How do I get over my stage fright?

Question

Well, I am worried about auditioning for a musical in my school. I really want the part, and I think I am a good singer, and I am going to learn the dance moves, but here's the problem: I have trouble singing/dancing in front of people. Even if it's my friends, I can't do it without someone being with me, and I can't have the teacher sing or dance with me for the audition because the character I am auditioning as has some solos. I really want to do this part, I love all of the songs for it. How do I end this stage fright?

Something to do on stage (Think of being alone... etc) would help, as well.

Answer 1

We all know what stage fright is, and I don't know of anyone who has never gotten it sometime in their life. I our worked in radio and TV for more than 30 years, and I can tell you this about stage fright. Even now, if I have to get up and speak in front of a group of people in a live audience, I get nervous--something that never happened when I was looking into a camera or sitting in front of a microphone.

Many of the top entertainers in the world say they've gotten stage fright too, so don't feel as if stage fright only happens to you. Famous people who are known to have suffered from serious stage fright include Barbra Streisand, Donny Osmond, Kim Basinger, and even Sir Laurence Olivier.

Stage fright symptoms are probably caused by adrenalin (a.k.a. epinephrine), which is a hormone commonly associated with fear. When the brain perceives danger or a stressful situation arises, adrenalin starts pumping, and anxiety increases.

Symptoms of stage fright include:

* A general feeling of anxiety before, or during, the beginning of a speech or presentation.
* Cold hands, sweating hands, or shaky hands.
* Dry mouth.
* Fast pulse.
* Nausea.
* Rapid Breathing
* Shaky knees.
* Tight throat.
* Trembling lips.

Stage fright, and the symptoms that go with it, lessen as you become more accustomed to speaking in front of groups of any size, but even veteran public speakers agree it never goes away completely. So if you're going to enjoy any success making a presentation you have to learn to control stage fright to some degree.

To the best of our knowledge, no one has ever died as a result of stage fright. But you can find plenty of surveys that say most people would rather die than give a speech. If that sounds like you, follow some of the advice and strategies below.

1) Comfort yourself in the knowledge that even veteran speakers get stage fright. If it happens of Barbra Streisand and Kim Basinger, what do the rest of us have to be ashamed of?

2) Understand that a little stage fright is actually good. It gets your adrenalin going--and that will help you keep your energy level up. That's a good thing.

3) Build your confidence with rehearsals. If you practice, practice and practice some more, you'll eventually feel so comfortable with your material that you won't stress out about the possibility of embarrassing yourself.

4) Visualize success. See yourself doing well. Imagine audience members applauding and coming up to you afterward to pat you on the back and shake your hand.

5) Don't visualize failure. Avoid dwelling on any bad speaking experiences you've had in the past. And don't think about disasters suffered by people you know.

6) Remember some important basics. Be well rested and relaxed, arrive early, check out any audio visual equipment well in advance,

You can't always eliminate stage fright and nervousness all together, and as I pointed out in Tip Number 2, you probably don't want to. But you don't want it to paralyze you either.

Follow the steps above and you find that going on stage is no longer something to fear.

Answer 2

I studied drama for 2 and half years...yes, going on stage is stressful and nerve-wracking, but if you know your audition piece well, really well (as tony said) that's half the battle won, cos not knowing it will make you want to collapse on front of the auditioners...if you want this role badly, it will be easy to learn the lines and song, and this in turn will help at times when you forget a line or word: because you know the basics, the gist, of the line, you can always cover up the mistake. therefore, make sure you know your lines and song well. im not a dancer, but even if you mess the dance moves up a bit, its ok, cos they want to see if you have rhythm and a natural ability to dance. again, the ability to confidently carry on and make it look like its all part of the act is the key. The audience won't know when you mess up if you keep moving ahead beyond the mistake, and live each moment on stage. you know you can sing; take that belief into the audition with you and hold it tight! they will see your belief in your face and body language. Pull out all the things you know you're good at and use it. a good way of not thinking of the auditioners is to get into your character as deeply as you can, imagine her world around you and everything else will fade away. as you perform, you may get approving nods or smiles or sounds from them; use these to keep your confidence up. you sound passionate about it; when you are passionate it will give you that confidence, because you know you deserve it more than anyone else and can do it better than anyone else. Also, speak to those auditioning you when you get there; tell them why you love this play and why you would be perfect for the role. This will show them that you are committed to this play completely.
you sound young, from your reluctance to perform in front of other people alone. its scary, but if you don't do it you will regret it forever, so you'd rather take the plunge and do it, even if you don't get it and you make some mistakes. At least then you would have learnt from the experience and will make the most of every other audition you may go for in future. I hope you get the part, good luck!!!:):):)

Answer 3

Ok- what is the worst that can happen?
What if you don't do it and spend the next God knows how long kicking yourself for not doing something you are well able to do?
I used to hate photo's and video's of me... but I decided to get over it by thinking it wasn't gonna kill me or cause any major problems in the world. A few years ago I had to submit a video of myself for class and my teacher told me I was a natural on camera.
Accept yourself for who you are- at the end of the day you are only in front of other people. Who are no better than you.
How about you do this one time- make that deal with yourself. I promise you you will probably find everyone very supportive once you take the plunge. If you make some awful mistake (like auditioning with your skirt tucked into your pants etc.)- laugh it off. Once you learn to accept yourself and laugh at yourself- you'll have no more self consciousness.
If all else fails- 4X shots vodka- I'm joking before everyone has a go at me for that one ;)

Answer 4

Hi,

one of the most important things is to be prepared for the audition. If they send you sides, a script or if you have a song to sing or whatever, go over it and over it and over it again until you know it backwards forwards, inside out, from top to bottom and upside down. That is soooo important.

If you do that first, you will have one less thing to worry about when you go on stage. Then you can start to apply some of the things that you received in one of the answers already. On the following page link on my website, you will learn a sort of technique as to how to make that happen. I warn you that it isn't easy, so you will have practice this too.
Here's the link: http://www.actingcareerstartup.com/how_to_get_over_stage_fright.html .

Good luck!

Tony
http://www.actingcareerstartup.com

Answer 5

even though I can be a shy person sometimes, I've never had stage fright... I don't know, I kind of just lose myself when I'm acting on stage..

Answer 6

think of the directors in they're underpants or something like that.

Auditioning is the hardest part for me and right before the performance but right when i get on stage it all goes behind me and i forget there even is an audience.

Answer 7

You got a good tip from the previous answerer, but you can get more on this site:

http://www.musicaltheatreaudition.com/joomla/content/view/122/64/

Their main tip is to be fully prepared. Click the link to read the rest.

This site also has forum where you can get tips from more people who work more consistently in theatre or their children do:
www.stageagent.com - just click on forums at the top

beak a leg!

Answer 8

I know it's hard, I have the same problem sometimes. But I just try my best to forget about the people and just have a good time. Just think of how happy you'll be if you get the part. :] Good luck!

Answer 9

Picture that everyone in the crowd is naked and amagine what they look like lol sounds weird I just heard people say that before, or you could just realize that most people are not there to laugh at you and realize how difficult it is to get in front of people and the people who dont realize that well they dont matter anyway so forget about them.

Answer 10

the previous answerer has got the right idea. you have to approach acting for what it is -- fun and playing. every chance you get to have fun and to play should be an enjoyable one for you so just look at an audition as another chance to have fun and to play. that is the sceret of good acting made easy.