What we learn

There was a professor at one of our nation's top theatre programs, who often referenced productions he had directed throughout his lectures - as professors tend to do. He would introduced each one as "my awful production of this..." or "my terrible production of that..."

One day, during an anecdote about a failed production of Frankenstein, one of his students raised her hand and asked "Haven't you ever directed a show you were proud of?"

"Yes," he replied. "But you don't learn anything from them."

And without missing a beat, he went back to his lecture.

Now, there are exceptions to every rule, but there is something to this. Even productions that we are proud of should offer one or two things that we would have like to have done better. Reflect on your work so that you can find the things you learned along the way and the other things you can still aspire to. Always take the time to grow so that the next one will be that much closer to perfect.