I know. The title is brought to you by the Department of Redundancy Department.

I know. I’m funny.

I’m going to be a little more blunt than I normally am in this one. But I’ve recently had experiences on both ends of this spectrum, and am amazed at the difference it can make. I was doing a show recently. In this particular show, I had a lot of very specific entrances, spots on stage to hit, and music cues to observe. And honestly, in the first week of performances I made a fair number of mistakes. That is totally on me. What I learned from that is when you have 2 weeks to rehearse, sometimes just knowing your lines isn’t enough. I needed to be more prepared walking in the door. My mistake and lesson learned. Now when I make a mistake that impacts someone else, the first thing I try to do is get to them and apologize. I’m pretty sure that no one is as frustrated or angry at my mistake as I am. I actually have to try to put it behind me before beating myself up about mistake #1 leads to mistake #2, #3, etc. In this particular case, it affected one of the offstage technical staff, who was also management on some level. I found them as soon as I was able and said ” I totally apologize. I’m so sorry about that” , or something to that affect. Their response?

“Don’t do it again”.

And no, it wasn’t ironic, or an attempt at humor. It was delivered with an authoritarian tone. As in “I’m your boss and you screwed up”. So, instead of feeling like I really want to do better and make the show better and support the theater, the cast, etc. I’m angry that this person doesn’t know any better than to speak tp me like that. And, I’m super concerned that I don’t make another mistake. My focus is now on not screwing up. Not being creative, not telling a story, not interacting with my cast mates. It’s hitting a spot and reciting a line, hitting a spot and reciting a line, etc, etc. And another failing of mine is that once someone gets on that side of me, it’s hard to get off that side. And they didn’t. And, honestly, my opinion of the theater is negatively affected.

So there’s that.

I just got back from New York. I had submitted for a national tour of a show.

Never mind. I’ll tell you if it comes through.

The casting people asked me to attend a callback in NYC several times, but I declined because I was performing in a show here in Ohio. And, honestly, they were inviting me but they weren’t paying my way. So I declined, twice, which is one more chance than you usually get. But then, oddly enough, they invited me a 3rd time, after I was finished with the show. So I took the hint that they might be interested and booked a flight and a hotel.

BTW, I really do enjoy visiting New York. I don’t know that I’d live there but there’s a vibe, an energy and diversity that I LOVE. And people will talk to you, and listen. I really dug that. And I need to go back and run in Central Park. I went for the first time, the weather was great and it was like a race, there were so many runners. Very cool….

…but I digress…

For the audition itself, which was, btw, my first New York audition, I had prepared 2 songs and 2 scenes. I walked in the door and there were;

2 directors ,2 choreographers, the 3 writers / composers of the show, 2 casting agents and a videographer taping the whole affair, plus a few others whose roles I can only guess at. But about a dozen folks, casting a National tour. It could have been incredibly intimidating…

…but it wasn’t. At all.

One of the directors, who seemed to be running things, started by telling me how happy they were that I was able to be there, and how much she enjoyed my video submission. we went into one of the songs and after I sang it, she gave me some notes about the context of the song within the show and I sang it again. The groups reaction during the song was audible, and she comments after were very positive and complimentary. We then did the scene work and again, she gave adjustments, all in a positive, motivating way. They thanked me, I thanked them and went on my way.

Will I get cast? Who knows. And part of doing this job is doing the audition , enjoying the opportunity to perform that it represents, and moving on to the next thing. But I tell you what. If I do get to work with them, I will walk through walls for that team. Because I felt like they respected the work that I did, and the performer that I am.

Positive reinforcement. Motivation. Putting people in a position to succeed. It’s not just a performing arts thing. It works in almost any endeavor. But with creative people, positive feedback can free them to do their best work, without worry about “making a mistake”. I actually got to feedback to the casting agent and told them how much I appreciated the way I was treated.

What’s this got to do with wellness? If you asked me how I felt 10 mins after my negative encounter, and 10 mins after I walked out of that audition, I would give you a laundry list of the mental, emotional and physical differences involved.

But I think I’ve made my point.

Talk later,

Bob