The Stuff of Dreams: Behind the Scenes of an American Community Theater

For anyone who has ever been involved in the theatre in general, but specifically for those special souls who have worked in community theatre, I cannot recommend this book enough.Miss Cohen writes with a true love and deep respect for those people who are unable to work professionally in the theatre and have to hold down full time jobs to support their theatre addictions. "The Stuff of Dreams" illustrates the trials and tribulations of the unique community that becomes an amateur theatre company. It also touches upon the audience and the very society that spawns and supports an art form that is sadly beginning to quite literally die off. Cohen possesses both the journalist's objective eye and the lover's passionate heart. It is so very obvious that she holds a great deal of respect and admiration for her subjects as they attempt to mount a production of "M. Butterfly". It could be too easy for a person of Miss Cohen's background and experience to use condescending language, but she avoids those traps completely.This is a loving portrait of theatre people for theatre people.

Leah Hager Cohen's _The Stuff of Dreams: Behind the Scenes of an American Community Theater_ (Viking) tells the story of one production by one community theater, and if that strikes you as a preposterously unlikely vehicle to contain heroism and excitement, that is only because you have no idea yet about Cohen's lucid reportage or about the dedication of the Arlington Friends of the Drama. Cohen followed the company from its selection of a controversial play (involving serious cerebral themes and nudity) beyond the final cast party. She seems to have been everywhere, watching both on and off stage drama. She must thank her good fortune at reporting on just this troop. The people involved have plenty of humor; with all the stress in getting this production running, they had to. But they are truly serious artists; this is established by the choice of the play and the discussion group held before any rehearsal, in which are covered "everything from gender and sexual politics to Sino-French relations to ethnic stereotyping to the Chinese Cultural Revolution." Cohen could not have lit upon a more fascinating cast for her own work. They are headed by the ambitious director Celia, who is by day a manager of a Hewlett-Packard branch office. She has the extraordinary capacity to assign people to jobs at which they had no idea they could succeed. The Chinese opera star is played by Patrick, a self-effacing stranger she has picked and who seems at times a disastrously wrong choice. The main role is given to Jimmy, a veteran of the ADC who has ACTOR 1 for his license plates, and who undergoes terrifying, inexplicable lapses of memory for his lines even in the week before his performance. It is probably not giving anything away to tell that Cohen isn't reporting on a failure, but she builds up to a pitch of excitement in approach of the opening night that is delicious. The book's drama is sufficient that it is easy to imagine it becoming its own play.This turns out to be an engrossing tale where one would least expect it. "No written contracts have been signed, no cash exchanged, no professional reputations put at stake to help ensure that the promises are kept, the goals met. All they can do for the moment is skate along on that sheer, fine surface of trust, waiting for a firmer base to form beneath it." The narrative of the formation of that base, the process of creating by a temporary family of amateurs (the word comes from the root meaning "love," and these people do love what they are doing), who in some cases jeopardize jobs and marriages in order to get their artistic dream realized, is an unforgettable and illuminating story.

The Stuff of Dreams articulates the passion and reason many of us do community theatre. People that have no idea or understanding of why we do it, for no apparent monitary gain or advancement, should read this book to capture a sense of what it is that drives "amatures" to do this. For me it was fasinating to read about people that I've known and worked with in the very same theatre that I've performed in several times. Well written and articulate it takes one on the emotional high and low journey of several principal players that in the end, the result was worth whatever bumps and scrapes that may have been sustained along the way.

I have never read a book or seen a film that accurately describes the non-professional theatre world until this one. Totally without the condescending tone of even the better books, this is a completely riveting account of what the experience is like with all its joys and all its craziness. Hats off to the author and to the theater group that allowed itself to put under this microscope. It turned out beautifully for all concerned.

I cannot remember the last book before this that I read in one sitting. "The Stuff of Dreams" captures the true essence of community theatre, from the problem of small audition turn-outs to the common poor health in the days preceeding opening, when stress has everyone's immune system lowered, something I hadn't quite realized was universal...but I'm supposed to be talking about the book as a whole, not just what reminds me of personal experiences. One of the reviews on the cover says that this book "reads like a love story." If, like I do, you realize that an accurate story about community theatre is inheritly a romance, regardless of the plot, then you must read this book.