Theatre people love free stuff. I know, I know, one could argue that everyone loves free stuff. But no one loves free stuff like theatre people love free stuff. Here’s an example: One day in Colorado Springs, the burrito restaurant Chipotle was giving out free burritos in exchange for canned goods. The line was across the parking lot and around the building, but I stood in it. While I was in line, I called everyone that I knew and told them about the free burritos. By the time I got to the front of the line, several of my friends from around town had stopped what they were doing to come and join me. After we got our free burritos, we then proceeded to go to another Chipotle in town and wait in their line for another ninety minutes. That way we had a burrito for later. All of this line waiting, made us late for rehearsal that night. However, it was not a big deal because when we got to rehearsal, we just told the stage manager that there were free burritos at Chipotle and she was very understanding.
Why do theatre people love free stuff? Because they work for peanuts. Theatre is a job that does not pay anyone what they are worth. So if you work for 3 months on a show and you only make $500 the entire time, of course you’re gonna want what ever you can get for free.
Also, there is an unspoken free stuff contest going on among all theatre people. It is the height of awesome to brag about all of the free and ridiculously cheap stuff you got in the past week. That’s why theatre people love thrift stores.
