Community Theatre vs. Theatre Community

"The Arts Matter."
Let's just agree to disagree about that statement.  The reason I say "we" disagree, is because everyone has a different idea of what "Art" is, and many people have never been exposed to the connection between the Arts and the greater good.  This is not a judgement, this is a fact.

In Fountain Inn, South Carolina, the town that my family calls home, there has been an investment in the Arts for the past 8 years.  It was evidenced in the creation of a Community Chorale, a Community Theatre Company, and a Community Orchestra.  These things were housed in a building that was once the Community School.  When the City Administration decided to use the building as a home for the Arts, it was a slow, but steady growth toward economic development for the Main Street of Fountain Inn.  That point can't effectively be argued against, if one is looking at the facts as they are evidenced in the rising Hospitality Tax and foot traffic in the city.

Yay for the Arts!!!

I live in a house filled with "artists".  I married an engineer who happens to be a fine Jazz Musician in his own right. We have four children, and they are all artistically bent.  It has always defied any true label, as they all have writing ability, visual art skills, acting talent, as well as musical gifts. Again, no judgement, only facts.  Our family has participated in the Performing Arts, as well as the Arts Education in the City of Fountain Inn, and we have all benefited greatly from that participation.

This is where I start to get a little rebellious about what is happening in the city right now, as the Younts Center for Performing Arts faces crippling budget cuts, for the second year in a row.

The Center is currently home to a Community of Artists.

 As the years have gone by, since the founding of  FIRE Theatre Co. (formally FIRE) many of the local Theatres have become smaller and less open to members of the Community at large as performers.  That is not to say it is bad for Theatres to adjust their mission, or to change things up to attract audiences in the immediate area where they perform.  It is just a fact of the state of the performing arts through the recession in 2007-2009 and going forward.  All any Theatre/Venue wants to do is attract an audience with which to share  their work.  The same is true for the Chorale, and the Orchestra, as well as any Ballet Co., or any artist, for that matter.
The Younts Center for Performing Arts is located in an area that has been traditionally under-served where artistic programming and education is concerned.  There is plenty to see and do in Greenville.
It has become a wonderful, burgeoning Arts Mecca in the years since my family came from New York in 1989, to make our home in South Carolina.  Fountain Inn is located about 30 minutes from Downtown Greenville, and it has attracted patrons, and performers for which the Greenville Market is not an option.  Some reasons include ticket prices, parking issues for elderly patrons, exclusivity to known performers for casting opportunities, cost of classes and distance for many families in the Golden Strip, there are more reasons, or course, but these are a few that speak to the "Community" aspect to which I am passionately attached.

Community is defined by Webster as:

1.  a unified body of individuals: such as
a: State, Commonwealth
b: the people with common interests living in a particular area; broadly: the area itself *the problems of a large community
c: an interacting population of various kinds of individuals (such as species) in a common location
d: a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society * a community of retired persons
e: a group linked by common policy
f: a body of persons or nations having a common history or common social, economic and political interests
g: a body of persons of common and especially professional interests scattered through a larger society *the academic community * the scientific community

2. :society at large * the interests of the community

3.a: joint ownership or participation *community of goods
b: common character: likeness * community of interest
c: social activity: fellowship
d: a social state or condition * the school encourages a sense of community in its students

You see, what Fountain Inn has made available in the past 9 years is a home for a community of people who have enjoyed "joint ownership or participation".  Some have been performers, some have been teachers, some have been volunteers.  The building at 315 N. Main Street has been home to citizens of Fountain Inn and surrounding towns that have lifted their voices to sing in the Chorale.  It has been home to musicians, amateurs and professional, alike that have participated in the Orchestra.
It has been the home for visual artists that shared their gifts through the once thriving Academy.  Summer Camps, Art Shows, High School Reunions, Concerts, and of course Theatre.
True. Community. Theatre.
When FIRE started, all those years ago, I overheard a fellow participant in a production in which I was involved with in Greenville say "Did you hear they think they're going to start a theatre in Fountain Inn?"  He laughed.
Well, they did start a theatre in Fountain Inn, and season after season, young people and adults alike came out an performed on a stage, many for the first time.
Families shared the experience of putting a show together, Local professionals tried their hands at getting on the stage to fulfill a childhood aspiration,  Young people came up through the ranks and went on to College to be stand-out performers in their school's productions, even if Theatre isn't their course of study, they brought what they learned at 315 N. Main Street, Fountain Inn out into the world and made it a better place.
The building at 315 N. Main Street has mounted productions of Children's Plays that have given opportunities to the Community Elementary School to walk over and for $2 see a show, for many, their first Theatre experience.
Lauren's County Students have been beneficiaries as well, and that is important, as Fountain Inn does sit on the border of two counties, and the under-served population in Lauren's Schools have seen shows, when a trip to a theatre in Greenville was cost prohibitive.

That is what a true sense of community accomplished in this town that my family calls home.
Community should never be sacrificed for some misguided sense that, however that community came together, it costs more than it is worth.  Community is priceless.
The Arts Community, The Recreational Sports Community, The Merchant Community they all matter to the Fountain Inn Community.

I love all of my #artsmatters friends, but they are not who I am fighting for.  I am fighting for the people who laid it out on the stage, or in the Pit, or in the classrooms when they were filled, or folding programs before a show, or showing people to their seats, or working in the booth, or buying a ticket to see their favorite locals performer. The people who build the sets, the people who make the costumes, the *stage managers*.
I'm fighting for people who put their money where their mouths were and bought a ticket during the first season, when nobody was quite sure what they were going to see.  After all, it was Fountain Inn...
I'm fighting for the kids who might not have ever had any other opportunity to be involved, because they weren't what a larger, more established Theatre were looking for, or their mom was dying of cancer and their family couldn't have possibly left their own town to get to a rehearsals every night during tech week.  I'm fighting for the kids who have been in a two week summer camp and ended those weeks knowing that they can actually do anything, and that includes not being perfect.  I'm fighting for grandparents and aunts and uncles that get to see a recital, at no cost, and understand why their grandkids, nieces, nephews, spend so much time at rehearsal, or why some kids don't play sports.

I'm fighting for the Community that has given so much to my family.  We have been the recipients of the most generous audiences, actors, patrons, and volunteers we could have ever imagined.
We have done our very best to share what we love with the Community that has given so much to us.
When all is said and done, I'm sure that more will be said than done to protect the current standing of the building at 315 N. Main Street Fountain Inn, but I want someone to see the fight as a fight for a Community of People, not artists, not politicians, but PEOPLE that for a time, were the luckiest people in the world,