital to create work, and yet we consider it to be exemplary of who we are as a nation. According to Mimi Onuoha’s article “Broadway won’t document its dramatic race problem, so a group of actors spent five years quietly gathering this data themselves,” she states while displaying data charts seen here:
“ For the past seven seasons white actors have monopolized the stage on and off Broadway, accounting for somewhere around 80% of roles, a ratio that has seen little fluctuation over time. If you split Broadway genres into plays and musicals, white actors dominate both. Plays, which are generally regarded as riskier endeavors for producers, make less money than musicals ($181 million versus $1.17 billion in the 2014-15 season). Musicals draw more tourists as well as reliably contain more roles for people of color. But there is not much difference in diversity if you compare plays to musicals. Whites have held 84.5% of roles in plays versus 74% of roles in musicals, making them still the most highly represented group on Broadway’s stages by far.”
Even with Off-Broadway companies, like the Public Theatre, producing work created by a more diverse pool of artists, with some works making it to Broadway, there is still an imbalance in representation for racial and ethnic background, as well as geographic, socio-economic, and other forms of marginalized identity. As we continue to reproduce works from a professional industry with a grossly unequitable distribution of capital, we are not strengthening the power of the communities who truly need the benefits of theatre.
The cast of Denied Admission.
Theatre is about learning how to speak clearly and thoughtfully, to listen, creative problem solving, motivation and commitment, the ability to work cooperatively and independently, respect for colleagues, adaptability and flexibility, self-discipline, and a willingness to accept responsibility. Even outside of acting, these skills are essential to the success of a self-aware, empowered person. This is why I started Gum-Dip Theatre in 2016. Practicing theatre has shaped my voice to be strong and allowed my trauma to heal, while cultivating my passion as an artist to use it as a tool for community building and organizing, especially with communities that have had not had the opportunity to express themselves in this way.
Throughout Gum-Dip’s four years, we have used different methods in order to produce new theatrical works. Inspired by leaders and artists of Theatre of the Oppressed, theatre for social change, and community-based theatre, we have produce 9 original full-length plays and a countless number of outreach programs and traveling performances. Over the next year, I intend to reflect on and share best practices from a few highlight productions through monthly blogs. I will also be writing about our upcoming project Three Countries, One Mother which will be our highest quality play that we’ve worked on so far because of support from a Knight Arts Challenge Award. I will examine the methods we use for this project as it is developed over the next two years. We want to build platforms that center and highlight underrepresented voices by way of community-based theatre: created for, with, and about community.
Visit Gum-Dip Theatre’s website to learn more about their work!