Learn how to encourage volunteerism in your community theatre board of directors and when to let others have the spotlight.
Many community theatre boards of directors do more than attend monthly meetings. Board members help build sets, run concessions, stage-manage productions, direct shows, coordinate marketing, usher patrons, and even perform on stage. Their willingness to help is often what keeps a theatre operating.
There is nothing wrong with board members being involved in productions. In fact, sometimes it’s necessary. Smaller theatres struggling to recruit volunteers may genuinely rely on board members to fill roles.
There comes a point where helping becomes dependency.
There’s a difference between a board that supports its theatre and a theatre that depends on its board to function.
Governance and Production Are Different Jobs
A community theatre Board of Directors’ primary responsibility isn’t producing shows. It’s ensuring the organization has the financial stability, policies, strategic vision, and leadership needed to continue producing great theatre.
- Production work serves the current show.
- Governance serves the organization’s future.
Both are important—but they’re not the same job.
One season, I served on a theatre’s Board of Directors while also stage-managing a production and overseeing marketing. At the time, board members were also encouraged to take active roles in productions throughout the season.
I don’t think anyone intended to create an unsustainable workload. It was simply how the organization operated. But it taught me how quickly asking the same people to govern an organization while carrying major production responsibilities can lead to burnout.
Community Theatre Doesn’t Always Have the Luxury of Separation
There’s a tendency in community theatre to assume that the only place to recruit board members is from its existing pool. I once had a conversation about a theatre struggling to recruit board members who didn’t want to work on every production. The response was:
“But if you’re not recruiting actors, where are your board members supposed to come from?”
That question stuck with me because it highlights a larger challenge. The people who make theatre and the people who govern a theatre don’t have to be the same people.
Someone doesn’t need to want to perform in the next production to care deeply about supporting local arts. Your community may include accountants, attorneys, nonprofit professionals, and community leaders who would be excited to contribute their expertise.
A diverse Board of Directors doesn’t just bring more skills to the table; it can also help prevent groupthink. When leadership comes from the same small circle, it’s easy for “this is how we’ve always done it” to become an organizational philosophy. Board members with different backgrounds can ask questions, challenge long-standing assumptions, and identify practices that may no longer serve the theatre’s future.
Is Board Involvement Creating Opportunities—or Taking Them Away?
Community theatre exists because people want opportunities to participate. They want to act, direct, design, stage manage, work backstage, learn new skills, and become leaders.
Board members should have those opportunities, too. Serving on a board shouldn’t mean giving up the ability to practice your craft. But patterns matter, and favoritism can develop in your theatre community.
If board members repeatedly receive key production staff opportunities, cast in shows, or other sought-after assignments while qualified volunteers are trying to become involved, the organization should evaluate whether leadership is unintentionally taking opportunities away from the community it serves. This should also be evaluated if a board member is not prioritizing their responsibilities on the board over other coveted roles in the theatre.
The Difference Between Opportunity and Favoritism
I’ve seen productions where multiple board officers were cast in featured roles [not just onstage] more than once. Those decisions may have been completely earned, but perception matters. When volunteers repeatedly see leadership filling coveted opportunities, they may wonder whether those opportunities are truly available to everyone.
Even a public audition sign-up sheet can influence that perception. Seeing several familiar names from the Board of Directors may discourage someone from auditioning if they assume leadership has an advantage or the outcome is already decided.
Whether that perception is accurate isn’t the point—the fact that it exists can affect participation.
Organizations should evaluate whether their casting and hiring practices inspire confidence, create opportunities for new volunteers, and demonstrate that roles are earned on merit rather than position.
The Final Curtain
Community theatre thrives because people step up when they’re needed. Some overlap between governance, operations, and productions will always be necessary.
But a healthy organization shouldn’t depend indefinitely on the same people to govern the nonprofit, run its operations, produce its shows, and fill its artistic opportunities.
The goal isn’t to keep board members off the stage. It’s to build a theatre where they don’t have to wear every hat simply to keep the doors open.
Last Updated on: September 2, 2026
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