Christmas Creed

This essay was first published in Athens Food and Culture December 2009 and is Copyright Will Leamon.

This is community theatre – it's not about Broadway or a future film deal. It is not a stepping stone to some great pie in the sky. It is valid in and of itself. It needs only itself and it wants nothing more than it's own community. It began before any of the others and will still be here when the entertainment-industrial complex finally fails.

Whether they say it out loud or not this is the unrefined creed of anyone truly committed to community theatre. I know, like most philosophy, it's a little hard to comprehend when boiled down to as few words as possible. Let me say this first before we begin – it is a beautiful thing and nothing expresses it better than the Christmas Show.

My first Christmas Show was 'The Night Before Christmas' presented by the Athens School of Ballet way back in 1990. This was a monumental Christmas for me in a lot of ways. First off under the steady hand of Marianne Hale I not only 'got' Ballet but learned to absolutely love it – an affection I still have almost twenty years later. That's an extremely rare opportunity for a young man born and raised in the south eastern United states. It's a Christmas present that out-shines just about anything else I've ever gotten for Christmas. I'm extremely grateful to Marianne for showing me the insight and sensitivity one needs to appreciate dance and especially Ballet.

I would work for the Ballet at Christmas for the next five years up until I went to college and was probably not safe to leave around the dancers. In those years I worked directly with our Stage Manager Max. You might know Max as the indomitable Maxine Easom - retired principal of both 4^th Street Elementary and later Clarke Central High School. But to me she was just Max – terrifying and edifying all at the same time. She made managing hundreds of dancers, a tech crew of worried Dads and kids and thousands of audience members look easy. Which after her experience running an entire public school on a day to day basis it probably was. Max taught me an invaluable lesson: It's OK to joke around and have a good time ONLY if the work is safe and cared for. Max led by example - she would brook no nonsense unless she felt the show was safe and ready to run but after that she really was one of the funniest people I have ever met. I had so much respect for Max that a harsh word would kill me and even the slightest approval would brighten my whole day. Now when I manage a show and a crisis presents itself I still ask “What would Max do?”.

If you're reading this then I have just closed my own first Christmas show. But right now I'm less than a week away from opening night. My thoughts drift back to those first Christmas shows and I realize again what community theatre is all about. It's about developing a love of the arts, bringing them forth into the world and hopefully instilling that love in other people. You see that's what Marianne and Max did for me. They loved the art and the craft so much that they showed it a respect and sympathy I never would have discovered without their example. Today I share that love and hope to contribute to that community spirit Athens has shared with her young and old alike for hundreds of years. I would consider it a proud achievement to provide some small part in continuing that tradition for a few more centuries.

Happy holidays and a very merry Christmas! Brian (my editor) and I are introducing some pretty cool changes to this column for 2010 and I can't wait to show them to you. Until then I would encourage you to attend as many of the awesome local Christmas shows and performances that are running all season. Eat, Drink and above all Sing!