Battle with the fear of stage

   Stage was one of my biggest fears for as long as I can remember. I just cannot handle the idea of everyone's eyes pointed on me. I guess too much attention scares me. However, that's exactly what pushed me towards participating in a play organized by a few of my classmates.
   The initial idea was to perform in a few kindergartens and this way share our creativeness and warmth with little ones. Nonetheless, to everyone's surprise we ended up arranging a performance for our school's students as well.
Do we look like tees?
   It all started after autumn break in the beginning of November. Me and my sister got a role of pine trees in a "War of the Mushrooms" play as we are the only twins in the class. Let's admit, it is much more entertaining to see two similar people saying the same words at the same time, especially for kids. When I saw the script the first feeling that arose in me was some kind of disappointment because there was just two lines for pine tree role when I was so ready to step up from my comfort zone and show my acting skills on the stage. However, after some time I understood that it is much harder to stand the whole play in one place without speaking than the opposite. Yes, me and my sister had to stand as real trees in one place for at least 10 minutes. It might sound as the worst role of all, but I actually found it extremely interesting and challenging to act in a non-verbal way. From my point of view, our twin team did a pretty good job in synchronous speaking and moving.
Our scared faces somewhere in the back as Russule found out about the war!
    I must admit, at first rehearsals were quite messy but with time all the play actors got better at productive acting. Even though my role was not as important as I expected I still had to practice on my facial expressions equaly as much as others on getting used to the role. Moreover, same as all, I had to sacrifice my after-school time for gathering together and repeating the play over and over again until it was perfect.
   So after less than two months on 8th of December we had a premiere performance in a kindergarten. Kids were fascinated by our play, I could see it in their eyes! And you know what surprised me the most? I had no fear to act in front of them! That was the first time I did not get shaky knees or a sudden cold sweat just before going on stage. It was a pleasant feeling to enjoy the creative work to its full potential. Even better feelings visited me while performing in front of other group of kids in a second kindergarten a week later. The only time I was a little nervous was when it was time to act in front of school friends and strangers. However, all went well and we had lots of positive feedback.
   All in all, I am proud of myself for participating in the "War of the Mushrooms" and doing something that I was afraid to do all my life. I'll admit, the stage fear did not go away yet, but I believe that facing it made a huge change.
First performance is over, two to go!
P. S. Me and my sister actually made our pine tree costumes by cutting out leaves from green crepe paper and sewing them to old grey skirts.

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