for the love of the game

No, i am not talking about baseball.

Each time I turn on my phone I have the phrase "for the love of the game". It came out of a small joke about why I do theatre. It isn't for the money or fame (yet...). It is what I love to do. Working or not, I do theatre for the love of the game of it.

When things are going well, it is easy to say why you love the game of theatre. Great people to work with, good reviews, confirmation that you don't suck...But, when things are not as you planned, not as you hoped, or not at all - that is when you really need to love the game.

A wise friend once told me:

one of the things i love about the theatre is the guaranteed failure of any project....not that you can't feel proud of what you do...it just can't ever be good enough. that is as it should be and tremendously liberating....frees you to work hard each day and see what can be achieved.

Failure is okay - it can even be good. Giving yourself the option to fail and it be okay is the only way to allow yourself to try anything. And isn't trying anything connected to why we love the game of theatre?

So, lets all fail and see what happens! Takes the pressure off. Takes the blinders of "this is good and this is bad" off. It is liberating.

Love the game - Fail.