Dinner and a Show

Last week my wife and I, on the advice of one of the musicians in the show, drove to Salem to see Meshuggah-nuns at the Salem Community Theater. It was a fluff piece, another in the Nunsense series of musicals featuring singing and dancing nuns. The story centered around a cruise ship that was staging a production of Fiddler on the Roof, and all of the cast became ill except for the guy that played Tevya. The cruise company, in turn, hired the Little Sisters of Hoboken to join the Jewish lead in an ecumenical extravaganza of Catholicism and Jewry. The show was a lot of fun, especially the Say It In Yiddish song which compared Latin and Yiddish, the most expressive language known to man.

Here’s the thing. The cast was good. The production values were good. The musicians were outstanding…and the theater was packed. I mean packed. All of the shows were pretty much sold out…in Salem, Ohio….in August….on a beautiful, sunny evening. So what gives with community theater? Why the attraction all of a sudden?

This area, at least for people my age, has always had a soft spot for summer stock. Warren was home of the Kenley Players, and everyone went to the Kenley Players. And Youngstown has always had the Youngstown Playhouse. It has fallen on bad times of late, but is showing signs of robust recovery. But add to the mix The Oakland Center for the Arts, TNT in Niles, the Victorian Players, the new Rust Belt Theater, Easy Street Productions, the New Castle Playhouse, the Salem Community Theater, the Stage Left Players in Lisbon, the YSU and KSU theater departments and productions, and numerous ad hoc community production companies like Move Over Broadway operating out of St. Michael’s in Canfield and the Boardman Community Theater…so what’s the story?

What is amazing is the amount of talent here, and it is substantial to the point of being breathtaking. But I have heard through the grapevine that it isn’t just local talent. The local theater community is rapidly becoming proving grounds for those wanting to build up their resumes as they launch their careers. The area is drawing talent almost nationwide as folks search out venues to hone their craft. That includes actors and actresses as well as writers and directors. Maybe it used to be that local productions left much to be desired because of questionable casting. That certainly isn’t the case anymore.

I am thrilled to see that the local production companies are finally getting together and launching a unified newsletter about upcoming stage events, the Mahoning Valley Theater Buzz. Over the next couple of weeks you will be able to see Chicago at the Youngstown Playhouse, Betty’s Summer Vacation at the Oakland, the Move Over Broadway production of Godspell in Canfield, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the New Castle Playhouse, Our Town at the Victorian Theater, Dial M for Murder at the Trumbull New Theater. This is good stuff. This is quality stuff. And we should be proud.

I hope that as these organizations begin to work together, that perhaps over the next year or so they could put together a Summer Theater Festival ala The Shaw Festival at Niagara on the Lake, Ontario. We got the venues, the talent, and some damn good theater people who make another reason why I like living in Youngstown.

So for you old Kenley Player fans, if the movies suck…and many of them do…how about dinner and a show? It’s a great night out.