A response to falstaff29's comment:  “I'd rather bring in directors based solely on their prior experience even if there's a chance they might ruffle a few feathers as long as they'll give us a great show.” (Italics mine)

I’m probably starting a bit of an imbroglio, here, but I must tell you that I passionately disagree with this statement in regard to community theatre, in particular, the part that I italicized, above.  Although I risk taking it out of context because most of the principles are interdependent, the leading principle in my "Unalterable Principles of Community Theatre in the 21st Century (Revised)" (if you like, you can retrieve that document on my website at www.concepttoexecution.com) is that in community theatre the process is as important as the product.  I can't tell you how many "good" directors have run roughshod over a community theatre under the guise of creating a “good” show.  Quite frankly, I have yet to see a significantly better community theatre show where a supposedly “qualified” director (especially directors who come out of educational – particularly college – or professional settings) came in and had a process inappropriate to community theatre.  The exceptions to this are those directors who come out of educational or professional settings and who also have had experience and background in community theatre. 

But this goes beyond issues of quality.  Being reliant on volunteer talent, community theatre must provide “value” to its participants; after all, this is their discretionary time and they expect a positive return on their investment of that time.  You keep “ruffling feathers” and those feathers aren’t going to come back, they aren’t going to support you, they aren’t going to buy tickets to your shows, and they aren’t going to encourage others to buy them, either.  A positive process creates a positive product that leads to greater ticket sales thereby resulting in a positive double bottom line:  an economically and artistically viable organization.

So it all starts with a positive process, and that needs a definition: 

In community theatre, a positive process is one in which participants experience a mutually supportive, enjoyable, and stimulating environment that provides the opportunity to move them beyond mediocrity to ever higher levels of artistic achievement.