10 MINISTRY TIPS FROM THE THEATER
by Rev. Chrissy Westbury (ISI ’23) | May 2024
The place I feel most alive and most myself is, paradoxically, when I am being someone else. Theatre is my emotional outlet, my intellectual challenge, and the primary way I make friends outside of my ministry context. Amelia and Emily Nagoski write in their book Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle that one of the factors that contributes to burnout is failure to express emotion. Onstage, I can scream and cry and laugh and sing and dance with abandon.
Recently, I played M’Lynn in a production of Steel Magnolias. The very powerful monologue at the end of the show, when she falls apart in grief, was cleansing and healing. Being able to sob openly and yell at God about the unfairness of it all broke open scar tissue in me I didn’t even know was there. As a pastor and as a presbytery leader, I don’t have a lot of opportunity to be so openly wounded and to allow others to care for me. As M’Lynn, I had to. It was in the script. And it felt good.
Here are ten other lessons theatre has taught me that translate into ministry and leadership:
- Project to the back of the house – In ministry, we often have so many demands coming at us that we have to triage what needs to be dealt with first, and what may be able to wait. Sometimes, that translates into the loudest voices and the most in-your-face people getting a lot of our attention. Don’t forget about the folks you can’t see past the footlights, those whose voices aren’t always heard.
- Listen, listen, listen – Even a carefully rehearsed script does not guarantee that things will go as planned. Sometimes your scene partner will lose their place or skip over whole pages of dialogue. You have to be ready to go where they go and to do the work together to bring the conversation back to where it needs to be.
- Go big or go home – Commit to the scene, commit to your character, commit to the action. If you hold back, it shows.
- Respect the folks behind the scenes – Without the tech and front of house crews, you have no play. You have actors standing on an empty stage in the dark, with no clothes, nothing to do, nothing to say, and no one to hear them. Honor the people who do their work in the background.
- Deeply know and embody the character – Step into the mind and the spirit of another. Don’t just put on the costume and walk in their shoes, really try to understand their motivations, what it is that makes them react in certain ways and say the things they do.
- Don’t take it personally when you don’t get the role – You can be the greatest actor in the world, and not be right for a particular role or for a particular director’s vision. Sometimes you won’t connect with a person, or fit in a congregation, and it’s not necessarily about you.
- The ensemble can make or break the show – Dynamic and engaging leads matter, but if the ensemble isn’t committed, engaged, and fully immersed in the show, it will pull everyone out of the story, out of the moment.
- Yes, and… – This is the first rule of improv. When your scene partner offers something, you take it and build on it. Don’t automatically shut things down without giving them a chance to live and breathe and explore the possibilities. Resist “we tried that before.”
- At some point, you have to put down the script – you have to trust in what you know, even if it’s not perfect, even if you have to call for a prompt. You can’t fully immerse yourself in the action when you’re constantly checking yourself.
- Don’t forget to have fun – “There’s a reason we call it a play!” Find the joy in your ministry, find the places where you can play, laugh, experiment, let go. The audience can tell when the actors are having fun, and it translates to enjoyment, engagement, and commitment for the audience as well. The same can be said for ministry partners and congregations.