A lot of my time in the first two weeks as the Artz Apprentice has gone into Seven. A youth musical theatre showcase, produced by the Artz Centre, where a collection of associate directors were to each take a portion of the show and an executive director oversee the project as a whole. Originally I was an associate director, in time however, the plan changed and instead I became the executive director of the production. It was a big step up to make, which meant taking on a lot more responsibility, something I was really keen to do.
Midway through last week, as opening night of Seven was quickly approaching, I reached a day where I’d needed to figuratively be more than 8 different people at once; a director, photographer, lighting designer and more… what then inevitably happened was… I crashed. I was trying to complete so many different jobs all at once, to the point where I lacked clarity of mind and in the end, because of my inability to focus, I accidentally managed to trigger the security alarm at work. Great job, I know!
Thankfully, it was only me left in the building, but there I was, having evacuated outside while the alarm was singing the tones of my defeat, and all I wanted to do, just for a second, was throw in the towel. To go back to a position where I didn’t have all this responsibility.
The thought only lasted for a moment though, and what came next was a much more important thought… The thought that, all year long, I’ve looked for opportunities to take on bigger challenges, and having to overcome hurdles wasn’t going to stop anytime soon if I was going to follow this path I was on. I knew then, that I could either write off the day as a failure, or I could choose to learn from every good and bad decision I’d made, and become a better person because of all of it.
I received some advice form my mentor soon after, he pointed out that:
had I looked at my week at its start and planned it so that each day had a sole focus, every task I had completed would have been completed to a greater degree of success.
Even now, I’m still learning to work this mindset into my week. But I’ve already noticed such a greater sense of clarity and focus by doing so.
You may be reading this and wondering how, from my perspective, Seven went? Because I certainly seemed to have talked at great lengths about mistakes in this Chapter. Well, contrary to what that may lead you to believe, there was no part of Seven that was not a success!
On the day of the first show, I had so many decisions coming at me to make: ‘what do you want me to do’, ‘ when should we bring the cast in’, ‘what do we do if the sound engineer can’t get here’ however this time round, I didn’t want to throw in the towel for a second. I was under massive pressure that I’d either crack under or thrive from…
Jump forward to 24 hours later, during the final performance of Seven, where I was stood in the tech booth at the back of the treatre, watching the last song in the show, completely inundated with pride.
Removing the fear of making a mistake, helped me to instead see all the successes from the show. Whether it be the technician who ran lights for the first time or the group of students you’ve worked with all year taking centre stage leading the entire cast, you can’t fully see all those victories, without being in position where you have to make hundreds of decisions.
In summary, through having to make hundreds of decisions, I’m going to make hundreds of mistakes. But each one will be lesson in its self, and if I can learn from them, then they will be the decisions that will make my apprenticeship a success.
– Joe