Today, I have returned to Salem, Oregon from a trip to Coos Bay. The Coos Bay trip took place immediately after the last matinee performance of “The Wizard of Oz” at the Grand Theater in Salem. The term “professional” begs defining. “Professional” implies that a service being delivered has a peer review system that determines standards which define that term. These often include standards by which “professionals” should be paid.
As for my own “professional status”, I probably have more professional qualifications as a director than as an actor. Yet I have more experience as an actor than as a director. I have the most experience in the professional use of the English language in one business capacity or another; whether it was the delivering of significant information to the Insurance Industry for 22 years or the delivery of medically-based written reports and documents common in the behavioral sciences for 13 years.
Specifically, where the theater is concerned, I earned my first income as a director. In two Illinois school systems in the 1970s, I directed class plays, sponsored speech teams and taught dramatic arts. I was paid a stipend for performing each of those tasks.
Specifically, where acting is concerned, I have made local television commercials for which I was paid a stipend. However, my recent run as Professor Marvel/ The Wizard at the Grand Theater in an Enlightened Theatrics production of “The Wizard of Oz” was the first time I had ever received payment for acting in a theatrical setting. Prior to that, my acting experience had been in community theater and at one community theater that aspires to become regional theater. It was at that last theater where I last acted in a different role in the same stage version of the same play.
The differences between a professional theater and a community theater are profound. The dramaturgical system used by Enlightened Theatrics is the first I have encountered. Out of all the urban legends that can be attributed to “community theater culture”, most can be gleaned by actively participating in a variety of community theater venues. That list however, is too extensive to be of use in the context of my current essay.
I will attempt to describe the professional process that I encountered at Enlightened without comparing it to the systems I have encountered at community theater venues.
Coming Next – the auditions for “The Wizard of Oz”
The Lemon Aid Network 