In which I am unintentionally offensive

So after years and years I'm finally involved in theater again. I did a play recently and now I'm doing some stuff for a local community theater group. We had a meeting last week and I got into a discussion about "the craft" of acting, and I think I may have made an unintentionally offensive comment.

There was a new guy at the meeting, and he told us he had only done one play in his whole life, and he kept apologizing for it. Which was just strange. I guess he felt insecure around people that have done more theater than he has, but it bugged me. I don't think it matters if you've done one play or 85, as long as you have fun and the audience is entertained. Look at me! This was the first full length play I'd been in since high school, and even though I majored in theater, seriously, all I remember is what a proscenium stage is (you can wikipedia that if you want to know, I'm too lazy right now to put in the link).

Finally, I said, "listen, please stop apologizing and making excuses, the truth of the matter is that no one really knows what they are doing anyway." And I'm afraid it may have come across as offensive. I think it's true, though - I think acting isn't really a quantitative thing, and to some extent no one really does know what they are doing. Good actors just have a natural ability, and they can hone their skills and put in hard work to understand a character, but when you get right down do it, either you have it or you don't. And as far as community theater is concerned, we're all just people who like to get up and act from time to time, and none of us will ever be famous, and it's really just a way to have fun and you can't take it too seriously. I mean, look, we do community theater in a bar. You have to take it with a grain of salt. All that matters is you learn your lines and you get up on stage and you say them, and you try not to mess up too badly.

So I wasn't really into the discussion about "the craft" that ensued. I guess it activated my bullshit-ometer.