Got a few bucks?

*Okay, folks-blatant solicitation forthcoming. You are warned*

So, a friend emailed me about a local theatre company needing money. If you have been a long-time reader of my blog (from my myspace days), you may remember my mentioning Margaret Lewis, and my esteem for her work (go hit the link to your right for the myspace blog if you need a refresher). Margaret has written some fine plays for a company called Stage Left Theatre, and I have a lot of respect for these people and the work they do. And they are currently strapped for cash.

And yes, everyone is strapped. I get it. The animal shelters are popping at the seams with relinquished pets, friends are getting laid off, my Starbucks partners are having their labor hours cut, things are tough all over. It ain't easy to try and find money for the arts when you are worried about your mortgage, your retirement, the food on your plate and the plate under your food.

But the arts are important. Crucial, even, for in times of both prosperity and strain it is through these expressions that we relieve our stress, look inward for peace, outward for guidance, and find ways to connect to one another, recognizing both the uniqueness and commonality of the human experience. Is that worth a few bucks to you? Can you scrounge a bit together to help these artists? Even if each of you out there can spare just a little, than that's more than they had a few days ago. Together, it can make all the difference in the world, both to those needing to express something, and to the audience who needs to experience that expression.

And hey, some day I'm hoping to not have to work two jobs and go to school all at once, and I'll be writing more than just a blog twice a week, and if Stage Left isn't there for me to submit my scribble to, than I'm going to be up a creek. So, you see, I'm being a little selfish here in my solicitation. (Why don't you write in the "memo" line of your check that yours truly can turn a word or two, while you're at it?) :-)

Find information at www.stagelefttheatre.com

-C.