So you’ve been out to the theatre, seeing the shows, but being in the audience doesn’t feel like enough anymore. You’ve caught “The Bug.” You don’t want to be in the crowd; you want to be in the room where it happens. You want to try defying gravity. The Phantom of the Opera is there, inside your mind.
But where to start? How to get from the stalls to the wings? Becoming a theatre professional is a rocky road filled with rejection and union dues, but there are many other paths to the stage through more independent, non-professional companies.
If you’re in Rocky View County, aka Calgary and the surrounding area, there are plenty of resources to find opportunities and openings through Calgary ACTS, Calgary’s Alliance of Community Theatres, which connects companies in Calgary with communities from Airdrie to Okotoks to Strathmore to Bragg Creek and beyond. So if you’re not in the urban center, you can still find your way to Shakespeare’s Verona or a British farce or fairy tale adventures.
Independent theatre takes many forms. Theatre folks are like fish; there are so many variations and sub-categories from flatfish to shellfish to eels to sharks that trying to lump them all into one label is akin to madness. It begins with “some companies prefer plays, others stick to musicals,” but even within those two categories, there are variations. Some stick to classics, well-known tales like Singin’ in the Rain or Arsenic and Old Lace, others seek out the newer and stranger like Urinetown or 1984. New works get staged every year by local writers. There are murder mysteries, comedies, and more twists and turns in William Shakespeare than you can thrust a stage dagger at.
And these shows need people. If you can carry a tune and manage a simple dance, there’s a show desperately seeking chorus members, a great way to dip a toe into the world of musicals. You might think, “But I can’t possibly,” but you don’t need to be Hugh Jackman; if you can learn a TikTok dance, you can be in a community musical chorus, and they’ll be happy to have you. So too do plays need ensembles. Dozens of shows every year need hundreds of people who understand that there are no small parts, only small actors.
Nervous about being onstage? Not a problem. Backstage crews are the lifeblood of any production. The stage manager keeps everything running, lighting and sound operators make the effects happen, and running crews bring the show from a Capulet party to Juliet’s balcony. And the thing all of these positions have in common is that there are never enough people to fill them, so any company is happy to teach you. How to use QLab, how to build a set, how to take blocking notes, hand ow to be the backbone of the production. Companies hold workshops to pass on these skills because they are valued and often in short supply, so put your hand up to help backstage, get into the world, learn the ropes, and figure out where you want to go from there.
But all of this may feel like you need to learn a new skill to make your way into the theatre world, and reader, that is likely not the case. Can you do a thing? Do you have skills? Someone needs what you can do to make their company function. Running a theatre company is actually very complicated and requires a lot of skill sets that the theatre kid with a dream and a small amount of start-up capital might not have considered. Now they need you to join their Board of Directors or executive committee. Good with Excel and math? You could be the Treasurer. Good at filling out forms? Someone needs help with a grant application, society paperwork, or filing reports on how fundraising money was used. For anyone to belt Memories alongside the Jellicle Cats, someone has to herd those cats, and someone needs to submit a one-page form to the government detailing how they were herded, along with a signed and audited copy of the financials. Someone has to keep the lights on and the paperwork in order, and a little passion for the stage and the capacity to stay organized will go a long way on a Board.
There’s a real joy to putting on a stage show, a camaraderie that forms between people united in a creative goal that consumes your life for four months. And there are a lot of ways to get yourself a piece of that joy, dozens of ways to contribute, and plenty of companies happy to have you join. Get yourself on some mailing lists and find your yellow brick road to the wrap party.
Dan Gibbins is a playwright, actor, director and producer. He co-founded Scorpio Theatre in 2000 and has worked in Calgary’s community theatre scene for decades.
