Ian Sidden

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Solving Problems

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One lens to view your task as a performer is as a problem solver.

The director gives you a weird direction, and you don’t know what to do with it. She’s clearly wrong, right? She doesn’t know what she’s talking about, right? My interpretation is the best, right?

Wrong. Getting stuck on those thoughts will sabotage your creative process. You have a problem, so solve it: what would it look like if you followed her direction? Figure it out. Find the pathway to make it work.

The same is true if there’s something weird in the script or if there’s some weird harmony. Clearly, the composer or librettist just made a dumb choice here. Clearly, they were pressed for time and forgot they left this in here. Clearly, no one will notice if I just say or sing this without much intention behind it.

Wrong. Solve the problem. Assume it’s intentional. Why are you singing that? What kind of creative discoveries can you make if you accept the anomalies existent as valid?

If you need to gin up your courage, remember that everyone involved in the production is also trying to solve problems, and they need your help. The director is also wrestling with weird stuff in the script. Your other actors are trying to solve the problem of some of your interpretive choices. The conductor is trying to solve the weird tempo marking, harmonies and dynamic shifts.

Solve the problem.

Say Something Nice about Yourself

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Say something nice about yourself.

What you are doing is extremely difficult and brave. You are changing yourself in the name of music and then sharing those changes with the world when you perform.

Yes, this process requires self honesty and clear judgment. But it does not require intense self-loathing and public condemnations of you abilities. You must be doing something right or else you wouldn’t have gotten this far.

So find that something and tell yourself about it.

Perform Fearlessy Part VI: During the Performance

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Atlas-amsterdamYou’ve prepared, you’ve walked onto the stage, and now you are there doing exactly what you want to be doing.

Are you afraid? Do you feel like Atlas (see picture) holding up the world of the performance entirely on your shoulders and filling yourself with anxiety?

Hopefully the answer is ‘no’. Personally, though, I have gotten scared in the middle of a performance for all sorts of reasons. It’s a lame feeling, but there are ways of moving away from it.

Explore your role.

Though you must not make any big changes once the show is opened, you must go through some rediscovery at every performance. Get involved in this discovery, and try to leave your worries out of it. If you’ve prepared well, then you will respond.

Connect with your cast mates.

If you’ve ever watched “So You Think You Can Dance”, then surely you’ve heard the judges criticize somebody for not connecting to their partner. Performing is less about you alone and more about the relationships unfolding onstage. So make relationships! By doing this, performing becomes a team effort rather than a Atlas-like struggle.

Do Something with your Audience

Begin developing your audience strategy and continue to develop it with every performance. Orson Welles had a fascinating outlook on audiences (thanks to Opera Chic for finding this clip):

Audiences, in the real sense of the word, are disappearing. There are almost none left. It’s an endangered species…This isn’t an audience here (referring to studio audience). No, no, no, wonderful lovely people. And we’re so grateful for you, but you’re not an audience; you got in free. And not only did you get in free, but you know as does every studio audience that you are not here to do anything except be a member of the cast and help us look good. Seriously, have you ever seen a television show where the audience booed and hissed or refused to applaud? It’s always a big hit on television isn’t it? People that come to the show know that they’re part of the cast and have to help us not to look ridiculous. Our real audience is two or three people in a living room scattered all over the place, but that isn’t a real audience.

An audience is a big many-headed-beast crouching out there in the darkness waiting to eat us up or love us or whatever, and it must be either seduced or tamed or raped or whatever, and it must be dealt with because anybody who deals with a real audience as I have — my goodness, think how long I’ve been in show business… I’ve been hissed and booed, I’ve had things thrown at me– until you’ve had that experience, you don’t understand what dealing with an audience is.

So what will you do? Try something and it might work. At the very least it gets you active, which should make you less afraid.

Focus on something small

If you get flustered, try concentrating on something small that’s on stage and then slowly widen your attention. Focus on your breathing. Focus on your cast members. Just find something to focus on, and if your mind wanders then bring it back again and again, until it begins to work for you.

Have fun.

After all, this is what you claim to love.

Accept that you might be afraid.

Use it. It is fuel that you normally don’t have. If you’re afraid, then treat it like gasoline and use your dedication as a match to perform real energy.

Have you ever gotten totally frightened during a show? If so, what did you do? How did it affect your enjoyment of performing?

Perform Fearlessly Part V: Right Before a Performance

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Tight-Rope-Walking-Mural

Recently, I felt flustered through the beginning of a performance. My mind was wandering and grasping at myriad subjects even while the songs were completely unrelated. This left me feeling afraid and caused me to make a few strange mistakes that I had previously never made.

