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First things first: the talent must move. We must attract it by offering a drive and sense of audacity that is not true of the theater they have known…If they don’t like what we have done, let them create their own theaters— there are places all over the country ripe for them. But let them not wait for the system to accommodate them when, after making their rounds, they are already deformed.


— Herbert Blau, The Impossible Theater, 1964

In the 1920&amp;#8217;s, the country had a severe deficit of theaters  outside of the big cities. Groups dispersed from their homes to new ones across  the country all throughout the decade. This move was coined &amp;#8220;The Little Theatre  Movement&amp;#8221; as community theater was born out of grassroots efforts made by  one-time city dwellers. Troupes like The Provincetown Players and Samuel  Eliot&amp;#8217;s Little Theatre in Indianapolis in 1915 helped to shape this new movement. The Little  Theatre Movement paved the way for The Federal Theatre project of President  Roosevelt&amp;#8217;s Works Progress Administration as these &amp;#8220;little theatres&amp;#8221; became  more popular. For the first time in American history there was wide-spread,  non-commercial theater being produced across the nation at one time. The  Federal Theatre was able to open the same show in 19 different cities on the  same evening! A national network existed where theatrical practitioners were in  constant contact, creating active discourse on subjects ranging from theater  performances and innovation to local elections and societal issues. The advent  of the National Endowment for the Arts in 1966 and tax law changes founded  not-for-profit status, which resulted in extensive growth of resident  non-profit theaters, and the market was flooded with new money&amp;#8212;working to keep  art alive as well as stimulate the economy.<br />
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    And all of this was done without computers and the internet. <br />
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    Could this not happen again? Yes. But a new strategy has to be formulated which  takes into consideration our current climate, and also learns from the steps  and missteps of our Federal Theater ancestors. We currently have no WPA, and  the Federal Theatre Project per se is long dead, as is, sadly, the majority of  public funding. But the country is still there, vast and large, and  opportunities abound for the brave and modest theater artists who dare to set  off into the great wheat fields, deserts and mega-malls of America, and begin laying a foundation. </p>
  <p>The greatness and the tragedy of the success of the FTP was  how many people it inspired to become artists by offering opportunity, and how  these artists gave birth to other artists and clogged the pools of rich theatre  as they moved to the cities once the money and opportunity dried up. But the  audience did not dry up. It still exists stronger than ever, but is secretive,  hidden, and underserved.</p>
  <p><strong>A modest proposal: finding where the grass roots</strong></p>
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  First I get to know the community&amp;#8212;I attend public functions, go out to eat,  have drinks in bars. I get involved in local clubs, see local shows. I meet  people. At the same time I am working on the school production. I have chosen a  play that the community would like to see, and the students would like to be  in, perhaps a musical&amp;#8212;<em>The Wizard of Oz</em>, or <em>Grease</em>. I teach  after-school acting classes. Within a year or two, I&amp;#8217;m meeting the parents of  these students at the shows. I&amp;#8217;ve become active in the local political scene.  I&amp;#8217;m working on a campaign for City Council. By this point I know many people in  the community and am slowly earning their trust. They don&amp;#8217;t think I am some  crazy outsider (any longer). They see me as someone who genuinely wants to  become a part of their community, which I do.</p>
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    <em>Theater should belong to those who love it for its own sake, the true  amateurs...The amateurs: how much good they can stir up! The great mistake is  to believe that any real man of the theater, author or actor, is ever a  professional. The miracle which will transform the theater in </em><em>France</em><em> and elsewhere will take place among the amateurs and  nowhere else. There can be no doubt that from the very day the &amp;#8216;professionals&amp;#8217;  control the stage, the theater is destined either to go astray or become  entirely bankrupt.</em><br />
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    Theater is meant to create change on all levels&amp;#8212;and there are already hundreds  of established troupes in NYC who have been practicing this for decades. The  fact remains:  younger theater artists  like myself are not nearly as needed here as we are in other parts of the  country. Simply put, it will take 20 years to become a viable, financially  stable and vital theater company in NYC&amp;#8212;as compared with 10 years to do the  same in Wichita, where our work will be all the more exciting. Across the  ages, artists have attracted artists, have attracted like-minded people seeking  the comfort of fellow-intellectuals, have attracted new business. In the city,  the next step is corporate buy-outs and gentrification, crowding the artists  out. As we are pushed to the fringes, why not seize the frontier? And with a  little foresight, you just might be registered to vote in the red states by  2008. <br />
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<em>Zachary R.  Mannheimer is the Producing Artistic Director of The Subjective Theatre Company  (www.SubjectiveTheatre.org), President and Founder of The Community Dish, a  consortium of NYC Independent Theatre Companies and the Corporate Funding  Associate at HERE Arts Center. Zachary is currently working on a book with  Leonard Jacobs, National Theatre Editor at Backstage, about contemporary themes  in American Theater. You are welcome to contact the author at:  ArtDir@SubjectiveTheatre.org</em></p>

There may well be many Wichita residents who had theatrical ambitions of their own years ago, and some who still do. I talk with parents; perhaps one recommends that I get a directing gig at a local theater, or produce a show with their help. I don’t choose Ionesco or Beckett off the top; I choose a Williams or an O’Neill. The next year we spend putting on these shows and developing an audience. We form a troupe and begin choosing shows together. We begin creating our own work. We collaborate with local universities using their facilities and equipment until we are able to open our own.



This trip is permanent

We may choose to leave after several years of work and turn the operations over to someone else in the community. And yet, this is but one town, one place. We invite our old downtown friends to see our work in this new place. The hope is that after seeing our success—and that we are able to be paid for our work much more generously than in New York, to have a home and a life beyond the city, to be making a serious change in our communities through our art—other theater artists will make the move as well. Entire troupes or companies can move together. Or, as The Subjective Theatre Company is planning to do in the next two years, some members of the company go and some stay, thus creating two factions in two different places, consequently expanding our audience, outlook and our work as a whole.


There is no need for our work to be produced to the proverbial choir. Liberals must present to Conservatives, and Conservatives must present to Liberals. Our work must be seen throughout the land and as often as possible. Otherwise the messages of our plays will fall on dead ears, stifling discourse and debate. Regardless of your mission as a theater artist, if you have been in NYC for less than 10 years, you should leave, now. Whether your goal is purely artistic, or if you seek a broader political goal, does not matter. Our city is clogged with theatrical artists, and more keep turning up. Increasingly there is no money or space to provide for over 1000 independent theater companies. Do we want to stuff our city until it bursts, while depriving the rest of our country of our art? To continually create new theater that challenges our audience, we must mix the pool on a more permanent basis. This new pool will only further our art as our audience and environment has changed, keeping our theater up-to-date and healthy. Our move begins as a sacrifice, and ends up as a grand opportunity.