@SeekingPlumb

I found myself in the middle of a cult....

Once upon a time, I was a part. I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I joined an international Theatre company initially. When I started, there is so much to unpack here, and I don't even know where to begin begin. So if you have questions, please feel free to shoot them my way. At the time, I was a believer, and joining this was under the guise of missionary work and spreading God's word. And I thought I was doing something good. And there weren't that many red flags

I joined an international theatre company.....

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@AskMarkWard
Mark Ward
@AskMarkWardΒ Β·Β 1:08
Fascinating, fascinating, fascinating on so many levels. Number one, I'm glad you're not in it anymore. Was it affiliated with a specific religious denomination? And in this allegiance that they asked of you that they required of you? Did they at some point ask for financial contributions of some sort? Or was it just your time and your performance? And how did they sustain themselves financially? Was it just payment from wherever you did the shows?
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@AskMarkWard
Mark Ward
@AskMarkWardΒ Β·Β 0:26

And...

Oh, and what kind of Ward ceremony takes 24 hours? I mean, sometimes it seems like the Oscars are 24 hours. But how many awards could there be? Was this annual? I mean, is this one of these things where basically everybody that breathes got an award
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@SeekingPlumb

Affiliation, money, still around...

Okay. Let's see if I can remember these. No, there is no Association with any particular denomination. I suppose it was to make sure that they were more inclusive in every respect. Money was interesting because it was seen as missionary work. I guess some people when they joined were told you should find your own or set up your own support system so that you could sustain yourself financially. However, I was not told that I was told I would be paid a stipend
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@SeekingPlumb

Not sure.

But I was fairly new at the time, relatively speaking. I don't know how that worked. And I was young, and it wasn't a time in my life where I asked a lot of questions yet, so I don't even know how that works. I don't know what all that time was filled with. I just know everybody was exhausted afterwards and kind of dreaded going to them. Yeah, it was annual. It was annual
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@SeekingPlumb

Affirmations?

You know, I wonder if after each award there was an affirmation session that would definitely draw it out
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@AskMarkWard
Mark Ward
@AskMarkWardΒ Β·Β 0:43
So since there's this whole blackballing thing for people who leave, was there some sort of pledge of allegiance or an alliance to this company? Or did they look to this guy who headed this theater company as being some divine connection, someone who had a direct connection with God, God, or something, because usually in a cult, it revolves around a single person. I know. I ask a lot of questions. I just find this fascinating
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@SeekingPlumb

What Affirmations were all about.

But what made it longer was after each play we had affirmations. You were not allowed to criticize your fellow actors. You had to give them affirmations. So after each play, you were expected, at least, I think, an X number of times during a period of, however long to stand up and give a verbal affirmation. But every single person was also required to do a written affirmation. And these little pieces of paper then were collected afterward. I have this inkling
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@SeekingPlumb

The man himself & commitments.

And there was a very wide center aisle, and in the center of that was this large raised Deus with just a chair for him. And sometimes he'd have maybe his daughter or whoever standing next to him throughout the entire night. And it was like it was his domain. I don't know that everyone saw him as being some sort of a divine connection or someone set apart, but definitely the people who were in higher authority did
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@AskMarkWard
Mark Ward
@AskMarkWardΒ Β·Β 0:57
Wow. So where did they find the actors? Where did they solicit? Like, was it via Church venues, via Craigslist? Like, how did they not that it's hard to find actors. But how did they solicit the talent? And you had mentioned earlier about staying with host families, what kind of network did they use to find people that would have strangers staying in their house? I mean, it's not like it's international exchange students
@SeekingPlumb

Medallion, recruitment, host homes.

I hadn't thought of that, but it would be. I was just remembering, like we also were all given when we first joined a medallion. It was custommade, and you work with pride. It was this. Even now, I have this, like feelings of being proud about it. It wasn't all bad. There were a lot of good things and things I enjoyed. And I met some really amazing people there. Speaking of, how did they recruit them?
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@Swell
Swell Team
@SwellΒ Β·Β 0:15

Welcome to Swell!

@SeekingPlumb

Additional note on host homes.

What was also interesting is that some of these host homes were very familiar with the group because they'd have us come in multiple times, maybe different faces for them. But they were always prepared for us. So they knew we might not have shampoo, deodorant, whatever. So there would always be a gift basket in the guest room that would have a wide variety of things that you could choose out of it, what you might need. Kind of crazy that something like that might be necessary
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@SeekingPlumb

Host home behaviour.

There was also prerequisite behavior for host homes, like requirements of what you should and shouldn't do. Never leave any of your belongings in the washroom. Even if you're there for more than a day about TMI how to dispose of things as a woman that you needed to get rid of, what to talk about, not to talk about. It was always required that after your dinner meal, because usually that was the only meal we were there for
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