how thin the margin is

When Mr. Edelstein started the "Globe for All" initiative, he knew he’d have to raise about $250,000 per season for a theater with an annual budget of roughly $20 million. But he considers the nontraditional stagings "the most important work we do."

He recalled a performance last year at the Veterans Village of San Diego, a shelter for homeless veterans. "One of the guys came up to me after the show and said, 'I have P.T.S.D., and I can't concentrate on anything for more than 30 seconds. But I just watched 90 minutes of a Shakespeare play.'"

"That was," and here Mr. Edelstein caught his breath and his voice broke at the other end of the phone line, "a very special kind of thing. It's a reminder of how thin the margin is between our comfortable middle-class lives and a very, very different version of ourselves."

-- Dominic P. Patola, Theater Troupe Gives Those on the Margins a Front-Row Seat