There is often a fine line between a theatre production that looks amateur and tin-pot and one that has a professional finesse to it. Amateur theatre provides a vital contribution to American theatre as a whole and often are able to explore both lesser-known scripts as well as pioneering fledging plays.
Outsource
In more recent times, a growing number of amateur theatre production companies across the United States have started to employ a professional lighting crew, a professional sound crew and a professional director.
The benefits of working with a professional production team are abundant and adopting a professional approach right from the initial production meeting all the way through to the night of the dress rehearsal and show week is crucial. It would be incredibly prudent to have your own amateur theatre production team shadow, where possible, the professional hires so they can learn new tricks of the trade on the job as and when things happen.
The Devil is in the Detail
Your amateur theatre company’s costume designer is one of the most important members of the production team in terms of elevating the standard of your company’s performances.
Costumes are one of the more expensive aspects to putting on a production, yet are simultaneously one of the most important elements in elevating your production’s overall aesthetic quality. Invest in some quality hair and makeup supplies from an experienced supplier and ensure that every small detail is exactly in-keeping with the design aesthetic you are aiming for.
Detail is the most crucial difference when you come to compare amateur theatre productions and professional ones and detail is what you as a company should always be striving to improve. If you have an onstage group dance number, for example, each dancer should have the same facial expression, be standing in exactly the same way and it should generally appear that each dancer is mirroring each other with every step, turn and ball-change. When an actor is reciting lines, any slight deviation from the script itself is unacceptable, except when the character is deliberately and planned to be ad-libbing or interacting with the audience.
Passion and Pride
Amateur Theatre has wide-reaching, positive influences on not only the teams that produce and perform in each production, but a wider impact on the community as a whole. Whatever your role in your local amateur dramatics company, you should be proud to represent the best in home-grown amateur talent in your area and strive to give your very best not only to the performance itself but to the company itself.
Whilst professional theatre productions and companies are measured on their success by their monetary value, amateur theatre companies have their value in the members themselves and for the community it represents. Amateur theater is a space where communities can reflect themselves back into local audiences and are therefore automatically and naturally significantly more invested in the performance itself.
