With Great Pleasure..................
This week I attended the BBC Radio 4 recording of their perennial favourite "With Great Pleasure". It took place in the Balcony Room at Shakespeare's Globe and we were treated to an array of literary gems chosen by Dominic Dromgoole (Artistic Director at the Globe) and author Will Hutton. We learnt a bit about the presenters through their selection of pieces as well as learning about their chosen authors and poets.
"The better part of valour is discretion.."
These programmes will be aired in August and I'm not going to give away the pieces that were presented! But what was fascinating was the process and the number of retakes required...not least because yours truly started coughing! My attempts at trying to discreetly stifle my coughing were to no avail. Oh the shame! I was rescued by my friend who never goes anywhere without a bottle of water and the audience member who fainted - thankfully distracting everyone away from my embarrassment. (We were assured that the person concerned was fine - once out in the air!)
"Trippingly on the tongue"
But it got me thinking - the retakes were just part of getting it right, creating a flawless programme requires several goes - because of coughing or other interruptions; the Globe bell for example, or because a word or phrase didn't quite trip off the tongue, a piece needed clearer introduction and so on. And that's what experiential learning, work-based learning and training programmes are all about - trying something, reviewing, identifying changes, applying the changes and, in this case, delivering the line again.
So next time I need to do a 'retake' at work or have to apply changes to some project and start again, I shall think of our evening spent with great pleasure...because retakes lead to a flawless performance - oh and yes I have started taking water around with me for those annoying people who cough!
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