Tired? Sit down.
No, actually, flop deeply into the most comfortable chair you can find. Yawn, sigh from your gut, and feel your entire body relax into that nice, soft chair. Ahhh….
Nervous? Pace.
Better yet: jump up and down. Turn your head upside down and shake your hair loose. Sprint down the hall. Do twenty jumping jacks. Spring, dance, shimmy, bellow, hoot. Sing. Loudly.
Don’t back away from what your body is telling you. Embrace it.
Stop talking yourself out of your feelings. Allow them.
Let’s be done with second-guessing, self-doubting, denying, and adjusting our authentic selves to fit the expectations of others. Or our own expectations. Let’s stop trying to jam our square selves into a round hole. Instead, just be.
Audition season is underway. Typically, the earliest auditions are the most challenging. We are getting our stage-legs again, even if we have performed in productions over the past year. It’s time for the one-woman/one-man show, and it’s always a bit unnerving jumping back into selecting, polishing and presenting our monologues and songs. We’ve got to Fire the Judge, screw up our courage, and put ourselves out there. Alone on the stage. And nail it.
The reality is, the stakes are high. We want something (an acting job, a dream role, weeks toward insurance from AEA), and we are going to fight to get it.
Let those butterflies, sweaty palms, racing hearts just be. Simply allow what is. The physical state of high-stakes, dread, importance, urgency, and fear is precisely the same physical state required to effectively deliver your monologue and songs (which are actually merely monologues put to music). Your immediate need is crucial. Go out there and fight for what you want. And mean it.
Bring your day with you. Don’t deny it. Don’t try to calm yourself down or crank yourself up, or be anything other than what you honestly are in that moment. Breathe. Be grounded, present, urgent, passionate. Fight, fight, fight. Get the job. Capture your dream role. Win.
Go there. Do that.
I’m right there with you.