HOW TO DIVE IN

Hello, and welcome to my corner of the theater. I'll be chatting about things theatrical in this space once a week or so and I'd love to have you chime in, so feel free to drop me a line at jerseytpress@gmail.com.

I should introduce myself. I've been knocking around the theater since I was a kid: I think my first acting assignment was to be a cantaloupe in a skit about nutrition when I was in the second grade. That was in 1957, so it's 50-odd years now I've been pretending to be someone else for fun and profit. (More often for fun and less often for profit, but there it is.) I've worked in and around theater all my adult life — usually in addition to jobs that pay the rent — as a stage manager, director, artists' assistant, lighting designer, box office manager . . . anything to stay connected to theater! At the moment, my biggest project is producing a bi-monthly monologue cabaret in Bloomfield called Monologue Mania — I hope you'll visit! There's more about it at www.monologuemania.com.

Let's talk about community theater. Have you ever said "I'd love to be in a play" but you don't know where to start? It’s easy: you start with the auditions. There are several places to find audition listings on the internet, but this is one of the best: www.njartsforum.com/forums. If you've never acted before, don't worry: lots of shows need volunteers to play background people, and that's a great way to get your feet wet. Or perhaps you have tons of experience but life has taken you out of the loop for a while and you feel rusty. Don't worry about it! Just show up at auditions, do your best, and if you're right for the part, they might give you a shot.

Be persistent. Sometimes people get the very first role they audition for, but more often we do a lot more auditioning than anything else till something clicks and we get the part. When you're turned down, just shake it off and move on. It's not personal.

Or perhaps you've thought you'd like to help out backstage but don't know where to find a show that needs helpers. Or maybe you're new in town, or a recent empty-nester, or suddenly find yourself with more free time on your hands than you like and want to explore theater as a new interest. Community theaters everywhere need volunteers all the time. If you turn up at auditions and offer to help paint scenery, sell tickets, or work with costumes and props, right away you'll know 30 people to have coffee with, and chances are within a month you'll have at least handful of new good friends.

Few community theaters can pay actors and stage technicians — occasionally a stipend is available but as a rule your compensation will be the fun, experience, and the sense of being part of a larger artistic endeavor. And that's nothing to sneeze at: the feeling of knowing you're part of the show, that indescribable moment on opening night when you see all your work under the stage lights and know the audience is loving what you've done, is priceless. So go ahead - dive in!