The word "performance" is the basis for our medium. It's what we work toward, look forward to, and talk about with endless fervor. But does this word, this concept, this idea, actually stifle learning, artistic expression, and growth? As a director and professor of theatre for the past 13 years, I have watched this word become the knave from which we cannot turn away. The devil, not so much in the details but in the atmospheric layer that hangs over every classroom I have ever taught in, every play I have ever directed.