I’m three weeks into directing my fourth theatrical performance. I think I might finally be getting the hang of this.
Unofficially.
My life hasn’t been very official yet. I can make it sound like it has been, if I try hard enough. But, really, I’ve been ducking under quite a bit of red tape for the last three decades. Teaching in a classroom without a college degree. Running Quickbooks without taking a single finance class. Directing plays without having studied . . . well, anything, really. The only opera I know is “Phantom of the Opera.” (. . . Does that even count?)
Most of what I’ve done the last ten years, I wasn’t qualified to do. No training, no diploma, no title.
Thankfully, God doesn’t seem to care.
Thankfully, the cast we’ve gotten together to fill all the roles in The Thorn Princess doesn’t seem to care either.
(. . . Although it might be best if you don’t tell them I have no real training for this.)
We practiced just last night. Complete with Cockney accents, flailing canes, and a flying cardboard box or two. Apparently, our rehearsals are a little dangerous.
But it’s not just the I-can-tell-you-to-say-that-line-again-for-the-fifth-time-because-I’m-the-director role that I love. I also love that when I watch our cast rehearse, I see brilliant possibilities. I see a play that would look good on Broadway. I see a backdrop that’s going to drop jaws. I see a cast that could stand unabashed with Sean Connery.
. . . Well, maybe.
I see a God who has a place for an unofficial Bohemian like me. Without the title. Without the degree. Without the training.
“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong . . . so that no one may boast before Him.” (I Corinthians 1:27,29)
And then it goes on to say, “Therefore, as it is written: “ ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.’ ”
