All guts, little glory: life in community theatre

Theatre is meant to be seen, heard, and felt by its audience. But it can be hard to find outside of professional productions if you don’t know where to look.

That’s one of the things that Elizabeth Seaman, a long-time actress on Abbotsford’s community theatre scene, knows is unique about local productions. They can be advertised but, often, news of a new production or audition spreads by word of mouth.

Seaman recently played an elderly aunt named Lucy in Gallery 7’s musical adaptation of The Secret Garden, which is based on the classic novel of the same name.

Gallery 7 is based in Abbotsford and one of several community theatre companies across the Fraser Valley. The performers in each production are volunteers, but the performances are high quality. That can surprise people who don’t frequent local productions. It once surprised her.

FVC: Do you remember the first [school] play you were ever in?

Elizabeth Seaman: I can't remember the first one, but I did Cinderella in high school. There was the Wizard of Oz. And Beauty and the Beast might have been the first one in high school.

FVC: Were you Cinderella?

Seaman: I was actually the Prince.

Seaman performed in school plays and musicals but, while still a teenager, started auditioning for and acting in productions at community theatres in Abbotsford.

FVC: Why make the switch to community theatre while you were in high school?

Seaman: I didn't really know community theatre existed, I don't think, until that first show. There might have been other kids in the school who I heard talking about it and I was like, ‘Oh, I never knew this existed.’

I looked up the [Gallery 7] website and I happened to see these auditions. And so that was the first thing I heard of, and auditioned for, and I was lucky enough to get into Sense and Sensibility.

FVC: When you're looking at the volunteers in community theatre, is it largely people who dream of acting professionally, or people who view it as a hobby?

Seaman: I would say it's a mixture. We're not getting paid to do it, but everyone just has a passion for it. And so I think there's some people who are working towards getting paid work, but I think the majority of people, maybe some of them would want to go on to [paid acting work], but they're happy just to be involved and able to put on a good show

Actors in community theatre productions also make major time commitments to each show, Elizabeth said, on top of full-time work, studies, or looking after families. Several hours each week go towards rehearsals, especially as a show starts “tech week,” or dress rehearsals that involve every element of the performance immediately before each play opens. Performers also memorize lines and music on their own time.

FVC: What’s the hardest part of each production, and why?

Seaman: Some shows come together a lot quicker [than others]. There were some complicated harmonies [in The Secret Garden].

There's always a couple weeks before the show where you're like, ‘Oh, is it going to perfectly come together in the end?’ Because you're running out of time. But it always does. It's finding the time to fix everything and perfect everything.

FVC: In The Secret Garden, which is onstage now, you’re playing Lucy. What’s that like?

Seaman: I love playing it. It was like a dream role of mine. So that's great. There's some beautiful music I get to sing. It’s exciting.

It's interesting because while the musical is faithful to the book, my character is actually not mentioned in the book that much. You don't have that perfect vision already written for you. So it's fun getting to create her myself.

FVC: This show was supposed to go on before the pandemic. Were you part of that cast as well, and what was it like to come back to the show?

Seaman: I was originally in that cast as well. So I'm super happy it finally got to go on. But we were very close to putting it on. We had this finished show already, so it's definitely sad for it to not happen in the end. Enough time passed and we got a mostly new cast. There were a few [cast members] who came back, which is great. After all that time and starting afresh, it kind of feels like a new show.

FVC: Do you feel like there’s a continuing interest in theatre in the region? Does it compete with all the other media and art out there, or do you feel like audiences see it as its own thing?

Seaman: Not everyone always knows how good theatre can be around here... It's such a different experience than just watching a movie, having that live interaction with an audience, and as an audience with the people on stage.

I think it's something special enough on its own that it is going to remain popular. Until you see it for the first time you don't realize that it's pretty exciting.

FVC: Do you remember when you first realized that community theatre was something special?

Seaman: Community theatre existed around me but I didn't realize the quality— it's such a good quality that is created just in your local community. And I was like, ‘Wow, this is so great.’ I didn't realize how good these productions were and they're so close to me and they're happening. I had no idea and I feel like a lot of people don't know like that. They don't have to go so far or spend so much money to see a quality show.

FVC: Are there young actors and actresses out there who might be the other side of that coin? Who might not see a future for their art outside of sitcoms and hollywood?

Seaman: Definitely. I think there's a lot of people where the passion is there [and] they don't feel like they have to be famous or have to make money off of it. They just really want to put on a performance and tell a story. A lot of people honestly realize ‘Oh, this is really fulfilling’... You don't always need to go too far to do that.”