This post is a bit different than some of my others. Today, I am not preparing a helpful guide or presenting a fun anecdote or offering tips and tricks. Today, I am genuinely asking a question.

Is it harder to participate in community theatre these days? Is everyone feeling this, or just me?

I have had the worst audition luck of my life since coming back from 2020. I have been cut from more shows in the last two years than I previous have ever been in my entire life. You might be thinking, “well, that’s just how auditions go sometimes,” and I hear you. But I’m auditioning for parts in my type. I’m preparing for auditions more strenuously than ever. I’m spending more money on lessons and classes than I have in a long time.

Every audition I go to is swarmed. The sign-up sheets are full. Walk-ins are frowned upon, if not outright rejected. These aren’t equity calls, these are community theatre auditions out in the rural sticks!

I’ve auditioned at 8 different theaters. I’ve auditioned for people I know, for people I don’t know, for people I know in passing. I’ve auditioned for plays and for musicals. No difference: every audition is mobbed, and there’s an 80% chance that I’ll be cut. (My current success rate really is 20%, yes, I did the math).

And I find that I’m having a harder time finding opportunities altogether. There are less shows to audition for. Some theaters have cut back significantly on productions, and children’s programming seems to have doubled. Every workshop is for teens. Every class is for ages 10-18. Half of the adult classes or workshops I see end up being cancelled. Junior shows and kids’ theatre programs seem to be proliferating at a disarming rate, with the average cast size hovering well over the unbelievably huge mark.

To be clear, it’s great that more kids are getting into theatre, and it’s a relief considering many school theatre programs took a huge hit after COVID. I’m glad the kids are alright and making art!

But it’s well known, too, that kids sell tickets. Is it just not profitable enough to do theatre for adults anymore?

The seeming lack of opportunities applies in other ways, too. I send in a packet for a chance to direct a production: the theater that usually receives so few submissions that they have to beg for more suddenly has piles that they have to sort through. I send in a submission for a new works festival at a small local theater… and they post a few days later that they’ve got over 200 submissions. (FROM WHERE?)

This will certainly sound overwhelmingly negative. I suppose it is. I’m just at a loss. I’ve never seen my local theater scene like this, and it seems like it’s a symptom of a much larger problem– and yes, a problem, not a boon. There are less opportunities because many theaters didn’t make it through the pandemic, and now every other opportunity is more competitive.

Or maybe I’m just being melodramatic.

The reason I am posting this pessimist’s monologue is to ask: are other people seeing this? Is this only in my area? Is this a widespread issue– is it even an issue at all, or does my mindset just suck? I would genuinely love to hear what others’ experiences have been like.