DEC
19

Count Your Blessings

By Cindy Marcus 

Long an actress as well as a director, currently Cindy Marcus is the director and front person for Showdown Stage Company and the Showdown Theater Academy.  Pioneer Drama Service is pleased to offer many of the plays and musicals that she has written with her personal and professional partner, Flip Kobler. 

In the movie White Christmas, Rosemary Clooney is having trouble sleeping.  She gets up in the middle of the night to warm a cup of milk and low and behold there is Bing who is also having trouble snoozing.  The two of them gently, and oh, so sweetly, break into one of my favorite holiday tunes, “Count your blessings instead of sheep.”

The whole song, every lyric, is about focusing on how we are blessed, what light has come our way to guide us out of the darkness.  This wonderful song is what inspired us to start our own Kobler holiday tradition at the holidays which I call, “sharing our light.”

Every year my son, Finn, and I decide what we want to do to “brighten” the world.  One year Finn and I made cookies for the firefighters.  Another year we bought Toys for Tots.  One year we went out and spent the afternoon collecting trash and cleaning up our local park.

And since the season is now upon us, I have started to reflect once again on what we will do this year to “share our light.”  And just as important, the people who have lit our way.

To be honest, this year has seen more darkness than light.  Finn, eighteen years old and two days before heading off to USC Film School — his life dream coming true — collapsed. 

He was diagnosed with a rare brain disorder.

Yes.

This year has felt bleak at best.

It has been “the fall of our discontent,” to paraphrase the Bard.  But one thing has stayed steadfast through the blackness, a beacon of hope through the darkness — theatre.

Theatre has brought us so so SO much.  I honestly think I could light a city with the blessings it has given us.

Family

We run a teeny tiny non-profit called Showdown.  Every summer we travel the country with our son empowering kids through theater.  Because Showdown has little money we have had to stay in the homes of our theater kids.  People we’ve never met — “strangers” — have opened up their houses to us.  Fed us.  But more than that, they have stood by us.

When Finn was lying in the hospital and we were facing insurmountable medical bills, they rallied for us.  Across the country these families who had touched our lives created a GoFundMe page to help our boy.  Thousands of dollars were donated to help our Finn because theatre people get it that “we’re all in this together.”

From the young newbie actor to the seasoned tech to the principal facing down the football team so thespians can use the multi-purpose room, if we don’t support each other, stand by each other, the show will not go on.  “We stand or fall together” is a mantra we use often in our camps.

Yes.  We, the theatre geeks, get that family isn’t always blood.  Some families are forged out of wick and wax.  And they light your way whenever we feel lost in the darkness.

Courage

Flip and I write together.  Up until the day Flip got cancer, I was way too timid to write on my own.  But fear has a funny way of making you break free of your comfort zone, doesn’t it?

With Flip sick, I had to find a way to support my family.

And so using theatre as my guide, I cobbled together a book about — what else? — theatre.  I wrote of my adventures in the classroom with Finn as I helped him and his classmates put on a show.

Fingers shaking with fear, I hit send, and submitted my little masterpiece.  And as I reflect on that day and the courage it took to send off my book, I realize that my bravery was brightened because of theatre...

...the way courage flickers to life when we have to get up in front of people and sing.  The way strength glows as we fight down self-doubt and audition anyway.  The bravery it takes to step into the spotlight opening night.  All of those seem small, but when added together they create a ring of strength that I call upon when the chips are down.

Oh, and by the way, the book did get published!

Fun

How has theatre brought me fun?  Oh, let me count the ways!

When our family sits around the table sharing funny stories about the nuttiness of life, inevitably we land on theatre.  With guffaws and giggles we tell the story of “that guy” or “that gal” who made our last show a living nightmare.  There was “that guy” who taped off the donkey’s mouth when we were doing a “live” retelling of the Nativity story and really pissed off the donkey.  “That gal” who quit ten days before we opened on a premiere show, forcing me to go on in her place.  On and on the stories go.  Our story candelabra is filled with wonderful, poignant, funny “story-candles” of people we’ve met doing theatre.  And each person ignites a memory that brightens our hearts.  Let’s face it, theatre people are just plain awesome. 

My life

Yes.  This amazing, crazy, fulfilling life I now have I owe to theatre.  Without theater I literally never would have met my amazing husband, Flip — we met doing a show.  Or the newest member of our family, Brooke — we met doing a theatre camp.  Or our amazing collaborator and musician, Dennis — we met writing a show.  And the list goes on.  These people who now form the rich tapestry of my life are there because theatre somehow brought us together.

I am so blessed.  Theatre has and will always be the beacon of light that guides me.  Home.