Even though there are still 3 more shows before my tenure is up as Artistic Director, the shift into the next season is starting at the theatre and it has me thinking a lot about what I have learned about Walterdale over the last 2 years. The biggest thing I think I learned is that Walterdale, more than any other theatre I have worked in before, is all about collaboration. Everyone brings something to the table and the productions that welcome collaboration are the richer for it. In this sense, and in my role, I realized that whether I am Director of a show or Artistic Director of the entire theatre, the other people at Walterdale do not work FOR me, but rather I work WITH them. And although in some things the buck may stop with me, there is no boss. It has been so valuable to embrace this as I have learned so much from the many people I have been fortunate to work with over the past few years. I know that I will get to work with them again in the future near and distant, and I know that the foundation we have built by sharing and collaborating will work for us in whatever we do at Walterdale or outside of it. I feel blessed for the people that I have been able to work with. Some of them I got to mentor, some mentored me, and some just fit into their roles as though they were the right jig-saw piece for the puzzle.
It has to work that way, because we are community theatre. If the respect is not given to those that come to contribute then they will leave, because the currency they are paid in is respect, not money. We say we do it for Love, not Money, but tied into that Love of Theatre is the feeling of accomplishment and respect from those that we work with. It's a wondrous thing to count the hours of dedication and sweat and hard work and laughter that go into every show.
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