Q: What are some good ways to build confidence and get over stage fright?—@abbyf.1*
First, I’d love to suggest that you can both feel confident and have stage fright. When we feel nerves, the body is filling with adrenaline that’s waking us up to the task before us. This energy moving through us before a performance or an audition can be seen as a rush of power that we can use, rather than something to repress or make ourselves feel wrong for experiencing. This energy can also be here to remind you how much you love this. It can keep you humble to the work and appreciative of the audience and opportunity. Feel confident knowing that when it is surging in your body, you’re being present and available for the thing you love and value most.
Whenever we step in the direction of our dreams or do what we haven’t done before, this energy will be there. The difference between an amateur and a professional is that the professional will use it to create, and the amateur will use it as an excuse not to. Allow it to flow through you instead of trying to change it. A great way to ground yourself with this energy is to draw your attention to your breath and to breathe into the back of your body. Breathe into your lungs and imagine pushing the container of your torso back into the chair you’re sitting in. Feel the chair and the floor rising up to hold you and support you. Feel yourself present to the back of your heart. A few moments of deep breathing into your back can help you join this energy and feel the excitement of the moment rather than the fear of it.
READ: How to Audition
Our inherent negativity bias will always search for what could go wrong or what has gone wrong in past performances or auditions, causing us to ruminate about potential negative outcomes. When we can breathe in this way, we can also drum up memories from our past of times when performing has felt fun or transformative, and how well it’s gone before. When we reconnect to our own positive past, moving into the potential present feels much more welcoming.
*Submit questions for our Experts on Backstage’s Facebook or Twitter accounts or via our forums page at backstage.com/forums!
This story originally appeared in the Feb. 25 issue of Backstage Magazine. Subscribe here.
Looking for remote work? Backstage has got you covered! Click here for auditions you can do from home!
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the individual(s) providing them,
and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Backstage or its staff.
