Open Wardrobes

We had our opening of The Hanging of the Greens Thursday night to a good crowd (which included my wife Kelly. Everyone did great and was spot on. It was exciting to finally have an audience to perform for, we definitely were ready. Last night we had a mostly full house, despite the snow which had been coming down steadily all day. Both audiences really seemed to enjoy the show (and wonderful to hear some laughter!) and no real mistakes from anyone, it's going about as smoothly as it could. And what a joy to be able to do! I have learned that one of the ways to identify your passions in life is to figure out what energizes you. Acting is work, and frankly a lot of work. The more "effortless" an actor's performance looks, you can bet he's worked all the harder. But for me the work is entirely worth it, because it is what energizes me. Yesterday I arrived at the theater feeling drained from a long day at work... but by the end of the show I had more energy than when I arrived and the stress of the day was forgotten. It is my passion.


I have been re-reading The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy Sayers which is a wonderful discussion of the creative process, paralleling it to the creative process of God. I have mentioned before how in Genesis the first action we see from God is to create, and that the first thing God asks of Adam is to be creative. From this we can infer that at least part of the image of God in which we are made is that we are intended to be creative beings. Sayers takes this as her starting point and describes, based on the idea of a perfect God, what then a perfect artist should look like. It is rare that a writer relates art so closely to theology, and does it so well. She argues that the doctrine of the Trinity, however mysterious (and indeed it is), we cannot say it is removed from our human experience, for we see the process of the artist reflected in it, with first the Idea of the work, the Form into which the work is cast, and the Response it elicits from those who experience it. All three are necessary, each is in its way distinct, and yet all are part of the same work of art. With all this being true, how can we not but see the work of the artist as a truly holy calling?


Towards the end of the book she expands the idea of living creativity to all walks of life. Not everyone is called to be a writer, or an actor, or so on, but that does not mean we cannot live creatively. Sayers writes how modern society sees most things in terms of "problems" and "solutions" (and certainly this has not changed since her day), but in reality not everything is a problem to be solved, at least not in the sense of a math problem or a detective story. For example, she talks of the "problem of unemployment": it is not as simple as finding the one right "solution" which provides everyone with a job. Surely, she continues, should we not also ask whether the work is worth doing? If everyone has a job, but everyone is engaged in work that is dull, making things no one needs, has unemployment really been "solved"? Rather, perhaps the correct direction lies in thinking creatively, to apply our passions, whatever they are, and create jobs that no one has thought yet to do, but are immensely worthwhile. A society of people each engaged in working out their passions, freely living the life for which they were made... well, it certainly would be a better society than the one in which we currently find ourselves. It is a perfect ideal, and in that sense impossible on this earth, but one well worth the striving for.


So, getting back to the show: here is a group of people that know their passion and are working to live it our creatively. Certainly the fact that we are artists makes that a little easier. :-) It is a joy to watch people engaged in what they love, for their hearts and souls have been poured into the service of the work to make something beautiful and true. It is humbling to be a part of such a group, and here's to the rest of the run!