Value?

I'm going to be on stage again this April! My friend Emily will direct the play The Women of Lockerbie by Deborah Brevoort as her senior project. (Check link for synopsis.) It's a wonderful show that I am so privileged and happy to be a part of. The play is written in the style of a modern-day Greek tragedy and I am playing the character of Hattie who ends up functioning both as comic relief and as the messenger which were roles typically incorporated into ancient Greek tragedies. We are very early in the rehearsal process and I still have a lot of work and character development to do, but I love so many things about the character already. I think it will be a wonderful show that everyone should come see. (April 12-14 - come see it!)

My apologies, I didn't start out with the intention for this to be a shameless plug, but there you go.

There's something bothering me.

The play centers on the story of Bill and Madeline and their struggle for closure in the wake of their son's death on Pan Am flight 103. The women of the town of Lockerbie, Scotland for which the play is named set out with a mission: to obtain the 11,000 articles of clothing recovered from the plane wreckage which the American government has held in containment for seven years. They want to wash them and return them to the families of the dead. The women know that for some (like Bill and Madeline), this act will provide the families with closure and the strength to move on. 

Connected with the play as a sort of publicity venture, other universities that have produced The Women of Lockerbie have participated in clothing drives to collect 11,000 articles of clothing to give to missions, homeless shelters, etc. It's a wonderful idea that gets the community involved for a good cause, and at the same time provides an advertising platform for the show. What could be better?

Indiana Wesleyan has done many clothing drives in the past that have been run by different organizations on campus. The Theatre Guild is an organization.

The clothing collected in these other drives has been collected and donated to a good cause or organization such as the Grant County Rescue Mission and other charitable organizations to provide clothing for the homeless or financially distressed. That is exactly what our clothing drive would do.

Other causes and organizations are allowed to make announcements for their food and clothing drives in our chapel sessions at Indiana Wesleyan. We were told we were not allowed to announce our clothing drive in chapel and that we were only allowed to make a slide to run in the slideshow that runs before chapel starts.

Why? 

That is a good question. 

We were initially told that the only announcements allowed to be made in chapel were announcements for events connected with the Dean of the Chapel's office or the weekly theme of chapel such as Love Revolution, etc. If this were true I would be more than understanding. But that is not true. 

Announcements for sporting events have been made in chapel.

And last week, an announcement for FNL (of all things) was made in chapel.

To quote a wonderfully sarcastic friend of mine, "Makes sense that tickling our funny bones would merit attention over a clothing drive."

This is just one of the many things that is depriving me of my sanity and patience this week. Would someone be so kind as to explain to me why we are not allowed to announce our clothing drive in chapel? I would be ever so obliged.