Monday Musing, 4/1/19

Hello Apprentices--​

Variations on a theme this week. I’ve written to you repeatedly the last couple months about mistakes, failures, rejection. Encouraging you to find opportunity and grace and courage in the midst of those scraped knees and bruised egos.

The three cookies this week continue the exploration of this idea, this fundamental truth of our theatrical practice. There is no such thing as instant expertise. Practice does not make perfect, it simply makes practice. A powerful performance exists only if the rehearsals have been sweaty. And even in performance, it is only discipline and process that will enable you to deliver that performance 8 times a week.

First cookie:  look at all the broken plates…

Second:  look at the sacrifice and pain in those feet… 
Third:  look at John Cleese’s flippy hair and then just imagine how many broken plates and blistered feet it took to arrive at the Dead Parrot or the Ministry of Silly Walks or the Knights of Ni. All the discarded sketch ideas. The discoveries in rehearsal of what was actually funny and what was painfully, obviously NOT.

Keep juggling. Keep dancing. Keep writing.
Practice makes practice.