The experience really bothered me, and upon reflection, I realized that I didn’t do what I normally do before I sing.

I didn’t focus.

Pre-Performance Focusing

Ideally, your time spent on the day of a major performance will be all sunshine, hammocks, light breezes, and quiet meditation, but if it’s anything like most of my performance days, it’s full of travel, last minute preparations and –I admit it– caffeine. Therefore, a performer must take a few moments and gather up his/her brain into a usable mass.

[This is especially important before a recital because your exposure to the audience is so great, and the format offers you little time to rest and regain composure.]

Try these suggestions:

  1. Focus on your breath. Just watch the rise and fall of your body. Try to relax that little spot right below your sternum. Beware of trying to “prove to yourself” that you’re breathing by gasping and working too hard. Just take it easy and breathe.
  2. Focus on your posture. Are you holding any weird muscular tensions that are throwing off your balance? Let them go.
  3. Find some alone time. It is important to commune a little with your fellow performers, but you probably need to vanish for a few minutes before you go onstage.
  4. Do some light exercise. There are a few yoga poses that I especially like to do before I sing. They always help me sing, and they help me focus on my physical and mental condition at that moment.
  5. REALLY WARM UP. Sorry for the caps, but you must sing full voiced and in all registers of your voice before you will feel good about performing. Let ‘er rip a little bit before you go onstage…
  6. …But not too much. Don’t let your anxieties feed into your warm-up routine. Remember, you are warming up your mind as much as your voice, and you should be paying attention to what you are doing. I once listened to a good baritone completely exhaust his voice before a major performance out of fear that his voice was already too tired to perform. You can’t sing your high notes in advance, so chill out once your voice is good and warm.

If you are feeling genuine fear, along with the above suggestions, try these:

  1. Remind yourself that if you fail, your life won’t be over.
  2. Remind yourself that you won’t fail.
  3. Remember, you cannot solve the future in your mind. The best way to be prepared for any mishaps is to stay present.

What strategies do you employ right before a performance?

Perform Fearlessly Part IV: The Day of the Performance

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Chill_out

By this point of preparation, you can do little to fundamentally change your outlook on the nature of a performance. So your best bet is to set up conditions so that you are in peak shape to perform even if you still have lingering worries.

    1. Get enough sleep the night before. Pavarotti said in Great Singers on Great Singing that on a typical performance day he would sleep in until noon. Rest!
    2. Eat enough….but not too much. It’s scary being so stuffed that you cannot breathe, but it’s equally frightening to be so famished that you have no strength. This will probably deserve its own post in the future, but you must learn what is best for your body and your voice when you eat. Before a performance, try eating a light meal a few hours in advance. Then bring fruit to the performance to refuel while you are taking breaks.
    3. Beware of Caffeine. In my most recent Weekly Gathering, I posted Coffee Breakdowns: Is There a Link Between Caffeine and Hallucinations? This quote is particularly ominous for the potentially worried performer:

Caffeine heightens the physiological effects of stress, lead author Simon Jones says. When someone feels anxiety, the body releases the hormone cortisol, and when people drink plenty of caffeine-infused tea, coffee or soda, their body produces more of the hormone when they encounter stressful events. Researchers have proposed that cortisol may trigger or exaggerate psychotic experiences by increasing the amount of the neurotransmitter dopamine flowing into the brain’s limbic areas, evolutionarily ancient regions involved in emotion, memory and behavior.

I tend to get fearful jitters if I drink a lot of caffeine before a show. It’s usually unnecessary, anyway. The material should be stimulating enough to keep you awake.

  1. Warm-up slowly. Noodle around with your voice and body throughout the day just to keep it moving. Then warm-up about a half-hour before the performance. Of course, your mileage may vary, so pay attention to the signals your body is giving out.
  2. Trust that you Know Your Material: If you prepared properly, your material is learned. Try to avoid singing it over and over because you’ll tire out your voice and your mind. If you must, just recite your words to yourself and remember your acting intentions.
  3. Relax and Focus: You must pamper yourself a bit on the day of a big performance. Rest, take relaxing walks, do very light exercise, meditate, eat refreshing meals, drink water, etc. Try to avoid moving heavy furniture on a performance day. Accept that certain things must be put on hold, and let them go.

Do you have your own ideas about how to stay relaxed on performance day? Do you agree that being relaxed on performance day is necessary? If you have any comments, please leave them below!