The Great Acting Blog: “When A Project Ends”

The Great Acting Blog: “When A Project Ends”

The end of a production is naturally a time for reflection. Looking back, seeing what worked well, feeling bone crushing shame at glaring errors. Why did I lose focus at a certain time? Why did I think that shabby piece of work was acceptable? I didn’t work hard enough. It could have been better. Of course all of these and similar thoughts pass through our minds. Much of it is to help us learn and improve, and much of it is actually shock at what we actually produced versus our expectation of what we thought we were going to produce. However, over time, our expectations for what the production might be, withers and eventually disappears. All that we are left with is the actual product of our effort which becomes an accepted part of our body of work (indeed, years later we cannot see in the work our so-called mistakes, much less even remember what they were supposed to have been). The worry, the disappointment, are not real, they are a temporary morass we invent in order to buffer ourselves against the feeling that we are not good enough, and this lasts until we get the project out of our system.

The reflection process however, is an important part of exiting a project. It’s important because it exorcises the project for us, removing the complexities built up in our mind over time, creating headspace for new work. If we do not deal with those complexities, then they are liable to churn round in our mind and hamper our progress, blocking us from moving on. Then there are the practical reasons, reflection helps us to learn from those things we did well and to see where we need to improve. The key however, is to act on the insights gained.

Subscribe to The Great Acting Blog