Best note ever?
After a rehearsal run-through for my play “All Undressed with Nowhere to Go,” the director gave the actors notes. Insightful, intelligent, penetrating notes that impressed me and made my head spin. Then he turned to me: “Anything to add?”
I looked up and said to the actors, “Do it better.”
And y’know what? Next time — THEY DID. Maybe that’s all they needed: “Do it better.”
I said it on a lark — and it got a big laugh (the desired response) — but it worked. Sometimes we need to know what “better” means; we need more guidance. But other times, we only need to hear that whatever we just did didn’t work and we need to do it better.
I know I have that feeling often when I look back on what I’ve written. “This could be better,” or, more often, “This needs to be better.”
And then I do it better.
October 7th, 2006 at 7:06 am
For intelligent people wanting to do better and beliving that they can do better a slight push is all that’s needed to produce better work or a better performance.
For those who need a larger push to do better then a director or supervisor needs to give specific areas that need improvement.
It’s a good feeling when you come across a group of people that only need a slight push and get to work with them. I wish that I had a group like that to work with daily.
Paul
October 7th, 2006 at 10:11 am
Yes, if only everyone would respond accordingly when I say, “Do it better.”
Hard to imagine where I’d start. The list would be so long….