Saturday, October 2, 2010

the art in us

Tonight I went to see a play at the South Camden Theatre Company. It was fantastic. The space is amazing. It is this brand new little intimate theatre right in Waterfront South Camden. The play was called, "Last Rites," set in Camden (at exactly the corner the theatre is now) in 1967 when the New York Ship Building Corporation shut down taking thousands of jobs with it. It really was the catalyst of Camden's decline into what it is now. It was a heartbreaking play. This is a heartbreaking city. By as we drove in it, both Marilus and I said with a sigh, "My Camden." In the Director's Note, he said, "Camden fell because people lost faith in themselves." But there are still some people with a lot of faith left for Camden. I met some of them tonight. Plays like the one I saw tonight is why theatre is so important to me. If it were not for theatre, the stories we tell, and the lives we represent how would we remember where we come from? The choices and lives of simple people that impact us still today even though we have forgotten them? And how would we be able to ask ourselves the really important questions about how we choose to live now? Our stories and the retelling of them are important parts of who we are. And Camden deserves to have its story told and heard because it matters. That is why I am here and that is why I do what I do as an artist, as an advocate, and as a follower of Jesus' way.

P.S. I have an audition on Tuesday! :) Hooray!!!

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