PLEASE READ THIS

[leia131]

I vividly recall my first Encore meeting. I was scared out of my mind, and the only other freshman there was Eliza. And you know what? It was fun. We played games, and Heather introduced me into Encore, a welcoming family that cared about each other. Cathy was Cathy. Not Mrs. Archer, not our director, she was Cathy. Encore is not Encore without Cathy, and I fell that the decline in it began when she became Mrs. Archer. She is still Cathy in my heart, but I am in the last generation that remembers her as such.

I am not saying that we have to call her Cathy to be a good group, I am merely stating that the feeling behind calling her Cathy, the feeling that she was more friend that adult foe, is gone and sorely missed.

Encore is no place for hate. Sure there are people we don't like, but Cathy was never before, and should not now be one of them. And no matter what anyone did, we treated them all right and were still nice to them. There was no open hostility. No matter what they did, they were still part of the family.
Encore used to be a family. We cared, we did things for each other, and we loved, not hated. People having a bad time at home, came to Encore. If you had a fight with your parents, you came to rehearsal and forgot your troubles for a while. It was a good place to be, a relaxing place to be, and place to have fun. Frankly, most of the fun has gone out of Encore.

Encore is no place for selfishness. Everyone has to be willing to sacrifice time, money, modesty, comfort, and yes, a little sanity, for the good of the show. You have to be willing to rehearse for hours on end, learn your lines, eat less than usual, relax properly, talk only when you’re supposed to, focus, bring in food, join committees, organize things, wear tight/ugly/uncomfortable costumes, build sets, be half naked in public places, have little to no outside life, and carry the weight of other people on your shoulders.

But what you get in return is the greatest thing in the whole world. You can always count on the fact that when you need help you have a huge support group ready and waiting. When the weight gets to be too much, you have people to help you carry it. You have friends that you will have for life, that will never desert you, that will be loyal and true and always there for you. In return for all your sacrifice, you get camaraderie, the special bond that comes from the shared pain of a corset, the shared confusion of a concept that no one gets, or the shared satisfaction of a show well done. I made the best friends of my life thorough Encore, and I want to remember it as the place that united me with wonderful people, not the place I came to hate because of all the bad feelings.

Encore used to be the most intimate, loving, caring, supporting, and wonderful place in the world. Rehearsal used to be something I looked forward to, and something I never wanted to end.

This year is Encore's anniversary. We are going to celebrate the past. However, if we are going to have a future we need to recapture the Encore family. Without supportiveness, caring, love, and hard work to hold Encore up, it will fall down into the ruins of selfishness, laziness, and hate. I cannot stand to let that happen, so I have written this public service announcement. I hope that you all take a part of it to heart, even if you disagree with some of it.

Comments

[kelliann1388.livejournal.com]

I wish encore was still like that - I never got to call Mrs. Archer Cathy - that ended halfway through my freshman year. And now everything is so just hostile. It's definately not a good thing. As a side note, we are trying to start playing games again......