Going to Plays

I work in the theatre. Obviously I don't find my job terribly offensive or odious, and I believe strongly that live theatre is important culturally and artistically (if there is a distinction that can be drawn 'twixt the two). But I don't go to see plays very often.

Many people seem to think that this makes me non-supportive of the arts. They wonder what level of hypocrisy I call home, or whether I'm only in it for the money (have they seen my paychecks, I wonder) and am artistically bankrupt (I'm certainly monetarily bankrupt). There are, after all, a lot of theatre folk who listen to show tunes non-stop (and not just the gay theatre folk either, so don't go there), who see plays whenever they get the chance, who just love being in the theatre. They think I'm terrible.

Well, let me ask you something. Let's say you're a steelworker. You work hard because you don't hate your job and you feel like you're producing important steel for steel things that need to be made from steel (I'm not a steelworker so I'm going to guess). Sure, maybe you make a little less than a doctor or lawyer, but you feel like your contribution is important all the same. And you don't hate steel.

Would you want to turn around on your day off and go back to the mill to have a picnic? Why not? Surely you like steel. Surely you don't hate your bread and butter. How about taking a trip to some other town and touring their steel mill on holiday? You don't want to do that either? You must be a hypocrite.

I hope that example illustrates the fact that I spend a lot of time in theaters and that it's my job and that, while I don't hate it, I don't necessarily want to spend my days off (few that they are) hanging around theaters. But it gets worse. See, part of working in the theatre is acknowledging that you will never again have any nightlife. Because I'm working most nights, when all theatre people are working. And why are we working then? Because plays occur at night, and at carefully-determined times during the day. So if I'm working in a theater and the theater down the road puts on a play, there's a good chance I won't be able to go see it even if I want to because I'll have to be working.

I know theatre is supposed to be an art, and unlike regular jobs we artistic types are supposed to care about our work to the point that we see other artists as well. I know this. But the fact of the matter is that I spend a lot of time doing things which aren't terribly artistic, and when I get time off I like to do something else with it. Not to mention the fact that, as a theatre technician, I tend to have a hard time turning off that part of my brain and suspending disbelief.

It's okay though; I don't go to the movies much either. Or to galleries. Or concerts. Or even tour steel mills. I don't get out much, period. And if that makes me a hypocrite, so be it.

As a postscript, you may have noticed that I spell theatre differently all the time. I do this consciously (and, I would argue, correctly). Thank you for pointing it out.