Perfection

I listened with interest to a recording of Donna Summer talking about Michael Jackson. She called him a legend and a great performer but she also talked about his quest for perfection. A statement was made that Jackson's success was because of his unending quest for perfection. He would rehearse for hours on end and spend endless time going over and over all the details to make sure every single second was perfect. Summer talked about others like Jackson who were driven by the same quest and had become superstars.



I thought about that quest when it comes to success. Malcolm Gladwell wrote about it taking 10,000 hours to master something to a virtuoso level. Over the course of my career I've easily put in 10,000 hours working on shows. I don't feel like a virtuoso. I spent over 500 hours working on the Wizard of Oz alone. There were many things that I wasn't satisfied with as I worked on Oz. I would redo an effect two or three times until I was mostly satisfied. I constantly challenged the cast to do a better performance than the last one each time they took the stage. Everyone knew I was constantly trying to improve the show. I guess that is a quest for perfection... and yet. There were things that I learned to live with. I had wanted a double screened video projection for the cyclone, but the theatre couldn't afford a second more powerful projector on our budget so I had to give up on perfection and live with what I was able to accomplish given the time and funds. I had wanted to paint more texture on the walls and do a floor treatment but ran out of time before the show opening and then got sick right after the opening weekend so I gave up trying to finish that and instead chose to move on to other projects I had put on hold while I worked on Oz. I don't know that there has ever been a single show that I got everything I wanted completed. Maybe that is my quest for perfection. But I also know when to learn to live with what I can't complete, can't afford, and can't achieve. Sometimes being able to accept things that aren't exactly perfect opens the door for creativity and for insights that made me grow as a person. It seems that many of the great artists who were perfectionists were also driven by their own demons into depression, drugs and alcohol and often death. I wonder if I stayed with the quest for perfection instead of settling for close I too might be a superstar. Then again I could just as easily be neurotic.