Making Stage Fright Your Ally
Your heart is beating faster than usual, sweat rolls down from your temples to your chin- you’re nervous. Nervous about the thoughts of the crowd once you present. In other words, you most likely have stage fright. In fact, this fear is very common; according to Vijai P. Sharma (who has a PHD), 90 percent of people feel stage fright. How can you deal with it? Can you overcome your fear from one day to the next? No, you cannot just overcome stage fright. You can cope with it and improve this fear you have which will gradually leave to its diminishment.
With that being said, November has developed into a month with numerous events for the American School of Brasilia. The vast majority of these events involved speaking in public such as “An Entertainment” and BSBMUN. Because of this, I thought it would be interesting to give advice for the shy individuals that crave the coping of such a fear.
Before the presentation:
1. Double Check !
The more times you check if everything is there and if you know the order of the slides or ideas you need to pass through, the less you’ll panic. Therefore, before you start freaking out, make sure you have a reason to.
2. Don’t think about the mistakes
Stop scaring yourself with thoughts about what might go wrong. Instead, focus your attention on thoughts and images that are calming and reassuring.
3. Wallow in the worst
If it makes you calmer, think about the worst possibilities or case scenarios of the presentation such as you trip and fall on the audience or you forget to wear pants. These thoughts will ease your anxiety as, in reality, you’re in a better situation. An example that would help my ballet friends when they were young and we were about to dance in public was to think the audience wore only their boxers.
4. Practice
The more you practice, the more you’ll be familiar with the presentation which will boost confidence on the stage.
5. Keep it in your head
You don’t have to memorize every word. Instead, memorize key talking points and then bits in the middle will take care of themselves.
6. Breathe
Nervousness is always accompanied by fast, short breaths. Thus, if you take in slow breaths, you will most likely feel a bit calmer.
On stage:
1. Tame your happy feet
The more you walk, the more your audience will follow you around rather than listen to what you have to say.
2. Don’t rush it
Start slow and allow yourself time to get into a comfortable pace.
3. Never apologize
“Everybody makes mistakes” so don’t apologize if you end up getting nervous or else it will make your audience get nervous too causing a feeling of worrying about your presentation
4. Don’t share your mistakes
You’re the only one that knows if you said the wrong date or if your slide was in the wrong place so instead of pointing it out to the audience, just keep quiet about it.
5. Fake confidence boosts real confidence
The more you fake the confidence on the stage, the more it will develop into actual confidence so try to pretend you aren’t dying up there and both you and your audience will end up believing it.
6. Believe in yourself
If you only insert negative thoughts such as “God, this is such a bad presentation” or “I can’t do this” in your mind while presenting, you’ll end up believing it and the audience will interpret these thoughts as well through your actions. So, try to encourage yourself even in your weakest moments up there.
You’re not alone; here are various celebrities who also have stage fright:
- Adele
- Amanda Seyfried
- Brandy
- Megan Foxx
- Jonathan Knight
6. Hayden Panettiere
7. Cassie
8. FIona Apple
9. Barbra Streisand
10. Rihanna
11. Katy Perry
Here is some advice on how to tackle stage fright, from within EAB:
Gabriela Alves (class of 2016):
“The number one thing is to practice as much as possible. You can’t do a presentation once a year and think that following tips such as breathing and having confidence will back you up. You have to put whatever advice you have to stay calm into practice first before you can use it and expect it to be something that will help. If you normally use note cards, you can’t walk up to a stage and think you’ll do fine without note cards. Under stress, your mind will blank, your hands will shake and you’ll stand there in awkward silence. That’s more embarrassing than using the silence to read over your notecards and continue with your presentation. Practicing stepping out of your comfort zone is essential for growth and, subsequently, improvement. If you don’t push your limits, you will be more uncomfortable in the occasions in which others force you to do so instead.
Another thing is to use your mistakes to your advantage! If you mess up a word, laugh about it. If you trip while walking up to the stage, joke about it. Things like that will not only put you at ease, but your audience as well. It makes the atmosphere less heavy and more comfortable. Everybody makes mistakes, and mistakes can be a valuable tool in a presentation. You’re not some robot here to deliver every line perfectly, and the audience doesn’t expect that from you.”
Emily Kerr (Class of 2017)
“In all honesty, it will never be easy going up on stage. I would know since a lot of our student body has seen me in countless plays and productions in the school. However, I can still never stand up in front of a crowd like in a presentation or even an announcement.”
Jader Barbalho Neto (class of 2018):
“I don’t really get stage fright nowadays anymore, because, to be honest, I stopped caring what people think. In fact, that is already my first tip: forget what all those haters have to say, ‘haters gonna hate’, remember? So asides from the obvious, take a breather and remember, if anything goes wrong, improvise. I have skipped entire pages of a play and improvised my way out without anyone noticing. As long as you do everything with a smile (fake or real) on your face, the audience won’t notice. I know “improv” doesn’t solve stage fright, though it is something that reminds you the fact that even if you mess up, you can still save yourself, so it is good to keep it in mind and calm yourself. Now as to the bane of my existence, speaking too fast and unclearly. To that there is a technique called CALMING DOWN. There is no other way to solve this problem, breath and remember to enunciate every word so you speak slower and more clearly. My final tip is for people who really can’t get rid of those butterflies in the stomach when they are stepping into a play. This is a hidden art created by my mother’s father’s grandson (me): use your stage fright to improve your acting. Simple as that. By default, being nervous wont let you be boring and energyless in stage, so you just fix any speech problems that come with the stage fright, don’t miss your blocking or lines and you are golden, however remember if you do mess up something, do not despair and just improvise. Also, practicing your freaking lines never hurts! What are you still here for? Go practice those lines!”
As mentioned previously, 90 percent of people feel this fear. You aren’t the only one that feels trembling all around your body once you’re in front of a crowd. The only true way you can weaken this fear is to practice and go on stage as many times as you can. An example that happened to me was in BSBMUN; the first time I went to the podium to speak, my legs began trembling with such fear (while I was using high heels) thus I could barely stand still. The crowd was very small so I could not understand where the fear appeared from. Luckily, I continued practicing throughout the course of the day by asking questions and going to the podium, that by the end, I went up to the podium, with confidence and I even answered points of information (MUN term for questions). So, oral speaking is very important because not only is it a true sign of growth and a very significant skill for school and other hobbies and/or careers that may interest you for your future but also, as Gabriela Alves said, “it teaches you to communicate your ideas effectively and to become eloquent.”
