“Pray for an accident. It’s a gift.” Tara describes a performance of The King and I where wind blew the set over. The actor playing the king — supposed to be imperious — started barking at everyone to fix it. Twenty years later, she’s never forgotten that moment. It was the greatest moment in theater because something real happened and he responded in real time.
This orientation toward accidents and mistakes flips the entire relationship with performance anxiety. Instead of “please let nothing go wrong,” it becomes “I’m signed up for whatever happens.” When you forget your lines, it’s a gift to the audience — everyone gets to hang in the unknown together: “What’s going to happen next?”
The practical teaching: prepare thoroughly so your body knows the material. Then prepare for the mistake, because one will happen. It’s impossible to be perfect. When you’ve given yourself permission to fail, the freeze dissolves and what emerges is presence, humanity, and connection. “We don’t call this company the Art of Perfection. It’s the Art of Accomplishment.”
Related Concepts
- Reframe failure as experimentation
- People want connection, not perfection
- Vulnerability produces love, not rejection