I hope SCT will be a conduit for that level of creativity. You can see that in programming choices. Jones was referring to SRT's much heavier recent diet of musicals. Community theater operates differently, drawing almost entirely on the nonprofessional talent pool, which is what SRT also uses to flesh out its casting. Colleges use mostly student actors, casting some community and faculty members to help foster student training.
Dinner theater tends to be the place many beginners get their start.
But they, too, get help and instruction from more seasoned community theater performers. While SRT commissions new plays, and Stage 3 offers new play festivals, only Smiler's regularly produces plays written by a local author. Smiler's co-founder Tom Amo writes farces in the British tradition, some of which rival Ray Cooney's English contemporary farces. In the process, San Joaquin County and Lode audiences have a fine time.