NOV
7

Surviving the Less Than Stellar Performance

Part Two 

By Flip Kobler 

Flip Kobler began his performing career as an actor before morphing into a writer.  Flip and his wife, Cindy Marcus, run Showdown Stage Company and Showdown Theater Academy in Valencia, California.  Pioneer Drama Service is pleased to offer several plays and musicals by this dynamic duo, including Best of Both Worlds, the one-act version of the popular Mirror Image. 

In the last issue, I talked about one of the biggest pitfalls we all dread — when a performance doesn’t go as planned.  This is just the glory of live theater.  It’s not always going to go perfectly.  But as the director, it’s your job to keep moral high so they can get out there at the next performance and really nail it.

Sometimes, it’s more about the audience’s reaction than anything going wrong onstage.  A few weeks ago, I shared what I do in those circumstances, and you can click here to read it if you missed it.

But what about when a disappointing performance is because of mistakes onstage or behind the scenes?

Like I said last time, after every show (usually the following day before the next performance), we gather our cast and crew to talk about the last performance.  At first we focus on just the good stuff, asking them to share all the good comments and positive feedback and compliments they got.  That usually gives their spirits a much-needed helium infusion.  Then we start to talk about the other stuff:  the dropped lines, skipped scenes, missed cues, poorly timed blackouts, forgotten choreography, singing off key.  This is a harder pill for a cast or crew to swallow because it means they are at fault.

And our reaction is:  Whoo-hoo!  “You made mistakes!  That’s awesome, you guys.  Welcome to the human race.”  Our goal here is not to be perfect.  That’s a stupid and unrealistic goal.  Our aim is to “dare to suck.”  Take a chance, take a risk, that’s how we grow.  The great Jessica Tandy (Your cast may not know the mighty Jessica, but should Google her) had a Broadway career that spanned over 60 years.  She famously said, “In all that time, through all those shows, only one time, ONCE, did I walk offstage and say, ‘that scene went perfect.’” That’s a 99.985% rate of imperfection.  Cool.

This isn’t a movie where we can do the take over and over, or fix it in editing.  This is live, and mistakes are going to happen.

So the question becomes what do we do about that?  We rally our troops with love.  Ask them what they can do to learn and grow from those mistakes.  Can they be there for their scene partner?  Can they learn each others’ cues so they can pick them up?  Can they help other singers get back on key?

We’ve found when actors stop worrying about themselves and are in it for someone else, the shows improve exponentially.  Ask them to make a pledge to another actor, “I will be there for you tonight.  I’ve got your back.”  This simple vow gets moral soaring and bonds your cast together.

On a tangent, let me just make a small point about performing a show more than once.  We all hate to see an Olympic runner fall around that last curve.  Years of training all coming down to one make-or-break moment.  It’s heart-rendering to watch, and heart-breaking for the one who’s stumbled.  But our actors aren’t Olympic athletes.  Sure we have budget constraints, but most of us have the freedom to perform a show more than once, doubling or tripling the odds of our cast and crew achieving the standing ovation they’ve rehearsed for weeks or even months to experience.  Performing a show two or three times gives your cast members the opportunity to learn from their mistakes, to get back in that proverbial saddle and try, try again.

But what if your less-than-stellar-performance is closing night and there’s no way to recoup or get a second chance?

Then after strike, or during the cast party, or as soon as possible, gather your cast and chat.  Again, talk about the good stuff.  Talk about the audience.  But mostly, talk about the mistakes.  Because that’s how we learn, man.  Most of us are not in this to change theater as we know it or to move our show to Broadway.  (Although all of us are waiting for Guffman on some level.)  We do this because we love it and we want to inspire young lives.  Mistakes and disappointment are part of life.  Teens especially are going to fail now and again and again.  Their one true love won’t love them back, they won’t get into their first choice college, or get the job they want, or the promotion, or the big break, or they lose their run for Senate.  That’s the glory of life on Planet Earth.

I have a favorite quote from Captain Jean Luc Picard of the Starship Enterprise.  “It is possible to do everything right and still fail.”

It’s how we deal with failure that makes us artists.  So fail on, baby.

And that’s our focus.  Work your butt off, do your best, reach farther than you’re comfortable, celebrate success and learn from failure.

That’s theater.  And that’s life.