In America, it ends -ER

Obviously English is spoken in many countries. Equally obviously, though somewhat incomprehensibly, in those different countries the same words are spelled differently. For the purposes of this blog, let's not bother with why this happened or whether it makes any sense and rather just accept as fact that British and American spellings are different.

British English tends to add an extra U here or there (favourite, colour), swap a z for an s here or there (analyse), swap the number of ells (counselling, enrolment, jewellry) and so forth. Oh, and reverse the -re ending. So, lets see, it's centre in Britain, center in American. Metre, meter. Most importantly, in Britain the relevant word is spelled T-H-E-A-T-R-E. In America? Where I live? T-H-E-A-T-E-R.

I've heard every argument. That -re is the art form, -er the building. Vice-versa. That it "doesn't matter". Etc.

Well, here's the thing. It matters. Any American theater company that spells it -re sounds pretentious. This may not be fair, but it is true. And it's obnoxious.

Some exceptions:
a) your theater is dedicated to producing only works by British playrights.
b) your founding artists are in fact British.

Otherwise? I'm going to judge. It may be trivial, but I feel strongly.