Building Community

After posting about stress and communication and the value of the arts, I want to talk about community. We had a lovely picnic this past weekend, a return to a tradition we had let go the past few years due to weather and rehearsal schedules, but a really important tradition for our theater family. One that we shouldn't overlook next year. Our art needs its community.

Its easy to look at community building by arts organizations as a way to push member ship, season subscriptions and ticket sales, but community building means so much more that fund sourcing. Without community, you really have no soul to build on. You can have the most amazing, technical, pitch perfect performance that falls on deaf ears in your empty auditorium if you do not nurture the community around you. We've already talked about why they need you, but don't forget, you need them.

The community brings the joy that feeds our souls as artists. It also brings the frustration that fuels our passions, and the indignation that sparks our actions. We do not exist, create or continue without our community.

One example is the Pajama Jamborees, sponsored by the Festival City Orchestra. Free orchestral concerts for families in Milwaukee get kids hooked. It shows young children that artists are their people! All kids create, but not all adults do. Don't we want to keep that spark alive and growing regardless of age? http://festivalcitysymphony.org/concerts/pajama-jamborees/

The International Thespian Festival held in Lincoln, NE every June is also a tremendous example of community. Students from all over the country coming together to share and perform and be amazing for a week on an environment that completely understands, supports and encourages them. https://www.schooltheatre.org/thespianfestival2016/home

But he greatest example of a theater community that I ever witnessed was in the small town of Sharron in the mountains of Vermont, I have family there an when I was home visiting, my cousin asked if I wanted to go to the theater to see the high school show there. It was a show the students had written. I said sure and so we went to a beautiful old play house to watch the show. Sharron has one high school. The population is small. You would not have known that from the packed house at this performance. I was stunned. In addition to the show, there was a fundraising auction and a dinner going on in adjoining event halls. When i talked to my cousin about it, her response was just as remarkable.

The entire school is part of the production. The actors rehearse for months, of course, but the entire school gets involved in the show the week before they open. They all help plan, build sets, make costumes, paint and prop and they cart the whole operation to the theater a few miles away, who gives them the space for the weekend of their run. This is an annual tradition that sells out every year for three nights. The entire community is so committed to the importance of coming together for this event, it is always a smashing success. The script, the show itself, was secondary to the experience of such an overwhelming sense of community commitment to a weekend of art.

So what can you do to build the community? Of course, there is always coming to see the shows. The easiest way to support us, but you can also get involved by joining our parent group. Don't have kids in the program? Get some friends together and come to a fund raiser. Really want to immerse yourself in the culture? Come to Tremper on October 22nd and see high schools from all over South East Wisconsin perform in the first round of State One Act competitions. You can cheer the home team and support theater in the state at the same time! Want more? visit the Rhode Center for a show, or check out events sponsored by Backyard Dream Studios, a new company renovating the Orpheum downtown to bring more theater to Kenosha. Owned and spearheaded by KUSD Theater Arts Alumn, Alex Kudrna. Check out their BLOCK PARTY October 1st! Talk about community!
https://www.facebook.com/backyarddreamstudios

We need our communities. We need to embrace new members and grow the ranks of our support base not for what those members can do for our bottom line, but for what we can all do together to change the world around us for the better. So come to our shows, drop in on the picnics, be a part of our community. Join the family.