One time is plenty.  A single experience can last a lifetime.  Once is always enough! 


I am always amazed when the student actor wants to do a graded scene performance again to
make it better and when the live performer begs you — after the
performance — to attend a second time because the time you just donated
to watching them was wasted in the valiant effort of a “dead live
performance.”

I rarely do things twice. I don’t buy a book more than once. I don’t watch movies two times. I am completely satisfied in the singular experience instead of the multiplicity of copied live experiences.

We must accept, and realize that — for many of us — we live in the midst of the “one shot deal” and that means we have but one, and only one, opportunity for us to get it right.

Asking for a mulligan or a do-over is not only poor form, it is uncouth and a waste of time.

To implore and demand someone who just finished watching a live performance promise to attend again is not just selfish, but unrealistic, and that request even more unfavorably colors the result of your confessedly bad performance.

We understand mistakes happen and that nothing is perfect and what was a major fail to you was, most likely, not even noticed by the majority of the audience.

We are perfectly capable of seeing the perfect whole in the imperfect veil of moments of a live performance — and the fact that you were able to persevere without complaining or begging — speaks to your unwitting grace and genius and to mention the obvious only devalues the strength of your resilience in situ.

2 Comments

  1. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    Gordon Davidescu says:

    Funnily enough, Elizabeth and I were just talking last night about how we haven’t seen the film The 40 Year Old Virgin this year and she said something along the lines of how she wants to see it at least once a year because it’s such a funny film.
    When I was a student and had to ‘perform’ for my public relations classes, we were not allowed a do over — why should anyone else get a second chance barring something really bad happening during the first performance?

  2. David Boles – New York City – David Boles was born in Nebraska and holds an MFA from the Oscar Hammerstein II Center for Theatre Studies at Columbia University in the City of New York. He is an author, dramatist, editor, publisher, and teacher who writes across the live stage, print, radio, television, film, and the web. With more than 50 books in print, David continues to write 2MM words a year and has authored over 25K articles. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, and PEN America, and founded The United Stage advocacy platform on the principle that playwrights have a duty to direct their own work. Read the Prairie Voice Archive at Boles.com | Buy his books at David Boles Books Writing & Publishing at BolesBooks.com | Study with Script Professor at ScriptProfessor.com | Touch American Sign Language mastery at Hardcore ASL at HardcoreASL.com | Explore the Human Meme podcast at HumanMeme.com | Train with Boles Bells at BolesBells.com.
    David W. Boles says:

    Yikes! I do know some people watch movies over and over again. “The Wizard of Oz” is a childhood totem that leaps forward each year into our adulthood.
    I’m more likely to want to see a live performance a second time — if I really have to — than watch a movie or read a book a second time around — because there is always something new in the live telling.

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