I’m about to start calling actors for the sixth annual Suburban Holidays new works festival. We had a great set of talented people show up, and spent a good part of the night after everyone left trying to figure out which role fit which actor.
One thing I love about Suburban Holidays is that we have, for the past five years (six now) been able to bring truly new works to community theater, which doesn’t often have the financial flexibility to take a chance on something untested.
Being on YouTube really hammers home the point that original work is hard to do, and is often overlooked for various takes on existing properties, things that have been around forever, and the usual, the tested, the things that are backed by a lot of money through large traditional media companies. There’s a reason the new Star Trek, the new Star Wars, Will & Grace and The X Files are back for another round…people find it much easier to fall back onto what’s known and get the warm fuzzies from the things that are expected than to take a chance on something new. The reason the new musicals on Broadway tend to be adaptations of beloved movies nowadays is because it’s too difficult to convince people that something they’ve never seen before is worth seeing now.
It’s a little thing, this small-scale, minuscule-budget production that uses as few set pieces as possible, borrowed or cobbled-together costumes and a set of volunteers doing it for the love of creation, but it does make me happy that it’s still happening.
I can’t wait to get started.
