Time to Gripe

Theater can sometimes be like football.

Why? Because just like football some people are in it for the love of the art and others are just there to make money. Up until this point in my life I have only experienced doing plays with community actors. The people in these shows do not get paid and yet they give up hours of their life to put on a production where the only reward is the joy on the faces of the audience who come to see the show. Many would probably perform even if there were no audience - they just love the theater world. Even in college, theater was done out of love for the art. You've gotta love theater to spend thousands of dollars on a degree that doesn't guarantee a promising job once you graduate. I consider myself one of the theater lovers.

In a few days I am about to open a show that, while still considered community theater, is with a company that hires Professional actors and community actors. They pay the community actors a small stipend for their hard work. I consider that pay not a wages earned but a gift. I would have done the show with or without pay. Some of my fellow actors, however, seem to focus on the stipend as an actual "wages earned" paycheck. As a result, they grip and complain about the long hours worked putting this show together and the little pay that they are earning for it. Some of these complainers have had bad attitudes for the past two weeks and they role their eyes when the director confronts them about showing up late for rehearsals or not showing up at all. What's amusing to me is that these complainers (there's only about four of them) are part of the community crowd for this show. They've done professional theater in the past but they can't seem to get off their "high horse" to just enjoy acting and performing, period.

These theater Divas are a reminder to me that when I do theater I need to always keep my focus in the right place, that's on Jesus. If I forget that I am acting, performing, and being a witness for Jesus, I begin to think that I deserve more praise and respect from the people around me than I really do. I forget to respect the leaders whom the Lord has placed over me like the Director and Production Team. And I lose my first love of theater (a desire the Lord has placed in my heart) and replace it with pride and greed. Even if I am truly being wronged humility should compel me to speak out against the wrong in a loving way, not in a retaliating way. I wish I could say these complainers aren't claiming to be Christian, but that's not true. They claim to know Jesus, but they do not display a very loving or Godly spirit. Lord, may they have a change of heart and attitude. (And may my heart change from griping to loving them with a Christ-like love.)