Stage Fright Struggles by E. G. B.

When I was 10, I was enrolled in an acting camp. We were going to put on the production “A Winter’s Tale” by Shakespeare. I had never been in a play before and I was excited to perform in one.

The first day, we had to audition for the parts that we wanted. I wanted to play Paulina, a servant, in the Winter’s Tale. I went up to the stage and recited my lines. At the end, everyone clapped.

The next day, I learned that I had gotten the part! I was extremely happy and proud of myself. I went home and looked over my lines and learned that I had over 100 of them. I also learned that we had to have all of our lines memorized by Friday, and it was already Wednesday. I got really scared and I thought that I wouldn’t be able to memorize all of them in two days. I thought that I might forget my lines in front of the whole entire audience and have them laugh at me and judge me for forgetting my lines on stage. Many thoughts of possible terrible scenarios of me messing up on stage raced through my head. I started feeling sick and I considered asking the camp directors to change my part to something smaller with fewer lines to memorize.

That night, over dinner, I couldn’t eat anything. My parents noticed this and asked me what was wrong. I told them about my fears of memorizing over 100 lines and messing up on stage. They listened, and when I was finished, gave me some tips on memorizing lines. I practiced their tips and ended up memorizing most of my lines on the first night and all of them on the second. I returned to camp, ready to perform.

The rest of the week, we practiced our lines in-costume and with props. I kept practicing my lines, and by the end of the week, had memorized my part, from my lines to where I was supposed to stand in scenes.

Opening night finally came. Peeking through the curtain and glancing at the crowd, I felt queasy. There were around 150 people watching the stage intently just before the show. They would watch every single move I made. I sat down backstage and I kept telling myself “I don’t know if I can do this. What if I forget my lines?”. After a few minutes of worrying, I reassured myself that people would not laugh at me, and that, even if I did mess up, everything would be “okay”.

When it was finally time for my entrance, I took a deep breath and walked out onto stage. I delivered my lines slowly and carefully, just like I had practiced hundreds of times before. I noticed that I made a couple of mistakes throughout my monologue, but I just kept of delivering my lines. At the end of my monologue, everyone clapped and I felt great. The amount of enthusiasm from the crowd inspired and motivated me throughout the play. At the end of the play, we all got a standing ovation.

At the cast party, I asked my parents if they noticed my mistakes, and they said “what mistakes?”. This was when I realized that I had been so focused on performing perfectly, making a little fantasy of horrible scenarios that could happen to me on stage, that I forgot to enjoy the experience.

Now, whenever I have to deliver lines in front of a crowd, I take a deep breath and push all terrible scenarios out of my mind and try to focus on having fun while delivering my lines, and, even if I make a few mistakes, I don’t fret over a mispronounced word or a stutter, because, in the end, having fun is more important than being perfect.