You cannot get something right the first time you try. Put another way, your first time is always flawed. Version 1.0 != perfect. Realize this. Realize that getting something right is iterative. Realize that you don’t really know how to do something until you have done it at least once. Start small and move forward a baby step at a time. So many organizations follow the process of “discuss, discuss, discuss, discuss, implement” when they should really be doing “discuss, implement, discuss, implement.” Shorter cycles means a better end result.

I always wondered when I’d get to see something strange happen during a show. Turns out that last night, during the “Black Boys/White Boys” part of the production of “Hair” we’re doing, an actor threw his pants into the lights, over one of the pipes that the lights attach to. They didn’t come back down. The audience went nuts, as did the cast. The assistant stage manager ran in back, grabbed a pole with a paint roller on it and tried hooking them. No go, but the audience was laughing harder, and the cast was improvising some stuff around it. The actor eventually hustled backstage and put his own jeans on. The nice thing, though, is that the stage and …

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