Yet, as you may know, we’ve all seen great actors do work in terrible movies. Not because they, themselves, were bad, however the other stuff (ie. script, other actors, direction, editing, producers, etc) might have been to blame.

Or the actor had a bad day.

I’ve never seen your work, and do not know the specifics of everything you put in to this scene, yet I can empathise with you. I was an actor/improviser for a while, working with other entertainers far better (and worse) than I, and I found growth in everything I did. Just having the experience itself, in and of itself, is something you can take away. The biggest thing I recommend to you is to have a thick skin and communicate in a productive way during the process. Because I don’t believe anyone else wants the outcome to be crap either. Or feel the way you felt (are feeling) after your last go-around.

It’s tough, yet please know, Athena, you are not alone.

from Samuel R. Delaney’s “About Writing” (first paragraph neil)
“I was just struck by this paragraph from one of the letters — to someone who wishes he or she was a writer, but probably isn’t. And I thought, I should put it up here for all the people who write to me convinced that they would be happy if only they were writers.
Writers are people who write. By and large, they are not happy people. They’re not good at relationships. Often they’re drunks. And writing — good writing — does not get easier and easier with practice. It gets harder and harder — so eventually the writer must stall out into silence.The silence that waits for every writer and that, inevitably, if only with death (if we’re lucky the two may happen at the same time: but they are still two, and their coincidence is rare), the writer must fall into is angst-ridden and terrifying - and often drives us mad. (In a letter to Allen Tate, the poet Hart Crane once described writing as “dancing on dynamite.”) So if you’re not a writer, consider yourself fortunate.”

b) What are friends for?

c) It is supremely difficult to avoid a veneer of elitism in anything one pursues in a serious fashion. I know I have a difficult time taking many cyclists and climbers seriously. When you’ve immersed yourself in a field, you are simply going to approach it in a different manner than the casual participant. You enjoy it for different reasons. That’s not inherently bad, but it requires tact to deal with. Also, as I always remind myself, there’s always someone better than I am. Usually by a pretty significant degree.