Stage Fright: Fear of Public Speaking

For over three years now I have been working with professional actors at an institution for the continuing professional development of professional performers. One of my most popular classes at the centre is a workshop dealing with stage fright. You might think that professional actors are the last people in the world to suffer from this condition: in fact it is endemic in the profession. Stage fright can strike at any time in an actor’s career. Laurence Olivier was at the height of his fame, acting in and directing a play at the National Theatre in London when he started to worry about forgetting his lines. He was so affected by stage fright that he was unable to continue his stage career for a considerable amount of time. Daniel Day-Lewis was similarly affected.

In fact, stage fright is common among professional actors and musicians. The search for a treatment has encompassed medication, hypnotism, psychotherapy, relaxation techniques, meditation and a host of main-stream and alternative therapies. While no one person’s stage fright is exactly the same as another’s, I have found one technique to be very successful in treating this condition. Pretend to be a person that does not suffer from stage fright.

Modeling

We all know people who excel at the things they do: they might be excellent salespeople, successful with the opposite sex, exceptional communicators, bungee jumping adrenalin junkies always trying something new and exciting. One of the most exciting developments in corporate training involves the concept of modelling excellence.

It works like this: in any large organisation devoted, for example, to sales, there will be people who excel. People who consistently outsell others and can always make a pitch and close a deal. The concept of modelling comes from Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), a discipline developed in the ’70s by Dr Richard Bandler and John Grindler. They looked at people who were pre-eminent in their field and dissected what is was that they did that made them successful. How did they talk? What kind of non-verbal communication did they use? What sort of language patterns did they use? They then found that other people could be taught to use these techniques to improve their success. In other words, by subjecting the good salespeople in an organisation to deep scrutiny, then by teaching others to copy what they are doing, you can increase the effectiveness of the whole sales force.

How can this be translated into dealing with something like stage fright? I would ask my students to think of someone they knew who did not suffer from stage fright. I would then ask them to pretend to be those people. The results were astounding.

Students were asked to prepare an audition speech to perform in front of their peers – a very nerve-wracking experience. When they performed as themselves, they exhibited all the signs of stage fright: trembling, quavering voice, fast breathing, muscular tension, shuffling of feet, loss of diction, stomach churning. I then asked them to do the audition again, but this time pretending to be the person who did not suffer from stage fright. As soon as they entered the room we could see the difference: relaxed and confident, eye contact with audience, mellifluous vocals – and the biggest difference of all, they looked as if they were actually enjoying the experience.

Facial and Postural Feedback

We know that there is a link between our psychology and our physiology: when we feel depressed, our friends and family know immediately because we adopt a depressed posture. Our facial expressions change. Someone you know well will walk into the room, and immediately, without a word being said, know that something is wrong. What is less well known is that the link is circular – our physiology also affects our psychology. Adopting a relaxed and confident posture will make you feel relaxed and confident. Smiling releases serotonin in the brain, a powerful mood enhancer which makes you feel happy. A famous psychology experiment involves 100 people in a room. 50 are asked to hold a pencil between their teeth for five minutes. The other 50 simply sit and observe. They are then asked to rate the funniness of cartoons.

The people who have held the pencil between their teeth rate the cartoons as more funny than the others. Why? Because holding a pencil between your teeth forces the mouth into the semblance of a smile. This physical action is what causes the release of serotonin and the subsequent enhancement of mood.

When the actors were asked to pretend to be people who did not suffer from stage fright they changed their posture and facial expression to one of relaxed confidence. This fed back into the brain which released a combination of chemicals which caused them to feel relaxed and confident. Pretence became reality.

Does This Work With Anyone?

Yes. I was recently asked to work with a young lady who could not swallow pills. She had no problem swallowing food, but was unable to swallow medication in pill form. She had to ask her doctor for liquids, or grind up pills to swallow (not a good idea, because sometimes pills are designed to dissolve slowly). She was desperate to change. I had the shortest therapy session I have ever had with this lady. I asked her if she knew someone who could easily swallow pills.

“My friend Mary can take pills, no problem”.

I handed her a vitamin tablet and asked her to show me what Mary would do with it. She showed me. And swallowed the tablet. End of session.

Practise Being Someone Else

The next time you are tempted to say, “I can’t do that”, think again and then just pretend that you can. If you have a specific problem, think about someone you know who would deal with that problem very well and then pretend to be them. You will be pleasantly surprised at the results.