Hey everyone, this semester I have theater class…and we are are going to have a little show one day, I am very nervous, bc basically everyone in my school is going to watch. I feel like I’m gonna be bad at it.
(Of course, I love Theater and Acting)
I was laughing my head off bc of the acting skills. (It was very funny). I literally fell to the ground on purpose cause I was dying of laughter.
I like acting, but I am just not used to having a lot of people surrounding me, bc I feel like they might laugh at me, and make mean jokes.
Hey Katelynn. Yeah having nerves at the start of something so new and unknown is totally understandable. And those anxious thoughts can spur on all imagined potential insults. It’s your brain’s way of saying uhhuh I don’t know what this is so probably best to anticipate everything. But in my experience those times we push into those uncomfortable spots are when we discover truly amazing things about ourselves. I suspect if this is an introductory class there will be many there feeling uncertain and being open to connecting. Live in the moment and try this as an adventure. You might be surprised in what you find. I believe in you!
Theater is very fun! Everyone is nervous about it at first and most question if they are good or not even tho they are great as I’m sure you will be. I’ve even heard actors that have been doing it for a long time say they still have performance jitters.
I found this site for you to look at. I hope it helps you!
I’ll be honest, when I always presenting, whether it was grade school or college-- I always was nervous. I had several people agree with that too. I would suggest to really practice your lines, over and over and even over again, to the point you know them like the back of your hand-- because you’ll be more confident in performing. You’ll be knowing what you’re doing, and that’s a big confidence booster. Another thing you can try is, if you have to make eye contact, focus on only on person for the left, center, and right of the stage. There’s a trick to faking eye contact as well. Look at the center between their eyebrows and the top of the bridge of the nose. You’re not looking at them directly, and your eyes are looking as if you are.
I think Rosie’s link may also be extremely useful.
Thank you for reaching out. I’m glad to hear that you’re participating in theater! It sounds like you’re experiencing some stage fright which is okay; everyone experiences it! I do a bunch of backstage crew (and have been onstage before) and I haven’t met any actors who aren’t nervous before productions; being nervous is part of the experience, but the excitement should counteract some of that worry. You can still perform well when nervous!
It’s also important to remember that you aren’t performing tomorrow. You’ll have months to practice your lines, blocking, etc, and this will enable you to be okay when the time comes for the performance.
Have fun in the class and break a leg (hopefully not literally)!
<3 Tuna
P.S. Just in case you don’t know, “break a leg” means have a good performance; please don’t break any literal legs
As someone who is very shy speaking in front of a group of people I can totally relate! It can be intimidating when everybody is looking at you and listening to every word you say. But it can also be very rewarding having people giving you all their attention after you’ve practised your lines for weeks.
When you go out on stage it can be scary, but after a few moments the tension and nervousness will usually get better and better. If you only worry about that one situation (the play at the end), it will become bigger and bigger in your imagination over time, more than it actually is, and you might miss out on all the fun of learning and practising with your friends. Maybe it helps if you mention it to your teacher or classmates. It sounds to me like acting and theatre brings you a lot of joy and happiness (it’s great if it can make you laugh). As others have said before, even professional actors are nervous before going on stage.
When people laugh, it doesn’t necessarily mean a bad thing. Maybe you just made them laugh, maybe you said or did something funny, maybe just the SITUATION was funny. That doesn’t mean they make fun of you as a person or reject you. There’s a difference.
In my experience people who make fun of others usually do that to distract from and mask their own insecurities.
I’m sure you will be doing great, I believe in you!
I’m really nervous right now, I don’t know what to do right now. Again, I am not really a person who likes to be surrounded with a bunch of people.
I am scared as hell
Argh Why does this have to happen? Again, I do like acting, but I’m just not good at acting in front of almost the whole school.
Hi Katelynn
Take a breath, have some water, it’s okay to be nervous. I happen to be backstage crew/dabbled in some acting so I have seen many people who are scared before performances, especially with an audience as big as your school. Although being surrounded by people may not be your favorite feeling, know that they are there to support you and cheer you on. Draw on what you have practiced during rehearsals, and hopefully getting in character will help take your mind off the audience. Seems like your performance is soon, so good luck!
Break a leg (figuratively)
-Gremlin
Yes, acting can be scary, and fear is your mind’s way of keeping you safe. Let the fear take a seat in the corner where it can’t get in the way while you are onstage because you should be safe. This is your time to enjoy acting and show your skills. If you’re worried about mistakes, often the audience can’t tell intentional actions apart from mistakes because they haven’t been to your rehearsals. If it is still scary, take it one scene at a time. I believe that you can make it, you are better at acting than you think.
It’s rare, even among the superstars to not have performance anxiety. Acting improves with practice. Few people are good actors until they gain experience and enough confidence to act in spite of feeling anxiety related to acting.
It’s universally repeated, “we are our own worst critics.” That means we see flaws and deficiencies in ourselves that others don’t. We even see problems in ourselves that don’t really exist. Also, if your acting skills are not yet “great,” the worst thing that will happen is that other actors around you will feel more accepting of their own performance, whether or not it’s “better” than yours.
To make things even more interesting is that professionals often make horrific errors in judgment when assessing the skill of their students. For example, the Beatles were thought of as no-talent deadbeats. Walt Disney was thought to have no imagination or good ideas. Oprah was fired a couple of times. A concert hall manager told Elvis to go back to Memphis and drive a truck.
The bottom line is, if you like to act, I’d bet my life that you’ll become good at it if you aren’t already. Writers have to write, actors have to act, if they hope to become skillful in their art.
It may not seem like it, but now is the perfect time to face both the fear and experience of embarrassment if it comes to that. If you get past the worst of it now, it’ll be easier for you to grow in skill, and be less afraid of pursuing your dreams.
Hi,
see it on the other side.
what if people like it ? how would you see it when you were in the audience ?
that can help you to see that differently, write that all down. not only the negative way. also the positive.
we tend to think of the “bad” outcomes first. but i hope you can enjoy this. you will have fun there and it will
go great, i am sure.
this is great to hear, do what you like to do, have fun and stay with it. if people notice, that you like what you do,
you do that with heart, that gets recognized more often that we think.
You love and enjoy acting and theatre so much you said. Why don’t you try to do it for yourself? Then it doesn’t matter what others think about it. As long as it brings YOU joy and fun. Because if you stop worrying about what others might think and instead enjoy what you do, people will notice.
Imagine watching a musician playing their instrument, and they put their heart and soul into it, they forget everything around them and just live for the music in the moment. Isn’t that much more fun to watch than somebody who is worried and trying to do everything right, somebody who is more focussed on what is going on around them than what they are actually doing in that moment?
Do what makes you happy. You will be much better as if you try to be good for others. If you enjoy acting people will enjoy watching you as well.
