Laurence Olivier had it, Joan Baez gets it, Kate Bush was crippled by it, Stephen Fry suffered from it, Sally Hawkins still fights it and Leonard Cohen drank three bottles of wine a night just to get through it. But stage fright doesn’t have to mean the end of your performing career, or even functioning alcoholism. Here’s our theatre editor’s guide to beating those nerves….
Throw up, picture the audience naked, punch yourself in the face and double up on Tena lady: There are many ways you can approach the sweaty-palmed problem of stage fright. I, personally, like to approach it with the warm blanket of denial and about five pints of urine.
Luckily, there are some genuinely useful tips out there to help you tread the boards without trepidation. Whether you’re an actor, up in court, making your musical debut or just have to pitch your project to the board, here’s how not to end up a sweaty, panting, weeping mess.
Firstly, check yourself, before you wreck yourself. Stage fright is all a matter of attitude. As the self-styled psychic comedian and stage fright consultant Peter Antoniou puts it, “Feeling nervous and feeling excited are basically the same thing. Instead of thinking to yourself, ‘I’m really nervous about this, I’m going to mess up,’ think, ‘I’m really excited about this.’ It is tricking yourself, to an extent, but it does work.”
I use a similar technique whenever called on to remove one of the hoard of spiders preparing for war in my bathroom. Which is why I can often be found, crouching on the floor, in nothing but a towel, muttering, “I’m just excited about catching this moving tomato stalk.”
Secondly, get some perspective. You’re a performer, not a surgeon – it is extremely unlikely that you are going to actually kill anyone. Even if you’re in a Lloyd-Webber musical. “A lot of what we see as stage fright is actually fear about making a mistake,” says Peter. But audiences aren’t there to laugh at your cock ups (unless, you’re in a very extreme burlesque troupe). People pay to come and see shows because they want them to be good – as a result they probably won’t even notice your little slip-ups, let alone care.
Next, try to boost your confidence before you go on. Wear something that makes you feel good (no, that doesn’t mean your Indiana Jones hat – sorry), make sure you know what you’re going to say or play and get to the venue nice and early. If you have a chance, walk around the stage before the audience is in; it will start to feel like your performance space, rather than the butcher’s block.
Then, make like Glenn Miller and get in the mood. Give yourself a little ritual, a set of exercises or a regular routine that you do each time you are going on stage. Whether you take the advice of former Ipso Facto drummer Victoria Smith and “Eat until you feel sleepy,” or my friend Rob’s rather earnest “Get drunk,” is up to you.
“In the same way that a doctor putting on his white coat will be make him feel like a doctor, performers need something to put them in the mindset of their performance mode,” advises Peter Antoniou. “I do little counting exercises. Pre-show rituals should be something that you can do anywhere, at any time, quietly, even in your head. Also, do some verbal exercises to help you get your mouth warmed up and your pronunciation up to speed.”
Finally, just before you go on stage, think of a time when you’ve felt really in control, and try to remember how that felt, physically. That physical feeling will, hopefully, override your nerves.
Or, you know, you could get pissed, throw up in the wings and force the stage manager to dropkick you out into the limelight. It’s your (curtain) call.
Illustration by Narcsville.
Do you want to take your show to The Underbelly at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe? Visit the New Voices Edinburgh brief to apply.
To find out more about Peter Antoniou, visit his website.
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