Faith & Spirit Quote by Lusia Strus

Service is a quietly radical word in an industry that trains you to chase visibility. When Lusia Strus says she prays to be of service, she’s sketching an ethic of acting that runs against the celebrity economy: the job isn’t self-expression as branding, it’s contribution as craft. The “prayer” matters, too. It’s not pious window dressing; it’s an admission that ego is persistent and that humility takes ritual. You don’t just decide to be generous onstage. You rehearse it like a muscle, sometimes with something as private and stubborn as faith.

The ordering is the tell: playwright first, audience second, fellow actors third, character last. Strus frames the actor as a conduit rather than an author. Put the text before the performer and you protect the play from interpretive vanity. Put the audience near the top and you acknowledge the live contract: theater isn’t content delivered, it’s attention exchanged in real time. The nod to other actors is both collegial and tactical; “service” here means listening, making space, resisting the selfish rhythm of scene-stealing.

Then comes the most interesting twist: service to “my character.” That phrase rejects the trendy idea that characters are extensions of the actor’s personality. It suggests an obligation to someone fictional but real in consequence. The subtext is discipline: don’t use the role to vent, posture, or perform trauma as spectacle. Protect the character’s integrity, even when it costs you applause. In a moment when acting is often marketed as personal revelation, Strus argues for something harder: disappearing with purpose.