having grown up doing community theatre and then some professional shows, i genuinely believe from the very bottom of my heart it is crucial that any human with the desire to perform on a stage gets the chance as many times as they like. singing and dancing are innate to humanity yet we've made it inaccessible to all but the select few we deem "good enough" to tolerate. i think people with no pitch and no rhythm and who can't remember their lines should get to be in musicals and plays and choirs and i mean that.
and community performing arts groups & venues shouldn't have to rely on ticket sales to fund their programs. they should be paid for by taxes and freed to focus solely on engaging & enriching the communities in which they exist.
if a bunch of your neighbors suddenly have the funds and venue to put on the most off-key production of Les Misรฉrables you've ever heard, they're not using up Les Misรฉrables. Other venues will continue to put on Les Misรฉrables with more talent & technical skill.
all that's changed is that there's more Les Misรฉrables in the world. great news if you like Les Misรฉrables.
you don't even have to engage in it if you really don't want to. but if you do you might discover that local performing arts isn't actually about the technical skill of the performers so much as it is being a part of a whole in a way that feeds your very soul.
I'm a professional full time theater maker and I always tell people that if the choice is between bad art or no art, I always choose bad art.
