Finding the Community in Community Theatre
I consider myself extremely lucky to have grown up in Springfield’s community theatre scene. My parents were tried-and-true Theatre Kids and they plopped my sister and me into drama classes and camps for just about as long as I can remember. A painfully shy kid, I essentially had to be dragged into my first ‘real’ audition at Springfield Little Theatre, 15 years ago now.
No matter how palm-sweatingly nervous I was (and, in truth, am), about the idea of performing in front of people, I fell in love with my local theatre community. I feel so grateful: for the diverse plethora of performance opportunities, for the incredible, passionate artists I’ve met along the way, and all in all for, in the immortal words of Beth Domann, Springfield’s “freaky vortex of talent.”
Despite the many, many wonderful people I’ve met in this community, over the years I couldn’t help but develop the sense of being an outsider-looking-in. Sure, much of this was due to that lingering shyness I never quite grew out of, but really, I felt that I observed some abstracted idea of the ‘standard’ Springfield community theatre performer–someone outgoing, cheery, someone fundamentally confident in themself–a box into which I could never quite make myself fit.
When I joined High Tide Theatrical’s production of The Rocky Horror Show in 2024, I began one of the most transformative personal journeys of my life. Looking back, this journey is chaptered neatly by the High Tide productions I’ve had the pleasure of being a part of.
I found that 2024 Rocky Horror particularly challenging at first. I played Rocky that time around and, as you might imagine, I found myself in, perhaps, the most vulnerable position of my life: as naked as I’d ever been on stage (at least until HAIR, that is). I found myself, even as the show opened to audiences, thrust back into my ten-year-old self auditioning for Flat Stanley, terrified to go on.
Cushioning the blow, however, was the support and camaraderie of the cast. Perhaps unsurprisingly, when High Tide established The Rocky Horror Show as their annual flagship production, a show that celebrates queerness and weirdness and liberation in all forms, they attracted people who celebrate those same ideals. Being a part of a High Tide cast is unlike any other theatrical experience I’ve ever had; people feel so free to be themselves, often in loud, unapologetically weird, lovably dorky ways.
I continued to expand the horizons of my comfort zone with 2025’s HAIR, easily the most difficult show I’ve ever done. The sense of community formed out of that cast was insane. I think we all felt a trial-by-fire fervor come over us, and deeply respected each other for the work we were all putting into it. And within that bond, revelation again: the opportunity for wild play and big swings, built upon that foundation of trust.
Into the Woods, picking up immediately after HAIR, was so much different. I think we all got the sense that we might have something special on our hands early on, and at first we were almost nervous around each other. As we rehearsed, however, we grew so close; we regularly had to stifle belly laughs from backstage as the shows went on. High Tide’s environment is such that everyone naturally blossoms into who they really are, even in a cast composed of some of the finest theatrical performers in town.
I was asked to come back to 2025’s production of Rocky Horror, this time as the Narrator. I’ve been busy with school, and the only way I’d be able to do it would be to skip rehearsals and come in just for the shows. Thinking back to a year prior, my first time with Rocky, it’s so clear that I would have been critically, catatonically nervous to jump into a production with no rehearsal time like that.
Given last year’s experiences with High Tide, though, I felt so at ease time-warping into the show, knowing that, inevitably, the community created in and around the production would be one that allows me to be unreservedly myself. The difference in my confidence and presence between my first pass at Rocky and my second is staggering, and it’s a change that I credit entirely to High Tide.
I’m so grateful to High Tide for providing me the space to grow and change and be challenged and most of all, to learn how to be myself. Thank you so much to everyone who supports High Tide in any way. Your continued efforts are creating a beautiful community within our community.
Wesley Bryan
Actor and volunteer for High Tide Theatrical
