Start A Community Theater in the Country

Image Gallery A community theater can uncover a wealth of talent. Here, members of the Boundary County Community Theater rehearse a scene from Dickens' ""A Christmas Carol""

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The lights dim . . . the buzz of the audience becomes a suspense-filled, rustling murmur . . . multicolored lights form magical patterns on rich folds of velvet ... slowly the curtain rises on the excitement of seeing the events of another time, another place . . . and the play begins!

This always captivating, forever mysterious ritual repeats itself all over the globe: in New York, London, Sao Paulo, Paris, Moscow . . . and in Boundary County, Idaho.

It seems no matter where you live, the thrill of watching or participating in a drama is the same. Our rural theater group's opening nights are as hectic, the stage fright as real, the curtain calls as heady, and the successes as satisfying as in any big-time production. In fact, our whole theatrical experience may be even more intense . . . since such a "cultural" outlet is sometimes the missing spice that can add a whole lot of zest to country living.

LOST IN THE FOREST

Fantastic endeavors often grow out of boredom and frustration, and that's exactly what happened in our lives.

When we first moved from urban Vancouver, British Columbia to the forests of Idaho, we were in seventh heaven . . . and actually building our own house in the beautiful north woods made us even more euphoric! But the high didn't last. One day - with our home complete-we sat and asked each other the old familiar question: "Now what?"

Longtime residents of the area had churches to attend and clubs in which to participate. Those organizations weren't off limits to us, of course, but such events as potluck suppers and grange meetings just didn't satisfy the vague craving that we felt.

CABIN FEVER STRIKES!

Time wore on, and we became desperately bored. It was a great relief to gradually discover that we weren't alone. In fact, we found that the woods were crawling with ex-urbanites who genuinely loved their natural environment, but felt somewhat alien to its social structures. We had become a tribe out of touch with its culture-even out of contact with each other -and we all suffered from the same disease: cabin fever.

Eventually, a handful of us malcontents met one night over wine and cheese, and pooled our ideas in search of a cure. It turned out that two of the group had belonged to little theaters, one located in California and the other in New Jersey.

"That's it!" cried someone. "Let's form a community theater!"

A CURE CATCHES ON

The idea was, we all agreed, a good one ... but was it possible? Such a project would surely tax all the talent and energy that might lie dormant in our backwoods area. But with the help of some free publicity in the local newspaper, we called a meeting . . . and-to our amazement-28 people showed up. Now let me explain that ours is a small county, and that number was a passel of people in this community! In fact, we suddenly had more than enough "staff" to get our first play on the boards!

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