Untitled Theatre Company Shows Why Community Theatre Should Take More Chances

Untitled Theatre Company’s production of Carrie (Photo: Stephen Bauers)

by Chris Peterson

I have a soft spot for any community theatre that looks at the usual season options and decides to take a slightly different road.

That does not mean every company needs to suddenly program the most provocative show they can find just to prove something. Nobody needs “edgy” for the sake of edgy. But when a company is actually thinking about its audience, its artists, and what might be missing in the local theatre scene, that is when things can get exciting.

The Colorado Springs Gazette recently profiled Untitled Theatre Company, a newer group founded by Stephen Bauers, and I find myself really rooting for them.

Their first productions included [title of show] and Carrie: The Musical, and now they are taking on Urinetown. That is a pretty clear mission statement without having to over-explain it. These are shows with teeth. They are funny, dark, messy, and not always the safest choice on paper.

Good.

[title of show] is weird, self-aware, and very inside-baseball about musical theatre itself. Carrie is a horror musical about bullying and a prom that ends in blood. Urinetown takes shots at corporate greed, corrupt politicians, and the way basic human needs can become another way to make money.

And yes, some of these titles may not seem that edgy depending on where you do theatre. If your company has been doing darker, stranger, more adult work for years, that is a good thing. It probably means your theatre is already doing what more local companies should be trying to do. “Edgy” depends on the audience, the community, and what that theatre has taught people to expect.

Community theatre can get trapped in the idea that the only way to survive is to program the titles everyone already knows. And look, I get it. A show people recognize is often easier to sell than one that requires a paragraph of explanation and a little trust from the audience.

But a local theatre scene also needs companies willing to make room for different kinds of performers and stories. Bauers specifically talked about wanting to do work that might be rated PG-13 or R, and Untitled Theatre’s casts are for performers 18 and older. That alone fills a real gap in a lot of communities, where younger performers have youth theatre, older adults have plenty of opportunities, and artists in their 20s and 30s are often left waiting for a company to remember they exist.

A company like this gives local artists permission to stretch a little and gives audiences a reason to take a chance. It also reminds everyone that community theatre does not have to mean predictable theatre.

There is room for the big family musical. But there also needs to be room for the weird title, the darker story, the sharper comedy, and the show that makes a few people say, “Wait, they’re doing that?”

Honestly, more communities could use a little more of that.