I actually think a little nerves is better than none. I've always been wuite a calm performer, when on stage I feel practically no nerves. You can learn a lesson from that though. Once I was doing a show for a week, but I wasn't nervous going on stage. One night, which happened to be the night the critic came, I was too relaxed and let my accent slip a bit, by the end of act one it was almost gone. Luckily, the Musical Director reminded me at the interval and I got my act together for the second act. Nerves aren't a problem, but focus is, apparently, for me anyway. It was a good lesson to learn, in hindsight. Thank God the critic didn't mind. I wasn't playing one of the leads, I was just supporting anyway.
The rain we knew is a thing of the past -
deep-delving, dark, deliberate you would say
browsing on spire and bogland; but today
our sky-blue slates are steaming in the sun,
our yachts tinkling and dancing in the bay
like racehorses. We contemplate at last
shining windows, a future forbidden to no one.
Derek Mahon
"Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets."
Arthur Miller