Stage Fright in a quartet

I have done a lot of things including various types of speaking and performance (dramatic and musical) in front of people over the years, but never had anything I would call stage fright of any significance.

Until I started barbershopping two years ago, and first sang in a quartet in a (small, inside-chapter) contest!

I was stunned at how severe the actual effects were... I hyperventilated badly and my heartbeat was so strong that you could hear each beat on my tone in the final chord which was terribly badly undersupported. And I was visbily green in complexion! Subsequent contests were not much better for a while.

Somehow in the last two years the effect has all but vanished -- I'm not sure completely why. I'm still nervous but it effects the actual product very little, probably not far off the "optimal arousal" level you spoke of, so I'm ok with it for now.

My question for you is, how does/can the behaviour of the quartet effect each other's stage fright? What are the good things to do to help your partners with their own stage fright issues, and what are the worst things? I wonder from both sides... am I letting them get to me, or am I getting to somebody else, in this way? Are there things as a group we can focus on to help each other with this potential problem at performance time? (Besides learn our stuff better, that's always understood as being important)

Thanks... great site BTW.