I went to a meeting today in which I was reminded who I make theatre for. It is so easy to lose your focus on the real world in a department as focused as this one, and I think a lot of students make the mistake of thinking that they make theatre for their peers and for their professors. Well, I don’t make theatre for theatre artists.

I make theatre for my mother, who listens to show tunes and opera and who reads biographies of Harold Pinter but couldn’t tell you who Sarah Ruhl is if her life depended on it. She is a professor of special education in Los Angeles, CA. She is my audience. Her opinion matters to me.

I make theatre for my older sister, an English graduate student who goes to productions either with me or because she knows people who are involved. I’m pretty sure she’s never taken a theatre class in her life. I make theatre to surprise my sister and to surpass her expectations. My sister is my audience. Her opinion matters to me.

I make theatre for my chemistry major friend, who couldn’t tell you what a proscenium stage is if you paid him. I make theatre for my film-director boyfriend, who doesn’t speak my language of “acting choices” and who wonders what SM stands for, but who knows a good story when he sees one. I make theatre for people I’ve never met, who don’t know what the Tony’s are for and who wouldn’t care even if they did know. They are my audience. Their opinion matters to me.

But mostly, I make theatre for those college kids who I heard spoken of in such a negative tone at my meeting today.

I make theatre for the college kids who “did theatre in high school and think it’s so cool but don’t actually know that it’s hard.”

I make theatre for the students who dreamt of being on stage once but who now love their writing major and wouldn’t give it up for a Musical Theatre degree.

I make theatre for the kids who take production classes just to meet new people and be able to say “I helped on that show!”

I don’t make theatre for theatre artists. I make theatre for “ordinary” people. Because they are extraordinary. They are my audience. Their opinion matters to me. And you know what? Sometimes, their persective matters more than the opinion of my peers in the theatre department. Because they don’t speak my language. They don’t know how much work went into my productions. But they love my show, my work, and my theatre, anyway.