No one who knows what they’re doing ever goes to see Amateur Dramatics for the acting. Maybe, sometimes, there’ll be a moment of high-quality, a moment in which it all comes together and an audience can believe. But, for the most part, Am Dram is a mess of shuffling, uncomfortable, uncertain actors, and I’m saying this as an amateur actor myself.
This stands to reason – professionals train for years, rehearse intensively and are only likely to be seen if they’re very talented. So what we usually see are the best highly-trained and well-rehearsed actors. On the other hand, Am Dram, of course, is open to everyone, welcomes those with no training and is often based around sporadic after-work evening rehearsals.
No, the point for the audience isn’t to be entertained in the same way as we expect to be entertained when we watch the RSC or a quality BBC drama. Given the gulf of quality between pro and amateur, how could this be the case? The nature of the entertainment is very different. For the audience, they can look on in a spirit of admiration – after all, that people will make it to numerous rehearsals and expose themselves to high levels of stress for no economic gain. They can also enjoy the occasional moment in which the play might takes off and they can briefly believe in what they’re seeing.
But the true value in Am Dram is for the acting and production company itself and the community in which it is based. It is tremendously important that people co-operate and associate with each other, voluntarily, as it is from this kind of behaviour that pride in the community arises. Without this behaviour, would we even have community?
Roger Scruton puts it very well in his book How to be a Conservative. “What matters to us,” he says, “comes to us through our own efforts at constructing it.” Am Dram is something the community comes together to construct and – no matter how unpolished or clumsy the final product – it therefore has value. The same is true of every instance of free association that Scruton lists: “Schools, churches, libraries; choirs, orchestras, bands, theatre groups; cricket clubs, football teams, chess tournaments; the historical society, the women’s institute, the museum, the hunt, the angler’s club.” We come together to construct these groups and, as a result of our involvement in their creation, they have value.
Am Dram – though more often than not, a mess – is part of the fabric of our communities. And that is why it is important.
Orienteering 