If I build it...

If I build it, will they come?

I am seriously flirting with the idea of creating a not-for-profit theatre company in my hometown. I see the need. There’s nothing here but one seasonal community theatre, high school shows, and an overly aggressive local money-mill rehashing Broadway musicals with a mini-star-system that leaves out all the talented students who have not impressed the local guru or who are not deemed “good enough”, “popular enough”, “pretty enough”, etc.

So I threw caution to the wind, tossed my hat into the ring and put forth the summer program I ran in Bridgeport for many years. I even got two local agencies to collaborate on sponsoring it. So now I wait. It’s a great program but, with only one student already committed, I wonder, do people really want to learn anything? Are they just content to pretend they are stars? Does it matter to them that poor directing and teaching can ruin their instruments? Do they care that they are lost without someone telling them where to go and how to say this or that? Do they care if they don’t understand a word coming out of their own mouths as long as Mom, Dad and Grandma are tickled pink? Do Mom, Dad and Grandma understand that Junior actually is NOT good but could be if someone would only take the time to teach him something?

Meanwhile, I joined with friends who already have a terrific professional program going and got three shows up here. And I am astonished at how difficult it is to get people to buy tickets! These shows that sell out on Westport, Greenwich and Fairfield, are struggling to find an audience in my backwater town. Why, I ask? Why don’t people care?

So I pause. If I invest my time, my money, my heart in creating something more challenging than another rehashing of a commercial musical, will anyone care? Will they come? Will I survive? All questions are moot if the lawyer doesn’t call me back.