Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Try Try Again


A wise man once said that you don't have enough time in life to make all of the mistakes yourself, so learn from the mistakes of others. I am about to let you experience that first hand.


We here at Family Theatre Warehouse have recently reorganized and formed a new company, The Donut kids theatre. We hired actors, bought costumes, built a set and put together one heck of a show and now we are waiting for an audience.


We failed to fully research the market and the best way of attracting an audience. Another wise guy once quipped that he who fails to plan, plans to fail.


So what now? Do we tuck our tail between our legs and run off to a quiet corner to lick our wounds? Not likely! I have three actors who have invested themselves in this production for the last six weeks and we are desperate to heve it seen! So now begins the process of rethinking what went wrong, finding out who to contact, getting the information into the hands of the right people and trying again!


Many times in theatre it takes a little trial and error to make things work smoothly. Unfortunately there are seasons when it is rather more error than trial, but giving up never got anybody anywhere.


So, when the dimensions of your beautiful set are wrong for the stage, or the paint color is wrong, or the costume won't fit, or the lead actor has a stroke a week from the Ameican College Theatre festival (true story), remember the old addage "The Show Must Go On". It isn't a fatalistic, callously uncaring mantra, but rather a rallying cry. It means, get creative! Get back up! Try again! Very few people in this grand endeavour succed their first time out, and even fewer succeed every time, so get back up and give it your best shot!

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