A Wooden Stage and a Door

This month is a missions emphasis at Grace Baptist, the church I attend in Australia. The special events include a fellowship dinner after church where people bring kinds of food that can be found in foreign countries. I was going to bring biscuits and sausage gravy as an American dish but thought better of it. My pastor brought up the possibility of having some teenagers and young adults perform a short drama or skit during the dinner. Because he knew I was interested in that kind of thing he asked me to do it.

Immediately I began thinking about a large wooden stage that is found in the chapel of Piedmont Baptist College. I graduated from Piedmont with a bachelor of arts degree in 1999 and a Masters in 2003. I have some wonderful memories from my time there. But the best ones involved that wooden stage. Because for almost five years that was my stage.

I started doing short skit announcements on that stage in my Sophomore year of College. Those simple skit announcements turned into elaborate performances. I quoted The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe from that stage, as well as the Road Less Travelled by Robert Frost. I performed fake wrestling manuevers from that stage. I recited a love poem that I had personally written from that stage! But beyond a doubt my greatest memory was being part of a dinner theatre production there.

Every year the Junior class of my college has a dinner theatre that includes a nice meal. It is followed by an hour and a half to two hour play (almost always a comedy). More than anything I wanted to be part of the dinner theatre but only students were allowed to be actors. Since I had already graduated and was on staff it was not possible to act in the drama. But during my last year working at the college the director gave me a part.

I will never forget the feeling that I had backstage that night. It was a strange mixture of fear, adrenaline, excitement, worry, and frustration all at once. I can still remember standing behind the door that I would walk through when entering the stage. As the lights went down for actors to go off stage I closed my eyes and savoured the moment. The lights came on and for a brief second I stood there at the door trying to calm my nerves and pounding heart. I held my breath, reminded myself for the thousandth time to say my lines slowly, and turned the knob. The night was a huge success! That was the last time I did anything on the stage but I couldn't think of a better way to go out.

Now after all of this rambling you are probably wondering if I have a point. What I have just written clearly shows that I am passionate about acting. I can't guarantee that I was the best actor at that dinner theatre, but I can guarantee that I enjoyed it more than anyone else. Yet I have not become involved in much acting since that that night in 2003. I still do tell jokes and stories to entertain people. And I would take part in a Christmas or Easter play if asked. But acting wasn't something that I was actively involved in.

Why is it that I don't do something that my heart is so passionate about? To put it simply my love of acting was drowned out by needs and crisis situations of every day life. There are more important things to spend my time on than directing a skit or taking part in a play. So I put it off until later. Oh I still remembered the wooden stage and the dinner theatre. But I sort of “buried” my passion to act and direct so that I could focus on more pressing matters.

We are all passionate about something. And most of us bury it in the sand because we don't have the time or energy to pursue it. But taking the time to dig that thing up and do it can help us greatly. Being asked to put together a skit for the missions banquet reminded me how much I love acting. And it filled me with that same adrenaline, fear, anxiety feeling I had backstage in 2003. I sure did miss that feeling.