Time is flying! We are now less than a month from opening night of Legally Blonde. It has been such a delight attending rehearsal and watching this cast prepare. There is a vibrant energy and warmth that permeates our time together. I couldn’t stop laughing last night while watching the young actresses playing Elle’s Greek chorus ham it up offstage. There are some great laugh-out-loud moments in this show that catch me every time. Tonight we are officially off book for our first full run of Act I. I can’t wait!
Last night as I was standing in the Paramount balcony watching Patti and Spencer block one of their feature songs from Act I, “Chip On My Shoulder,” I was struck by a thought. Amid all of the unique stories that actors can tell about their journeys to the stage, all of us share one thing in common: we identify ourselves as “theatre people.” These are my friends. Despite our differences, each of us shares one thing in common. We are “theatre geeks.” We wear the label proudly. We all have memories of moments when we felt welcomed into the theatre community. The theatre has offered a space where we have experienced hospitality. In the theatre, we belong.
Being around theatre people is fun, and these days joy is the only word I can come up with to describe what it feels like to be doing the mundane things that go into doing live theatre. To be able to work alongside a diverse group of actors, to tell a story in a way that moves an audience–I pinch myself about how fortunate I am to be a part of something so special.
I am a Christian ethicist. In my career I am paid to teach college students at a Christian university how to think about moral questions. Returning to a theatre community that was such an important part of my past life has me thinking a lot about what this community offers that seems missing these days from the Christian community I serve. I hold onto the belief that the church in its best moments is a community that offers a radical hospitality that is desperately needed in our world. I fear that too often we fall far short of this ideal. Social media, cable television, and our political system have served as poorly. These days the church is not a hospitable place for many. If my theology has led me to proclaim how much the world needs the church, my experience makes me think something quite different: perhaps it is the church that needs the theatre to teach it something important about the practice of hospitality. Theatre provides you a place to belong.
And how about you? Come to the show! The Paramount is a magical theatre. You belong here. Get your tickets!
