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How Theater Creates Community
By Karen Hunter
 | | Martial arts expert Barry Small helped Chuck Rek (left) and Louis Barney (right) prepare for battle. |
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As the Mountain Laurel Players have prepared for their upcoming performance of MacBeth, director Penny Owen has kept talking about how theater creates community. Following is a reply I received from her when I asked her to elaborate on that theme.
"Dear Karen/ Hecate—
"You asked me why I am so obsessed with the idea that theater builds community. I will tell you: theater has built a community here in Winsted that is both wide and deep.
"The MacBeth cast is composed of people who range in age from 4 to 60-something. They come from different ethnic backgrounds. Some loved school enough to stay to get advanced degrees; some were ready to quit the day they entered high school; some work on the line; some are skilled tradesmen; some own businesses; and some teach children while another teaches adults. They are all different, and yet they have come together to give the larger community a gift: the gift of story. They have struggled with lines; they have struggled with characters and relationships; they have struggled with a director who tells them one thing one moment, then changes her mind the next. Each has had a moment of frustration or anger with someone else, but they never abandoned each other or the story.
 | | Louis Barney and Amanda Maragnano rehearse their roles as MacBeth and Lady MacBeth. |
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"But relationships in theater don’t end there. Blanche DuBois says that she relies on the kindness of strangers and so do people in the theater. You have thanked me for coming to Winsted to teach theater, but I did not come alone. Douglas Campbell, one of the founders of the Stratford Festival in Canada, comes with me. He became my mentor when he learned that I did theater with working-class kids. And Douglas was a working-class kid when Sybil Thorndike gave him a job; he became an actor on the English stage. When Tyrone Guthrie was invited to Canada to start a theater, Douglas went with him and together they started the Stratford Festival and the Guthrie Theater in Minnesota.
"Barry Small volunteered to teach our actors stage combat. Barry brings with him the expertise of his teacher, John Palais, who studied with Master Wang, one of the students of General Choi, the founder Tae Kwon Do. All these strangers have helped teach Winsted’s new actors.
"And then there is the kindness of the playwrights—those strangers who give actors the words that make their stories come to life! When Amanda Maragnano and Lou Barney, our Lady MacBeth and MacBeth, joined a theater class at NCCC, they wanted to perform in a play. We had no money to pay for royalties, but A.R. Gurney, who lives in Connecticut, gave us the rights to three of his one-act plays to start our theater. And, of course, there’s Shakespeare—a man whose words have sustained poor theaters for over 400 years!
"But the community doesn’t end there. Today I watched as the actors put our set together and cleaned the hall (one of my favorite days in the process). That hall was renovated by Youth Acting for Winsted (a project of the Office of the Community Lawyer). We used the money they raised to build the stage floor. It was their dream to have a theater in Winsted. They have gone on to colleges around the country, but we are realizing their dream here.
"So you see, theater builds connections. And with each production, the web of relationships grows. —Penny"
I know that Penny is right. We all feel it when we are working together. But although Shakespeare and Youth Acting for Winsted provided a stepping-stone for a community theater, the arts have been stagnant in our area for some time. So thank you, Penny, for being the little pebble dropped in our pond and stirring things up, so that a ripple effect will continue to be felt throughout our community.
And thanks to all readers of The Voice for following our story these past few weeks. Join us for our performances of MacBeth at Redman's Hall, 15 Case Ave. in Winsted on Thursday through Saturday, March 27-29 at 7 p.m.; and Sunday, March 30 at 4 p.m. Admission is free. I promise you theater magic!
Hecate
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