Economy brings uncertainty to community theater

Stephanie Hanna drove from her home in Herndon to Manassas a few nights a week in preparation for Vpstart Crow Productions's "The Importance of Being Earnest."

She worried about being stalled at red lights, because it uses more gas. Every little bit of gas saved helps Hanna, the show's director.

"I have no doubt that the economy is affecting theater as it is affecting everything else," Hanna, 28, said. "It's a constant thought on everyone's minds."

And, for a place like Prince William County, where community theater is just as prevalent as traffic jams and Civil War sites, the state of the economy definitely impacts budget and talent pools.

Plus, Hanna estimates there's been a 20 to 35 percent across-the-board pay cut in community theater during the past two years.

At its pay-what-you-can preview night for Oscar Wilde's classic play "The Importance of Being Earnest,"  a few people tossed some bills into a container by the door.

"We don't have a lot of free money to spend," said community theater fixture Jay Tilley. "That's why we come to things like this, pay what you can."

If you go to a community theater production chances are you'll run into Tilley. He was the public relations manager for Prince William County's professional theater troupe, Vpstart Crow, until recently, and wife Melissa Jo York-Tilley directed Prince William Little Theatre's recent "On Golden Pond."

He's still heavily involved in community theater, and tries to see at least a few shows a month, maybe more.

In addition to pay-what-you-can nights, he said he tries to get complimentary tickets.

Tilley's got two shows coming up: "The Elephant Man" with 2nd Flight Theatre Company and "Scrooge! The Musical" with Potomac Theater Company in Maryland.

"It's a struggle to get audiences right now," Tilley said.

He said he can't speak for major theater companies, but troupes like Vpstart and Prince William Little Theatre are clearly being affected by the economy.

It's also affected him as an actor. He won't travel to Maryland as often, especially for little or no money. It's simply not cost efficient.

(The Potomac Theater Company is just a short drive across the Key Bridge.) He's more interested in roles closer to home.

"It's changing the complexion of the pool of actors and technical people available to work on a show," artistic director for Woodbridge's Castaways Repertory Theatre Zina Bleck said. "It might improve certain regional theaters."

Bleck, of Reston, said more local people auditioned for its latest "Sherlock Holmes: The Sign Of The Four."

Bleck said normally five to 10 auditioning actors are not from the area. Most recently, all but two of the nearly 30 people auditioning were from the area.

Despite an increase in local actor interest, Castaways is also feeling the economic pinch.

"We started seeing a dip in audience size since last spring," Bleck said.

In addition to the economy keeping viewers away, she said it's also keeping newspapers away. The Washington Post and the News & Messenger, two of the most visible newspapers in the area, are providing less focus on community theater reviews.

"While I think that some of that is attributable to gasoline, some of that seems to be from there," Bleck said.

She said Castaways relies on reviews for publicity since it has a small marketing budget.

"It's been a challenge for me to continue doing this," Bleck said.

Hanna said she pulls several side jobs just to survive.

In addition to her stage work, she's a private coach, a teacher for adult acting classes and she helps with certification and accreditation for the National Recreation and Parks Association.

But there may be a silver lining.

With rising gas prices and and uncertain economy, people may wish to change vacation plans and stay closer to home to save on travel expenses.

Movies and theater might be a good, relatively inexpensive form of entertainment to keep peo-ple's minds off of their economic worries.

But for now, the consensus in the community theater world has yet to prove that theory.

"It's just sad," Hanna said. "I hope that people will seek out theater as a way to seek solace."

Staff writer Josh Eiserike can be reached at 703-878-8072 or .