Director's Notes

I’m going to address an aspect of life here at the Beaver Dam Area Community Theatre, and the BDACT Fine Arts Center. It may seem like something simple on the surface, but the ramifications of what it means are rather important.

Anyone who is a member of our community has recognized by now that the list of shows at BDACT has grown in recent years. We’re making the most of our wonderful Fine Arts Center.

Here at BDACT we proudly use the motto, “Theatre for Everyone!” The definition of this appears quite simple. We aim to provide something for everyone who comes to the Fine Arts Center. However, the details begin to appear when you ask who “everyone” actually is. Who are we talking about, what do they want regarding the performing arts, and what do we offer?

Everyone who has spent any time at all in live theater will tell you a story about a time when a show almost didn’t happen. Let me share with you just one of my own such experiences.

Fifty years ago, way back in 1974, an idea was hatched to create a Children’s Theatre wing of Beaver Dam Area Community Theatre.  (Called BDCT in those days.)

“I regard the theater as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.”  - Thornton Wilder That’s a great quote for performers and audiences alike. In an effort to share the world of theater with you, the reader, this forum discusses individual aspects of theater at BDACT. But the question at the beginning of it all, is “Why theater in the first place?” Why choose theater as the place to spend your time, your talents, and your financial support?