Stolen Identity

The weirdest thing just happened. The custodians at the high school we use for performances just asked us why they didn't know about the show we had last Saturday. We were really confused because we didn't have a show last Saturday. They said that we had called the police to call a security guard to let us in the building. The security guard left a note saying he had let Jason (my husband) and our theatre company in.
    Fast forward to today. When we get to the auditorium to work on our upcoming production, the lights are moved around, people have obviously been in the tech booth, the audience area is trashed, and there is breakaway glass (the kind of prop glass you use when you're breaking bottles over people's heads onstage) EVERYWHERE. It was really strange. Obviously some kind of theatrical production had taken place over the weekend, only nobody knew who.
    Finally, someone who stopped by on Saturday remembered seeing a couple of church vans out front. Sure enough, when checking this church's website, they have a play performance scheduled for Saturday at this high school. Nobody even questioned this group, because for some reason they assumed they were us and should be in the building (For those who are curious, the church didn't steal or destroy anything- they just left quite a bit of a mess).
    When we were first hearing about this, my heart dropped as I thought of all the safety and security concerns if there were people out there impersonating us. They could destroy our reputation, get us kicked out of our space and cause a lot of problems for us. Now, I don't want this to turn into a preachy-type blog (Oh, come on! You know what I'm talking about- brief story that ties to an object lesson for the day.), but this particular instance got me thinking about the whole stolen identity thing. I think we all steal from each other when we say crap about one another. The gossip thing steals people's true identities and makes them into something they are not. I know- I've had my real identity stolen by gossip a lot.
    Don't feel sorry for me. I am a pretty jerky identity stealer. I can ruin a reputation pretty thoroughly. Let's not steal identities. Most of us do enough stupid things to ruin our reputations on our own without the help of others.