“Hey, let me invite you to a filmmaking workshop.”  I can hear the groans from the Valley to the West Side now. But I can proudly say that I have supported many friends and colleagues by eagerly attending their plays and shows. I believe very strongly that we must support each, other both as a sense of duty and to be a  good friend. But also, in this particular case, maybe to actually learn something!

I remember being an actor in a play in Boyle Heights or North Hollywood, or downtown L.A. on a Friday, Saturday, or a Sunday matinee and asking the house manager how big the house was. Often times a low two-digit number would quietly leave their lips, spoken as gently as possible, so as not to have the words hurt me as they reached my ears, 12 or 20, or 6. But, I would still see my friends and colleagues show on a Thursday or on a Saturday during the second week of the run, reciprocally and happily.

Recently, I invited five friends to come to a show that I said was the best play I have seen in a long time. “The Play You Want” at the Road Theatre in NOHO. I don’t usually make my friends come to anything. But,  I truly believed, firstly, that my friends would love it as much as I did. Secondly, how great it would be for the actors to perform for a house where my party was 25 percent of the audience and all they could hear coming from the front row was laughter. After the show, my dear friends thanked me for bringing them to the show and, when the cast came out to see their own friends and family members who made up the other 75 percent of the audience, the actors asked me who we knew in the show. I said no one. I just loved the show. The actors thanked us for our enthusiasm and stayed and had a chat. I learned that as a fellow artist, it is more than my duty to see and support theatre, it was my absolute pleasure.

Going to a friend or colleague’s show on a week or weekend night is hardly the same thing as being asked to help someone move or take them to the airport.

Although, it’s sometimes treated as just as much of a dodgy ask. So, let’s brighten that up shall we? Instead, it could be a date night, a chance to sit in a dark room and see live humans on a stage entertaining you for an hour and a half (without an intermission) or it could be a human act of participation. Because an actor can only act if they are hired and a show is only a show with an audience.

So, the next time an actor invites you to his show or you know an actor that is waiting on tables during the day and at night they are rehearsing and on their weekends they are performing, go to a show and support local theatre