Conquering stage fright with preparation

If you’re really freaked out about an upcoming performance, and the voices in your head are saying, “Don’t do it!  You’re not ready!  You’re going to screw up for sure!  You are doomed!” they are definitely trying to tell you something, and maybe you should listen.  Are you adequately prepared?

Learning your stuff

We’re going to talk about a few kinds of preparation in this article, but the first one is the most obvious.  Do you know your lines, or notes, or dance steps?  If you are a speaker, have you rehearsed your speech enough?

Are you about to attempt something on stage that you’ve never successfully managed in rehearsal?  Then for heaven’s sake listen to the voices in your head!  Practice, practice, practice, and see if the voices change their tone.  Preparation on the raw materials of your chosen art form, even over-preparation, is a very common way of neutralizing stage fright.

Even if your heart still pounds on stage, the time spent on preparation will help to ensure that you can get on with it anyway.  As the saying goes, amateurs rehearse until they get it right; professionals rehearse until they can’t get it wrong!  Even when their heart is pounding.

Take care of your tools

Also under the category of preparation, you will definitely be a better performer (and better off overall) if you keep yourself in good physical shape.  Exercise enough to keep your body supple and your mind clear.  Get enough sleep to keep your mind sharp, especially the night before an important performance.  You owe it to yourself, and your performing career, to give yourself this advantage.

Ditch your chemical disadvantages

If you’re an alcoholic, do everything you can to kick the habit.  Even if you’re a so-called “high functioning” drunk, it will catch up with you eventually.  Studies have proven that even though you might think you’re performing well under the influence, the audience tends to disagree, and the more drunk you are the bigger that gap becomes.  Stay in touch with your audience and with reality.  Quit the booze.

Use your head

Another sort of preparation if your stage fright is serious enough is to treat it like a phobia, and use anti-phobic methods.  Try visualizing yourself in an unstressful performance scenario until you’re comfortable with it, and then slowly ratchet-up the stress levels of the scenarios as you gain confidence in your visualizations.  At some important level, your brain can’t tell the difference between real life and visualizations, so it all counts as experience.  Alternatively try “flooding” – put yourself in a very stressful performance situation and stay there until you realize you can handle it, and it’s not so bad after all.