Last minte stage fright?

Question

My second school show was tonight and apperantly i looked nervous to begin wiith so any ideas on how not to look nervous?

Answer 1

How to get over stage fright is one of the most frequently asked question among young actors today. Did you know that the fear of public speaking and performing in front of a group of people actually rates higher than the fear of dying? Wow!

So what to do? You definitely have to believe in yourself. But I realize it’s easier to say than to do, so I will try and explain it to you better.

What's really important is that you first of all are as well prepared as you possibly can be. Practice and make sure you know your stuff!. Practice. Practice. Practice. That alone will help you to feel more confident.

Public Solitude

If you really want to get over stage fright, there is something else that your drama classes and your teacher can help you with and that is a concept called ‘public solitude.’ If you can, take a GOOD acting class. (If you are an actor, you should be taking regular classes anyway.) They will teach you that. You learn how to develop public solitude, which is really feeling comfortable in any situation and being able to block out everything around you and focus solely on ‘being’ the character you are interpreting and on your scene partner. The exercise and acting classes in general will help you to feel more comfortable in front of people while performing. Something else that is crucial for how to get over stage fright is that you need to focus on what you want and not on what you don't want. You need to focus your mind on what being focused and comfortable in your scene will be like and not on the things you are afraid will happen if you mess up. Why? What will that do for you? Let me give you an example.

Don't Think About...

If I tell you right now, "Don't think about a pink elephant! Don't think about it!" What's the first thing that comes into your mind? You don't have to tell me, because I already know. It's the yellow elephant isn't it? Why is that? Because that's how the human brain works. That's how your brain works. In order to forget something, our brain first has to understand what it is supposed to forget. How does it do that? By first bringing it to the forefront and creating an image around it. So what does that have to do with your feeling comfortable while speaking? Everything!

Stay Positive!

If you are serious about wanting to know how to get over stage fright and at the same time you tell yourself before you go into the audition or during any performance itself things like; "I hope I don't mess up, I hope I don't get nervous. I hope I don't forget anything. I hope I don't freeze in front of the group.", you are putting yourself in a position to think about what you don't want. Your imagination will go there and recreate that image of all those negative things you keep telling yourself. Your focus is on the wrong things! You said you wanted to know how to get over stage fright, so now you know what you have to do? What kinds of things will you tell yourself the next time you go into a performance or an audition? Positive things! Good things! You will give a great performance! You will be very comfortable in front of your audience! See yourself doing that. If you have to, close your eyes, BREATHE deeply before you go in and visualize yourself being brilliant. How confident will you be while you are performing? You know your lines. You know what you have to do. You are in the character. You feel it! You can see that you feel what you are acting! You are confident and you will be brilliant!

When you talk like that to yourself, you will feel your posture change. You will be erect and your shoulders will be back if you really feel it and if you really believe it. So BE confident and FEEL confident and you will BE the best that you can be.

Overcoming the nervous energy that you accumulate before ‘going live’ speak at a louder tone of voice, use gestures and BREATHE deeply. Be conscious of that.

So now you know a little about how to get over stage fright! Good luck.

Answer 2

really the biggest thing to worry about is your breathe. I know is sounds really trivial, but breathing is the most important tool of any actor.

It does sound somewhat strange I know, but hear me out.

All your emotions, thoughts, words, even movements are all triggered by your breathe. Take sometime today and just notice when you breath. The key to staying relaxed is keeping your breathe calm, steady, and continuous. The moment you stop breathing, or not enough your body will start to send you into that nervous place.

Its also good to know that "nervous" and "anxious" are really the same thing. Nervous only implies the negative elements (being judged, failing, fear) whereas anxious is more of a neutral thing (anticipation, excitement, doing well).

Trick your mind, stop saying nervous, I'm an actor and once I stopped saying "nervous" all the time... I actually felt more confident in my work. I'm "Anxious" all the time, but I breath through it and that keeps me from panicking.

This isn't a quick fix, it will take sometime, but you need to start sometime.

Good Luck, have a good run.

Answer 3

You will not have stage fright if you are fully into character. Take a few minutes to sit in a quiet place and relax your body and mind before you go on. Repeat as needed.

Answer 4

smile a lot and act like you know what your doing. I act and if i get nervous thats what i do!

Answer 5

Well, i had a concert not-to-log-ago and i thought that just by bein gup there and performing for people that i was making them happy.

I have a girl in my school who plays and intrument also, adn sh emessed up BIG TIME adn people laughed at her. I was scared that would happen to me also.

It didnt i ended up playin g by myself, just think, if you make a mistake its alright. No big deal.

Everyone dose it adn yeah you might be made fun of for a while, but it'll al be fine lkater on! You'll feel great and will want to do another show soon enough!

Hope this helps

Answer 6

Really get into your character.  Ask yourself before the show:  What does my character want out of this?  What are his/her fears, likes, dislikes?  What was his/her background like?  If you really get in touch with the show, you won't notice the audience as much.

Oh, and if you get nervous about not remembering your lines:  Unless you're the cue to an important line or action in the play, who (other than the actors) will know you missed your line?  The audience doesn't know the script.  If you lose your line, think of what your character would say.  This goes along with his/her likes, dislikes, and goals.

Break a leg!  :)