Why Perfectionism is Detrimental to Anti-Racist Stage Management
This is a research paper written for my Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion class in Fall 2024. It details why perfectionism is a tenet of white supremacy, why it is harmful to stage managers, and ways to dismantle perfectionism in your practice. A link to download the file and the text of the paper is below.
While anti-racist stage management is relatively new (only gaining traction around 2020 as people began examining their biases during the Black Lives Matter movement and COVID-19 pandemic), stage management itself dates back to the 15th century. This means that there have been centuries to create a standardized idea of what a stage manager looks like, does, and what traits they should have. Some of these traits make sense for the job: organized, responsible, observant. But one trait stands out: perfectionist. In a field like theatre, where we must constantly work with others to create art, having a role that yearns for perfection doesn’t seem to make sense. We should not be surprised when our human colleague makes a mistake. In the current theatre industry, there has been a new focus on Anti-Racist Theatre. This is best defined as “practices and policies that actively interrogate discrimination in theatre complexes” (Bush). When theatres across the United States are beginning to incorporate anti-racist theatre practices more and more, it only begs the question: why are stage managers still expected to uphold a tenet of white supremacy?
Perfectionism is a major tenet of white supremacy, along with things like urgency and objectivity. “White supremacy culture uses perfectionism to preserve power and the status quo” (Peyton). By focusing on trying to do everything perfectly, we remove ourselves of the energy needed to commit to dismantling racist practices within our work. Additionally, perfectionism takes the idea of mistakes and conflates them to being worse than they actually are. “…making a mistake is confused with being a mistake, doing wrong with being wrong…” (Western 28). When we value perfection more than compassion, we assume that a single mistake means that the person making the mistake is wrong as a whole, rather than just understanding that they are human and fallible. Perfectionism also actively works against DEI work in every field. “…When we are perfectionistic about how we [fight the current power structure], we preserve the internal toxic power structure” (Peyton). Perfectionism is an actively harmful aspect of many people’s personalities that we have grown to accept because of how society conditions us to strive for perfection. It creates the notion that we are simply beings made to work rather than humans. Capitalism and white supremacy value productivity more than humanity, meaning that we are rewarded for striving for perfection, and those who are not perfect are regarded as failures. Perfectionism is also disproportionately harmful to people of color. White supremacy and its characteristics like perfectionism will always consider one correct way of doing things and consider every other method wrong. Additionally, people of color feel even more pressure to be perfect. “…if someone is not White and wants to be accepted by the majority in society, there is no other option than to be perfect” (Sultanova 30). They also may fear that if they are not perfect, it will reflect badly on their community, as seen when considering the stereotype threat.
While anti-racist theatre practices are becoming more and more of an industry standard, the role of the stage manager has been resistant to change. Many people expect stage managers to be perfectionists, despite the large amount of responsibility the job holds. “For stage managers specifically, there is a pervading expectation that we aren’t supposed to have any opinions or emotions—we are meant to be perfect robotic beings only around to serve the production. While it may be nice to feel omniscient and omnipotent from time to time, leaning into this idea can only set us up for failure since we are, in fact, neither of those things” (Flores et al.). When people are so focused on making sure stage managers are perfect, we begin to lose focus on the actual work. For example, stage manager Phyllis Smith has reported that she has been called out in the middle of a production meeting for a typo in a previous report that she sent out (Flores et al.). Spending valuable time in a production meeting to call out a small grammatical error seems unnecessary in the grand scheme of things. There are important conversations that should be had in these meetings about the show to make sure everything is going well, and instead, that time is being used to chastise someone for a mistake plenty of people make. It takes the energy away from the actual work we are hired to do. The theatre industry prides itself on its inclusivity, and yet when it comes to stage managers, we begin to lean into exclusivity. This expectation for stage managers to be perfect also leans more heavily onto marginalized communities. “The burden to be perfect is amplified for BIPOC, women, queer people, disabled people, and especially individuals living at the intersection of those identities. There is no room for mistakes—they have to be practically infallible to be given a shot” (Flores et al.). Stage managers that live within a minority already struggle enough to be hired, and then there is the added pressure of being perfect. BIPOC stage managers also often live with the concern that if they fail to be perfect, their failure will reflect badly on other BIPOC stage managers and prevent them from being hired in the future.
This expectation to be perfect can also keep stage managers from branching out into trying new methods. Perfectionism “asserts that the singular right way to work has been imposed by the White leaders who dominate a field” (Alcorn and Porter). By assuming that there is only one way to stage manage, we prevent stage management from becoming a varied field, with many different tactics and methods. A stage manager’s art lies within their process, and when we require stage managers to all work the same way, we remove the art from stage management itself. This expectation for stage managers to be a monolith harms every stage manager, as it assumes that every stage manager works in the same way. By expecting everyone to have the same process, we harm the actual productivity of stage managers, as no two people work the same way, and expecting someone to use a process that doesn’t work for them can make it harder to do the work.
To dismantle perfectionism, we must start with the individual. We must stop valuing perfection in our own work, and through that we can begin to dissolve this expectation to be perfect. It is easy for us to understand that others don’t need to be perfect, but it is harder to apply that to ourselves. However, others often see this expectation we put on ourselves and learn to be a perfectionist themselves, especially in mentorship areas. As stage managers, we learn by doing and from our mentors, and if we see our mentors expecting themselves to be perfect, we will expect ourselves to be perfect in our own work. We also need to make sure other members of our productions understand that we are human and make mistakes. Theatre is just theatre- a typo in a report will not ruin the production. By dismantling perfectionism, we can move forward in our anti-racist work, as the expectation of perfection inherently upholds white supremacy, and harms BIPOC stage managers. We can free stage management to be what it is: an art that grows and evolves with its industry.
Works Cited
Alcorn, Narda E., and Lisa Porter. "We Commit to Anti-Racist Stage Management Education." HowlRound Theatre Commons, 28 July 2020, howlround.com/we-commit-anti-racist-stage-management-education.
Bush, J. Theresa. "Anti-Racist Theatre." Design Studio, 7 Nov. 2024, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg.
Flores, Miguel, et al. "Hold, Please: Addressing Urgency and Other White Supremacist Standards in Stage Management." HowlRound Theatre Commons, 15 Oct. 2020, howlround.com/hold-please.
Peyton, J. Ryann. "The Insidiousness of Perfectionism." Colorado Lawyer, Nov. 2022, cl.cobar.org/departments/the-insidiousness-of-perfectionism/.
Sultanova, Elena. Perfectionism is a Tool of Oppression in Western Culture. 2022. University of The Fraser Valley, Master's Thesis.
Western States Center, “Dismantling Racism: A Resource Book for Social Change Groups,” Global Library for Antiracism & Digital Citizenship, accessed November 9, 2024, https://sacred.omeka.net/items/show/221.