Community Theatre?

[kdizzle86.livejournal.com]

Hello all! I am brand-new to the area; just moved in a few weeks ago.

I've been meaning to get into theatre again for a while, and no time like the present, right? However, I'm having a bit of trouble searching around for theatre companies around here! Everything seems to be super-professional and hardcore and all that. I don't want to make a career out of acting... it's a hobby for me, something I'd be doing on top of my full-time job. 

So basically my question is, are there any community theatre groups around the Somerville area? I'm especially into musical theatre. :)

Thanks in advance!

Comments

[anomie666.livejournal.com]

Theatre@First is super awesome and lots of the people involved with it are regulars here in this community.

Good people, good times...its a good thing.

http://www.theatreatfirst.org/index.shtml

[jodi.livejournal.com]

and they have a production coming up at the end of the month

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

For musical theater, look into the Reagle players in Waltham -- they bring in professionals for the big parts, use locals for the ensemble. I'm not personally familiar with them but several formal coworkers really liked acting with them.

[ron_newman]

Also you may want to join or look in on their LJ community: theatreatfirst.

Many many 'Firsties' are here on davis_square. One of them is a co-moderator of this community.

There's a large overlap between theatre@first and the Post-Meridian Radio Players, who perform radio dramas before a live audience. They also have an LJ community, pmrp.

[ron_newman]

A couple other local amateur theatre companies who have done musicals:

Arlington Friends of the Drama, in the town next door. Their upcoming musical is 'Aida' -- but not the opera.
The Concord Players. Their last show was 'Cabaret'.

[ceelove.livejournal.com]

And they don't normally do musicals, but they've got one on the slate for September, auditions in August.

[ron_newman]

What show will it be (if you're allowed to tell us)?

[ceelove.livejournal.com]

I don't know if I'm allowed to announce it in a forum like this, so I'll just say, it's an original, you haven't likely heard of it before.

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

It's actually a narrated concert based on an original screenplay by a local author. It's called "Never After" and it's going to be really nifty, we hope. The music is really excellent and the story is a lot of fun.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

If you mean super-professional companies as in "we pay our actors and techs a reasonable wage", no there aren't a lot of those.

[bex77]

If you'd like to get to know Theatre@First, an easy way to start is to volunteer for a performance to usher, or sell tickets or sell candy at a show. We're only 4 blocks from the Davis T stop. Drop me a line to action@theatreatfirst.org. You'll see the show for free for less than an hour's work, and meet the gang.

[rainbow-spork.livejournal.com]

Another good source for local theater information is http://www.netheater411.com From what I can tell, almost all of the local community theater groups post their audition and show notices there. Though admittedly, you also get notices from groups that are pretty far away (but still in New England), and as someone new to the area it may be a little tricky to figure out what's actually convenient for you. There's also some professional stuff on there, but it's pretty easy to spot, since they put $$ next to those auditions. :)

But I also second (fifth?) the Theatre@First recommendation. As a fairly new Firstie myself, I can attest to the fact that they are quite welcoming to newcomers.

[kalliejenn2.livejournal.com]

we also have auditions coming up in May for our summer one acts festival, which is a great way to get your feet wet with theatre@first

[craigindaville.livejournal.com]

There's also the MIT Musical Theatre Guild (http://web.mit.edu/mtg/www/). They give preference, through a rating system, to MIT students, then faculty and staff, but it is open to the general public to audition.

[fenicedautun.livejournal.com]

With this, the MIT Gilbert & Sullivan Players, as well (I believe) as a couple of other of the universities' musical theatre groups are open to outsiders (esp if you sing tenor ;). There's also some other MIT theatre groups, one of which is the MIT Community Players, or something like that, which is explicitly more community based.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Some Harvard shows welcome community members as well. The Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club runs a centralized common casting twice a year.

[cos]

That makes me think I have heard of it...