I am a strong believer in the power and importance of live theater. And I believe that in the coming years that we’ll see a new emergence of live theater, even as we’re presented with ever increasing digital entertainments.
Why? Because we need theater. We need to see it and we need to make it.
We just have to figure out a way to pay for it.
I am hopeful for the creation of very high quality, professional, local and community theaters for every small town and village across the planet. Theaters that are made up of members of the communities, staffed with actors, set designers, costumers, directors, producers, and playwrights, all with professional experience, but who live in the community and make their living doing, well, other things.
Am I a dreamer? Perhaps. But I’m also a visionary. There is a way to make this happen.
You have to start by looking not just at the theater, but at the community. What’s happening to the local newspapers, radio stations, even television? They’re struggling, and for the most part, completely failing to serve the local community, to be local.
My proposed solution is to look to the past: the Federal Theater Project. But I also want to broaden its scope so that each local theater is also the local news source (but with no printed paper), including the online local news, radio, TV, and theater. It could be associated with the local library to build a true community center.
Should such a theater/news organization be funded by the community? Absolutely. Because this is part of what makes a community.
The What Is The Future Of Live Theater? by Randy Murray, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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