Community theater might be the most important art form in the world.

Okay, obviously that is an exaggeration bourne from personal inclinations. But local theater is very important. I’ve seen bad community theater, I have seen middling community theater, and I’ve seen really great community theater – in the same way that I’ve seen bad, middling, and great professional theater. Theater is an art that will meet you where you are, and where I was on Friday night was 45 minutes away from my house, seeing Annie Baker’s The Flick at the Gaslight-Baker Theatre. I had never seen The Flick, and had mentally categorized it as a Community Theater Classic – you know, the ones you should know because everyone does them eventually. How wonderful to be surprised when the program mentioned that the play had won the Pulitzer in 2014, and to understand by the end of GBT’s performance exactly why.

The Flick is “not a feel-good play”, as I overheard another audience member remark as I was leaving. But I don’t think it’s a feel-bad play, either. It’s a feel-real play, full of half-sentences and awkward moments, and characters who might be good guys…or might be bad guys…or might be some other third thing where most folks on earth land between the two poles. It’s about who knows what about who and what exactly makes a betrayal a betrayal and the yearning we all have to be known (and underneath it all, why the digitization of all media is bad).

The cast of The Flick is small: Avery (Josh Carethers) is the new hire at a small local movie theater where Sam (Alejandro Galindo) and Rose (Emily Rohrman) have been working for years. We get to watch the relationship between these three change shift after shift, growing closer, then further, then closer again, over and over, each of them trying to navigate the world outside this theater from within it. Carethers is sweet and disarming as Avery. He has monologues throughout regarding Avery’s depression and love of movies that alternately made me laugh and played my heartstrings. In his scenes with Galindo, I hardly believed either was acting; both have mastered the elusive art of being rehearsed but completely casual. As Rose, Rohrman adds an element of chaos, tension, and jealousy to the trio – not exactly a love triangle, but definitely a friendship triangle, which can be infinitely harder to navigate.

The Flick is also not a particularly action-filled play. The set never changes, costumes never change, and probably on purpose, the time passing between scenes blurs together. But Baker’s script, director Tommie Jackson’s vision, and all of the actors’ vulnerability have made it feel like a roller coaster. It’s hilarious, heartwarming, moving, and difficult to wrestle with. It’s really wonderful. And one of my favorite moments happens when Skylar (Summer Jones) reaches out to touch the invisible movie screen near the end, and you get to realize, oh, I’m where the movie screen should be, and isn’t it a fun little twist to suddenly feel a little like a voyeur – instead of an audience member?

So what was I saying about community theater? Oh yeah. That it has to keep going, and will keep going. Theater is not a privilege of the rich and fancy investors. It is surprising, and it is worth celebrating. So make the trip to Lockhart for this show. I know it’s a schlep, but to me, it’s worth it.

Photo: Andrea Littlefield Photography

The Flick runs at Gaslight-Baker Theatre in Lockhart through September 21, 2024. For more information or to buy tickets, visit GBT online.