Growth Over Perfection

One of the things I've learned over the years is that I'm not looking for finished performers. I'm looking for people who want to grow. That's not to say talent doesn't matter, of course it does. We need strong performers. We need people who can act, sing, dance, create and tell stories. But I've never believed that talent alone is enough, talent can only take you so far. What really excites me is potential, curiosity, the willingness to learn, the willingness to be challenged, the willingness to try something new, even if it doesn't work the first time. I don't expect performers to walk into a rehearsal room already knowing everything. In fact, if we reach the end of a rehearsal process and somebody is exactly the same performer they were at the beginning, I think we've missed an opportunity.

One of the things I love most about directing is watching people discover things about themselves. Sometimes it's a performer finding confidence they didn't know they had, sometimes it's somebody tackling a style of theatre they've never explored before, sometimes it's somebody realising they're capable of much more than they originally believed. Those moments are some of my favourites.

I think there's often a fear around getting things wrong, particularly in auditions and rehearsals, people want to get it right immediately, they want to have the perfect answer, the perfect character choice, the perfect scene, the perfect note. But, theatre doesn't work like that. The rehearsal room should be a place for exploration; a place for asking questions, a place for trying things. Some ideas will work brilliantly, others won't and that's okay. Failure isn't something to be afraid of. It's often where the most interesting discoveries begin.

Some of my favourite moments in rehearsal have come from ideas that didn't work, because it led us somewhere unexpected. It opened a door we hadn't noticed before and suddenly we found something better. That's why I value performers who are willing to listen, adapt and explore. People who can take direction and genuinely consider it. People who are willing to try something different before deciding whether it works, because growth only happens when we're willing to step outside what feels comfortable.

I've also found that the people who grow the most aren't always the people who arrive with the most experience, they're often the people who are most willing to learn, the people who ask questions, the people who seek feedback. The people who leave a rehearsal thinking:

"What can I do better next time?"

rather than:

"I've already got this."

For me, that's a much more exciting mindset, because theatre is never finished. Every rehearsal teaches us something. Every production teaches us something. Every audition teaches us something. I've learned things from productions that succeeded brilliantly. And I've learned just as much from productions that didn't go entirely to plan. Growth doesn't come from perfection. Growth comes from being willing to learn.

So when I'm building a company, I'm not looking for people who already know everything. I'm looking for people who are excited by the possibility of learning more. People who are willing to challenge themselves. People who want to improve. People who understand that becoming a better performer is a journey, not a destination. Because those are the people who continue to surprise themselves. And those are often the people who go on to achieve far more than they ever imagined.