FW: minstrel: Re: Fwd: Embarrassing performance

[Lisa and Ken Theriot]

Forwarded at the request of the author.


Adelaide

-----Original Message-----
From:	Margaret Spooner [SMTP:willandmlargotharrison at worldnet.att.net]
Sent:	Monday, April 01, 2002 11:19 AM
To:	Lisa and Ken Theriot
Subject:	Re: minstrel: Re: Fwd:  Embarrassing performance

Hello all - I have been lurking on this list for quite a while and must say
that this post has by far been the most applicable and salient as applied to
my performance personality.

I have episodes of severe stage fright and have had to learn - it is a
lifelong process - how to deal  with its effects on my biorhythms.

Mundanely, I am a professional musician: I have taught elem. music for nine
years in public schools and I use my singing voice semi-professionally
whenever possible.

SCAdianly, I have been Troubadour Laureate, am the present Poet Laureate,
and recently submitted an original Troubadour composition into the Gulf Wars
Arts/Sci Performance Championship receiving a score of 19 out of 20.

I would love to find out more on the ritual/hypnosis info. More for my
friends who support me through these times than myself!   =P

But let me add my "two pense" -ives to those of you who get "the shakes"
about some  realizations that have helped me:
1. Always memorize and perform from memory. Even if you think you are going
to blow it. At least two weeks before a performance I record myself
performing my piece
multiple times ad nauseam. I play it in the car in bad traffic. I sing a
long full voice. The other drivers stay away from me and all is good. Don't
like your own voice/talent/etc? Learn to. How can you expect others to
appreciate your art if you cannot? And remember it is a process....

2. Big lesson from yoga. HONOR YOURSELF.
Yes, take a detached step back from your performance and find the technical
flaws. However, you can only control outside dynamics so far. How well you
perform is not solely based on your preparation, but also your mental,
emotional and physical health and other outside influences. You should be
proud that your courage and love of performing got you up there! Angry?
Frustrated? Allow it and then start looking forward to the next time.
3. Us vs Them? No. It takes a love of performing to perform (whether you
feel it or not) and a love of performers to listen(they really are not their
to sit in judgement upon you). Love your audience. Don't imagine them in
their underwear, just love them. That had to be my biggest key to success.
Loving is service and it is the performer's duty to serve.

4. Performance is a sport. Any fighters who are also performers
will -hopefully - agree. Take care of your body. Drink tons of water, I
swear by Bikram yoga (its all in the breathing! Sound familiar?) Look at
what athletes do to get themselves mentally ready for their performances and
how they deal with their own poor performance.

5. Laugh. No offense to any of the gods who might be lurking here, but the
last time I tried to take on godhood I got a twenty-five hour 8 day a week
job with lousy benefits and a beaurocratic run around on my 401K. So the
performance was not perfect. Oh well. Did you do your best? Could you beat
the expression on that lady's face when you cracked that high note?

Looking forward to speaking with you all in the future,

In service to Society, Love and Dream,

Ysabiau Jolicoeur d'Avignon, OBL (Trimaris)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lisa and Ken Theriot" <lnktheriot at cox.net>
To: <minstrel at pbm.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 30, 2002 1:15 PM
Subject: Re: minstrel: Re: Fwd: Embarrassing performance


> Glenn wrote:
>
> [I disagree.  You're _mostly_ right, but not absolutely.
>
> I don't usually experience stage fright in a way that I'd label
> it that, but yes, it's there sometimes (most often in an
> unfamiliar performance scenario and/or with a different group of
> people than I usually play with).  More often it's a background
> thing, more "anticipatory" than "anxious".
>
> But sometimes it's not fear at all.  Oh, there's still some
> adrenaline involved, but it's not _fear_ and there's no
> shakiness.  No anxiety at all.  It's a feeling of
> hyper-readiness.  A confident feeling, revved-up.  If it tips
> over into cockiness, I'll make mistakes I shouldn't have made
> (and possibly fall off the edge of the stage again), but if the
> balance is right, those are the nights I give the best
> performances of my life.
>
> In general, I'd agree that feeling _nothing_ is a bad sign (and
> for the reason you gave).  But not feeling any stage fright
> isn't bad in and of itself.]
>
>
> Oh, I understand.  My point was that there is little difference,
> physiologically, between nerves, excitement, pain, anger, passion, or
> anything else that elicits an adrenaline response.  I can still remember
> (though it happened when dinosaurs walked the Earth), getting 100 on a
> calculus midterm (believe me, that didn't happen often).  It was at the
end
> of class; I went out, got on my bicycle and sprinted back to my dorm in
> record time and felt absolutely no physical exertion.  I am not an
athletic
> person, which is why the experience stuck in my mind.  My body was
coursing
> with adrenaline, though the cause was joy and not fear, and it propelled
me
> to extraordinary physical performance.
>
>
> Likewise, I remember (also Jurassic) the first time I was called into
court
> to receive an award.  Of course, I stayed through the end of court (which
> was some little while, being a Western Twelfth Night...), and I remember
> having the shakes _afterwards_, because I had no physical outlet and
didn't
> realize I needed to employ a mental one.  On the other hand, when I got my
> peerage, since I knew it was coming, I had all the pre-performance
jitters,
> and I was grateful that I had a friend on either side of me to hold me up
> as I climbed the dais (the fact that I was corseted and couldn't get
proper
> air didn't help!).
>
>
> I _do_ experience "stage fright" as fright (anxiety, nausea), but not
> everyone does.  My husband LOVES to perform for an audience, he can't wait
> to get out there, yet he still displays every "stage fright" performance
> symptom (playing TOO FAST, messing up difficult fingering, etc.).  The
fact
> that he doesn't feel "afraid" doesn't mean he doesn't have "stage fright",
> i.e. a performance-related adrenaline response.  (He ran track
competitvely
> for many years, which I think makes his problem worse; where adrenaline is
> a GOOD thing, you don't even try to control it.)  On the other hand, he
> gets nauseous EVERY time he has to put on armor, even at fighter practice.
>  He's a knight, so obviously he hasn't let this stop him, but it certainly
> makes fighting a less pleasant pastime for him than music!
>
>
> Whatever prompts it, and however your mind interprets it, it's chemical.
>  Some have less, some have more, and those that have more simply have a
> greater need to address the physiological effects.  Unfortunately, knowing
> you're prepared, rehearsed, knowing the audience loves you, knowing only
> you will notice your mistakes, all these things help control your rational
> mind, but they have little or no effect on the animal brain pumping
> adrenaline through your system.  That's where ritual and self-hypnosis
> techniques that reach under the rational mind can often deal with the
other
> half of the problem.
>
>
> Adelaide
>
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