I have a young lady in directing class who has consistently hit her scenes out of the ballpark. Each time, she seems to go further and further creating interesting connections between the actors, the text, and the space. The odd thing is – – is that I am not sure where she got all of this information to be successful. I would like to take the credit . . .and say that it was all my wonderful, carefully planned teaching, but I do not think that is fair. And even more oddly I do not think she knows how good she is . . . I believe she is intent on studying acting in college – which is fine in that she has an aptitude for this – but her real gold mine, I believe, is directing.I am a bit superstitious. If I praise her too much this early in the game will she lose her winning streak and, worse, become a bit arrogant? If there is not enough encouragement, I worry that she won’t move forward. What to do? Perhaps if I write vague and nameless praise here on my blog she will read this and think it MIGHT be her – and that MIGHT be just the right amount of fuel to keep her hungry and keep her going.