Doesn’t Hurt to Imagine
Last night, I finally decided what my dream house is: an old, broken-down theatre.
I will buy that theatre, even if it takes me fifty years to pay for it.
I will fix it up bit by bit, restoring it to its former glory.
I will live in that theatre for the rest of my life. I will wander around in it, pondering its vast history. I will be surrounded by the spirits of great artists who poured their life force into the time they spent in this theatre. I will spend hours exploring it. And you better believe that I will stand on the stage and sing every Broadway song I know at full volume because damn it, I bought a theatre, and I can do what I want in it. I will have a very happy life in that theatre.
But let's take it a step further.
I will rent this theatre to community theatre troupes. They can even live in the theatre if they want to while they rehearse and perform, it's a theatre, of course there's enough room for your whole cast and crew. Just clean up after yourself and don't break anything.
I will watch their rehearsals and attend their shows.
I will write with the echos of fellow artists singing, speaking, living, pouring through and being absorbed into the theatre.
I will get to know all the actors and crew members.
I will act in such a way that when they think back on their time in my theatre, they will remember me as a benevolent yet eccentric landlady who never quite enforced the rent due dates and always managed to show up at a rehearsal and sing whatever song they were practicing and always kept losing her pencils in her hair and would write random information on her arm and sometimes would make them all soup after a performance.
But I can go even further.
I will offer rooms to homeless people. It doesn't matter if a troupe is here or not, I still have room because it's a theatre, I could fit a small army in here if I wanted to.
I will give them a place to stay, free of charge.
I will offer them warm food and ask them for their shoe size and what size clothing they wear, then run to Walmart or whatever store nearby sells clothes and buy them some.
I will help them hunt for apartments and jobs, if they so desire or require.
I will let them stay as long as they need to, no strings attached.
And so, there is my dream house, accompanied by my ideal future.