By Robert Simonson
30 Apr 2009

One might think that, given the number of competing productions citywide, getting quality talent for community theatre productions would prove difficult. But, their inability to offer pay or significant exposure notwithstanding, many community theatres say they have little trouble attracting good performers. "That has not been a major problem," said the Narrows Community Theatre's Gubiotti. "If the show is really good, people come out for it." A recent Narrows casting call for a May production of Sweeney Todd lured actors from all over New York City.

"Most of the time," said Healy, "if we do a show that people are interested in, we will get the talent to come and try out for it." As community theatres go, Heights Players tends to be a bit more adventurous, staging shows that were recently seen on Broadway, or are not typically attempted by small companies. Several seasons back, the company staged Ragtime, Stephen Flaherty, Lynn Ahrens and Terrence McNally's ambitious multi-racial musical about life in America in the early years of the 20th century. "We got a lot of people who wanted to see how we would put it in that small space," said Healy. "And we had an extremely large talent pool for that, too. That seemed to drag people out of the woodwork."

The community theatres interviewed for this article said their audition calls caught the attention of people from far beyond the immediate neighborhood. Williams said Douglaston productions bring in actors from Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island. The Narrows Community Theatre gets performers from New Jersey. Auditioners from Manhattan are fewer. "They're looking to get paid," said Williams, succinctly.

As with community theatres the nation over, much of the audience is made up of locals and people who are familiar with cast members. "Obviously, you have a niche audience in the neighborhood," said Williams. "But a good portion of the audience are people who know cast members."

Being so close, geographically, to Manhattan, the Heights Players sometimes runs into special problems in getting the rights to certain plays. Some authors' representatives are wary of licensing a production too close to Manhattan, in fear that it will discourage commercial producers from potentially doing a future production. Healy said the Players recently tried to get the rights to both Woody Allen's Don't Drink the Water and Terrence McNally's Love! Valour! Compassion!, but failed on both counts.

As a substitute, the theatre went after the rights to Ken Ludwig's Shakespeare in Hollywood, a comedy that had a staging at the Arena Stage in Washington, DC, in 2003 and was, at one point, thought to be New York-bound. The Players were granted the rights. As a result, a community theatre is in the unique position of presenting the New York premiere of a new work by a major playwright.

"We didn't think we were going to get it because of that," said Healy. "But the rights of that were easy to get."

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