Don`t Be a Whore

I finally finished watching the first season of Battlestar Galactica. It wasn't because I didn't like the series, but because I was waiting for M so we could watch it together. In fact, I believe it to be the best show on TV since Alias season 2.

Since I haven't been watching the show, I haven't had a chance to keep up with the show's head writer's blog hosted on SciFi.com. I was catching up today and came across some really interesting posts. Both of which have the same basic principle.

"Don't be a whore."

Now, that sentence can be interpretted different ways, but let me look at it from the perspective of writing. There are two kinds of writing. One for personal and one for public. Either of these can be entertaining in their own rights. Something that is created with the sole intention of public consumption is usually treated differently. Public works generally can't be too risky or too challenging and, often times, boils down to how much money it can pull in. Eventually, you'll be attached to a project which you do solely for the pay check. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

When I write scripts and dramas for the church, I know the sort of audience that I will be having. I know I have the freedom to write about pretty much anything. The question becomes, do I fall in to the trap of traditional church drama or do I pioneer my own standard? This is difficult because I am trying to reach this particular audience.

I've been spurred to contemplate these ideas from a conversation I had with Becky last night. We were talking about the coming summer for drama and the coming year. In the four years that drama has existed, we are still looking to find a format that "works" in our church.

We haven't quite reached our goal of performing on Sundays, but I don't know if that is the right goal for us anymore. It's difficult to say because it is still an area that is fairly unexplored. As a team, we have more experience doing big shows. Again, it's uncertain to know how really effective those big shows are, but there is tremendous value there.

So my current paradigm is to switch from a Sunday format to a 2 large shows per year format. This is dangerous and oh so sexy. The benefit woud be that everyone would have some sort of role or character to play as each piece would be tailor made with multiple scenes and relationships. It would also allow us to have more plot and character development and address more complex issues. It would also require a lot more time and energy to pull a large show together.

This isn't to say that we're going to give up on the Sunday format. It may be awhile before we move to the 2 show format. We have even considered doing both at the same time! In either case, plenty of things to be considered and plenty of things to be prayed about.

Ultimately, it comes down to our vision and not compromising that vision, regardless of how unpolular it is.