For all my friends and colleagues who do their work in making theatre happen on shoestring budgets in small, regional communities. I know that people continually diminish your work and treat it as if it isn’t “real.” I could tell you stories of the truly appalling things people have said to me, and I know you hear the same things. So here are some thoughts for you:

I see you hustling as hard as you can to pay your artists, and to create reasons and means for artists to stay in your communities.

I see you serving your region’s audiences with programming they wouldn’t otherwise get.

I see your respect for your artists. I see that you allow for their family lives and their day jobs, if they have them, to shape the structure of how they work with you. And that you don’t treat them as less professional because they have these other aspects of their lives.

I see the care and reverence with which you treat the work of creating and telling stories.

I see the sorcery you perform on tiny budgets, and the creativity and imagination that comes from these limitations.

I see how you struggle to get your local media to pay attention and how your local media outlets continue to eliminate arts and culture coverage.

I see how you bring to life unusual, unconventional performance spaces, and I understand that the use of unusual spaces is a feature, not a bug. These spaces are physical parts of your community, and they create intimate, immediate experiences for your audiences.

I see how you help young artists grow by providing a place where they can treat theatre as their focus.

I see your belief that your community’s audiences deserve the highest quality arts and cultural programming.

I see your dedication to the idea that the arts are part of what makes us human, and that they should be part of people’s everyday lives.

When you are overwhelmed and stressed and trying to decide whether to go on with this work, know that I am thinking of you, and whatever you decide, your work has been worthy and worthwhile.