Outstanding post yesterday by Ann Handley on her Annarchy personal blog. I enjoyed it because she talks about two things near and dear to me: New Media and community theater. To be honest, I hadn't really thought about the parallels Ann describes, but I think she's right. Social publishing tools have made it much easier for anyone to publish their opinions. In the same way, community theater provides an outlet for non-professionals to express themselves as actors and technicians. As Ann says in her post:

Folks who previously didn’t have voice—or, more specifically, a platform—now do. In other words, like the community theater players, all kinds of people have a stage, if they want one. The “unbundling of all sources,” as Dave [Winer] calls it, has given voice to lots of folks previously shut out of the conversation.

and

Those who do climb up on the stage reveal themselves at a more fundamental level. Just like my acquaintance who risked showing a sassier, freer, funner side… bloggers can’t help but reveal themselves to their audiences.... Blogs are honest in a way that professionals aren’t.

Great stuff. Ann also discusses the ever-present professional versus amateur argument regarding social media. It's also present in theater, with a definite disdain by many professional theater artists toward their community theater brethren.

The point isn't replacing professionals with amateurs (although there are those on the amateur side who would perversely rejoice in the fall of professional media - or theater - despite the unlikelihood of that actually happening). The point is creating opportunities for those who don't otherwise have a voice to make themselves heard. And letting that person you "sort of know" from your community express herself on-stage for the first time.