Voices: InNEPTAtude? Not Anymore
No one wants to fail.
We've arrived at such a convoluted view of what could or should be considered "failure," that the very word has become a dirty one, rank with dishonor and accompanied by shame.
In the scientific laboratory, there is no such thing as a "failed experiment." In eliminating one possible solution we have narrowed the field. We are one step closer to discovering a workable solution. So while one's efforts of the moment may not have produced the ultimate desired results, his work has been successful because knowledge has been collected.
Despite many well-wishing clichés grounded in this very concept, we are rarely able to take such a forward attitude in life. In a cloak of embarrassment, we proceed with trepidation. We allow our fear of failure to prevent us from taking future risks. And without taking such risks, we deny ourselves the possibility of ever succeeding.
Fortunately, this does not appear to be the case with the awkwardly defunct Northeastern Pennsylvania Theatrical Alliance.
The Harris brothers founded NEPTA in 1995 with a goal of promoting awareness of the region's many community theatre groups and assisting the growth of those companies. An annual award ceremony was established with the admirable objective of giving the hard working members of regional theatre an opportunity to sit in the audience for a change. A gala event, it was hoped that everyone in attendance would feel like a million bucks because their artistic contributions had unfortunately gone unpaid. It was hoped that community members would become excited by the hoopla and attend the ceremony in order to root for their favorites.
This September will be the first fall in seven years in which an awards ceremony will not take place.
Despite many good ideas and good intentions, the purpose of NEPTA had somehow become this one evening of awards. Most managed to have a smashing good time and the theatres were always happy to see their volunteers rewarded, but the event did more to discourage cooperative relationships among competing theatrical egos than it did to increase anyone's ticket sales. The fostering of such supportive relationships was, ironically, one of NEPTA's original and primary goals.
The alliance begun by the Harris brothers no longer exists. After almost a year of being held hostage by an inactive executive board, individual members have stepped forward to announce the organization defunct due to violation of its by-laws.
Exactly how and why NEPTA failed to serve its membership may never be known. Because of the numerous perspectives involved there are far too many truths for a simplistic answer. But the attitude of determination and good will with which the regional theatres are continuing forward demonstrates that there really has been no failure at all. There has only been the elimination of one possible model of a regional theatrical alliance. If anything, the Harris brothers' goal of building cooperative relationships between companies has undeniably been reached. It is together that these theatre companies have come to the conclusion that the organization designed to serve them could not do so in its present state or according to its original design. It is together that they have decided to reorganize.
A steering committee is currently being formed that will guide our region's theatres through an evaluation and restructuring phase on which they have not placed a deadline. It will take time to hear every theatre's ideas, hopes and fears before they can proceed with a new alliance that might better help them to achieve their common goals. The style of each company may vary, but each group is motivated by a hope for the future in which theatre is an essential part of the communities in which they create.
Bruce Weber of "The New York Times" recently characterized theatre artists as "the cockroaches of the entertainment business." I giggled when I first read this statement, but in light of recent events I have genuinely come to appreciate it.
"You can't kill them off," Weber surmised. "They endure. And happily they even thrive."
--alicia grega-pikul, 31 July 2003
