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I was leafing through (clicking still doesn’t sound right) the latest digital edition of Backstage Magazine the other day. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this magazine, or any other theater industry rag, it is full of important articles and insights, business and audition advice, and every once in a while something fun and entertaining. What it’s full of mostly, though, are ads.

Ads for what, you might ask? Pharmaceuticals (to help actors depressed about not having a job)? No. Hairstyling products (to help actors depressed about not being good-looking enough)? Nope. Booze (to help actors … well … all the time)? Not one.

Almost every ad is for a training program. Most of them aimed at professional development. These ads encourage actors to take master classes and workshops with leaders in the industry — nationally, regionally or locally. They vary in length from many months to just an evening with a casting agent. There are a ton of choices from acting methods like Meisner, Stanislavski and Hagen, to using masks as an actor to vocal or movement techniques.

There is a lot to learn as an actor, or theater practitioner of any kind. Sure, some people learn quite well by association — just being in a show with someone better or different than you can lead to great breakthroughs in the craft. But most of us, maybe even all of us, need concentrated learning opportunities. Almost any occupation has an ongoing education component. Why should theater be different?

And we do have opportunities here in Reno. Not as many as other markets, which makes it more surprising when they are poorly attended. Example: Brüka Theatre last weekend held a two-day series of master classes with five local theater artists who are all well-trained, prolific and respected members of our community. Stacey Spain, one of the instructors at the master classes, had this to say, “Artists need to recharge their creativity. Learning new skills is one way to do that.”

Do we not, as a community, see the value of honing our acting chops? Maybe not. Other than personal motivation, we lack something to really strive for. Unlike many other theater communities, we don’t have a class system (professional, community, student), which sounds great in theory but in reality encourages complacency among artists. If I can work with all of these amazing local instructors for free in a show, why would I pay money to hang out with them for a couple of hours?

The answer is simple: You will improve.

While my column is too late to help out this round, hopefully there will be more. And hopefully our performing community will take note. We need to be better. For ourselves, our audience and our local culture.

Chad Sweet is producing artistic director at Good Luck Macbeth Theatre Company.

Originally written for and published by the Reno Gazette Journal.