Look through my eyes for a moment as I settle myself into the President’s chair for the year. Look with me around the table at the Board of Directors of the theatre. Yes, we have the officers you’d expect in any organization—but we also have many positions distinct to the work of a theatre, from executive producer, to managers of costumes and props and the physical stage, to directors of communications, subscriptions, and hospitality. Walk down the stairs from the dressing room, where we have our meetings, to the stage and “house,” and you’ll see the rest: perhaps a rehearsal going on, with actors and director and stage manager working to bring the playwright’s script to life; perhaps the set going up and the lighting instruments being focused; and all the chairs, row upon row, waiting for the audience.
All of us, including the audience, will have come together for one reason only: to make theatre. The preparation is hard work on a shoestring budget. The event begins with a held breath—backstage, as actors and technicians wait for “Go”; in the house, as the audience wonders what kind of adventure they will be part of. Once the lights come up, we will all breathe together.
Theatre is what we call this experience, the invisible thing that happens in this space: a charge of energy acting on receptive imaginations to create a flash of recognition, of insight, of emotion. Theatre gives us ways of exploring what it means to be human—by letting us see particular human beings in a particular situation at a particular time and place, and then inviting us to feel kinship. This is a kind of consciousness, an empathy, that can only make us more generous-minded as individuals and perhaps, eventually, as a society. Sometimes the play is an intense drama, pulling us into the soul of its world; sometimes it is a light entertainment, offering its insights only after our laughter has subsided. In any case, we all—actors, technicians, sponsors, audience— consider it important enough to spend our time and money, even when both are in short supply, to participate in it. The play is, truly, “the thing.”
Thank you for being part of the 2009-2010 season at Westport Community Theatre.
--Ruth Anne Baumgartner
p.s. If you’d like to get involved more deeply in the WCT theatrical adventure, please contact us via this website. From the ushers down in the aisles to the technicians up in the light booth and everywhere in between, volunteers are always welcome!
