So Why Don’t More People Go to The Theater?

So Why Don’t More People Go to The Theater?

by Candice J. Wanner

So it’s Friday. You’ve made your last salescall of the day and you’re on your way home. You pull into the driveway, drag your briefcase out of the car (sending a shower of newspapers to the passenger-side floor) and open the door to your domicile to be greeted with those eight dreaded words, "Hi, honey, what do you want to do tonight"? …..AAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!

If you’re like many other people I know, coming up with something fun and exciting to do every weekend turns into a chronic case of "I don’t know, what do YOU want to do’s." Okay, I’ve got a suggestion for you (surprise, surprise). Go to the theater! If you take a good look around you, there’s more community and professional theaters in the Harrisburg area than you can shake a dead playwright at. Between Harrisburg Community Theater, the Oyster Mill Playhouse, the Little Theater of Mechanicsburg, Open Stage, and the Little Theater of York (just to name a few), Harrisburg is bursting with talented people ready to give you a great night of entertainment. So, why don’t more people go to the theater, you ask.

Well, okay, I’ll tell you. Again, if you’re like most people I know, the answer is probably this: when you think of theater, what comes to mind? Do you have visions of men in tights dancing in your head? Can you still hear that sonorous voice of your ninth grade English teacher trudging tediously, but relentlessly through MacBeth? And, do you remember how you considered committing ritual suicide rather than listen to one..more..word. Well, then let me let you in on a little secret. It ain’t all like that. In fact, some theater is downright honest-to-goodness fascinating. Once upon a decade or two ago, when you went to the theater you could pretty much expect to see a variation of: boy meets girl; boy and girl sing to each other of how they’re falling in love; horrible circumstances, (i.e., flood, famine, poverty, a bad hair day) try to separate boy and girl (causing more singing), but boy and girl overcome with much happy rejoicing. (Stop gagging out there, you know who you are.) Happily, let me say, things have changed.

Now, before I get a bunch of nasty letters from the Friends of Oscar Hammerstein of the local Shakespeare society, let me just say that I happen to like a lot of the theater classics. I adore Guys ‘n Dolls, Bye Bye Birdie, and I’ve watched Singing in the Rain so many times, I can sing it in the sunshine, too. Heck, I’ve even starred in a bunch of the oldies but goodies myself. But, luckily, nowadays you do have some more choices.

In more recent times, theater has evolved into a medium that deals with some more pertinent and incisive issues than just the hugs and kisses of old. It’s become a forum for special interest groups and educators who strive to enlighten and focus attention on such issues as AIDS, unemployment, crime, and the erosion of our value system. Theater has become a tool to provoke philosophical debate and get the audience members to look at an issue in a whole new way. It’s even become interactive through playwright talkbacks and question and answer sessions after readings and performances so the audience can explore the process of development that the playwright, director and actors went through to arrive at their interpretation.

Now, if the above sounds like something that would appeal to you, then good. I’ve done my job and I’ll see you at the box office. But, for the rest of you that would rather cough up a hairball than listen to some actor explain his motivation, listen up. Theater has something for you, too. Want a little violence? Want a little revenge and some manly showing of muscles? Believe me, there’s plenty of action and adventure to satisfy the most demanding of manly appetites. Everything from hostage situations to alien invaders to lesbian vampires have been covered (or uncovered) on the theater boards. Some plays and musicals have even been turned into movies, Little Shop of Horrors, The Haunting of Hill House, and On Golden Pond are a couple that come to mind (I didn’t say they were good movies, now, did I?)

So, the next time you and your significant other start in on a round of "What do you want to do tonight’s?", take a little advice and try something new. Check out the Harrisburg Community Theater or, if you’re on the west shore, the Little Theater of Mechanicsburg, and see what’s currently in production. A dose of culture never killed anyone and it’ll impress the heck out of the rest of the office when you regal them with your personal theater review Monday morning at the water cooler. After all, football only runs five months out of the year and that leaves seven months of entertainment empty months to be filled somehow, right?

For you couch potatoes too lazy to lift the phone book, here’s a listing of some local theaters.

Theater Listings:

Harrisburg Community Theatre
6th & Hurlock Streets, Harrisburg, PA
234-8428

Little Theater of Mechanicsburg
S. York Extend, Mechanicsburg, PA
766-0535

Open Stage of Harrisburg
223 Walnut Street, Harrisburg, PA
232-6736

Oyster Mill Playhouse
1001 Oyster Mill Road, Camp Hill, PA
737-6768