Our theatre is in a v. small town in the cornfields of Iowa.  We started 5 years ago and are doing really well. We have a loyal following which grows with every production (usu. three/ year).  One thing about doing theatre in the countryside is that your competition is probably not other theatres...it tends to be high school sports, church, bars, country club... But the people who want live entertainment (theatre) are, as I said, loyal fans. We are in a location where the closest community theatres are about 40 to 60 miles from us.  We draw audience from a large radius -- even from much larger towns and university towns.