Overcoming Stage Fright (Auditioning)

[newbreed]

Hello all,

I have a mayor problem performing when I need to audition in front of a jury and I know I'm not the only one having this problem. No matter how good I prepare my audition, if it's a song to sing or a monologue to act I always get overwhelmed by anxiety and my whole audition goes out of the window and there goes another opportunity.

I eat & drink well, I sleep well, I go and stand centered once I get in the room. But in this very moment each and every time, my whole body starts to shake, my legs are getting jelly and start to shake, my mouth gets dry, I start to sweat visible in my face, I start to breath shallow, can't nearly speak and I loose everything I have prepared and go into total chaos.

Even when I try not to focus on these things, change my state, I still get all these symptoms of anxiety and I really want to overcome them or control it but how?

Basically I am fearless for most things, but this one fear I just can't seem to solve is this stage fright when auditioning, it's a pattern that keeps coming back and destroys all my opportunities when it comes to auditioning.

I really need help destroying this or these pattern(s), hope you guys can help me in the right direction, it would very much appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

[theogeorgio]

You need to start thinking that everything will go well, make vivid images in your head of your whole journey to the audition of all going exactly how you would like. Imagine you being confident, imagine what you will hear, what you will see. Practice going to the interview in your head and all going well. Your mind cant tell the difference between reality and imagination.. so you programme yourself to succeed when you think of everything going well! hope this helps

[joshualives]

You need to start thinking that everything will go well, make vivid images in your head of your whole journey to the audition of all going exactly how you would like. Imagine you being confident, imagine what you will hear, what you will see. Practice going to the interview in your head and all going well. Your mind cant tell the difference between reality and imagination.. so you programme yourself to succeed when you think of everything going well! hope this helps

great advice i will try this too :)

[Gladys]

Oh Joshua,
I'm in total sympathy. I could never stand public speaking and failed at university because of the symptoms you're describing.
TheoGeorgio made a good suggestion and I wish he'd been around when I wasn't doing so well.
Maybe if you knew where those feelings came from, it'd make a difference too.
At the moment I'm finding it necessary to know that I can succeed with anxiety, so I started a thread in an introduction 'Have you succeeded with anxiety.' Maybe some of those guys can tell you how they did it. The important thing is that, although it doesn't feel like it, anxiety is not insurmountable. I think you know that, because I see you're showing no avoidant behaviours of a situation that's difficult for you.
Best of luck.