I AM Relaxed
People..Wait, let me start again. MOST people do not even realize how tense, stressed, and fearful they are. We are normally one big cover-up, that is very often layers deep. The cover-up is usually covering up a cover-up. If that makes sense to you, you’re in the right place.
Finding out where tension lives in our bodies is extremely important if we’re going to address our nervousness.
There is nothing more frustrating than having the intention of doing something that involves using our bodies (our instruments) and our speech in a very specific way, only to have something very unplanned occur instead. A perfect example, that most individuals can relate to is the interview process. We rehearse/prepare for hours, sometimes days. We’ll tell ourselves, “I’ll say this, and then they’ll say that, to which of course I’ll respond with this little bit of brilliance. It’ll be great! They’ll love it.
The appointment time comes, and we get our true selves there, and then because of some unforeseen force, someone else shows up in our place.
Once we enter that office something else transpires. The wonderful plan of attack, seems to go out the window. It’s as if the car began to drive itself for however long we were in the interview. We leave that office feeling confused and somewhat discouraged. We begin to question everything. How is that even possible? We practiced for hours. It was as if once that tightly wound ball of rubber bands started to unwind, there was basically no stopping it. Not even our mid-interview apology for our nervousness, made any difference. Our attempts at deep breathing didn’t help us a bit, either.
D.L.G. (David LeGrant) always told me: “I know, I know, it’s like the casting director becomes ten foot tall and it feels like we’re reading from a twenty foot hole in the ground.”
Finding out where we carry our nervous tension is key. It needs to be found in order to get rid of it.
Imagine stretching and relaxing the wrong set of muscles for whatever it is that you are undertaking. Then compare this concept of being able to properly stretch and relax the appropriate muscles and how this might affect your your performance.
I hope this analogy makes a bit of sense. To the individual who experiences nervousness, it should.
“Mucho” of the work that we do at The Gallery has a constant underlying focus on nervousness, as it can be a debilitating obstacle when we allow it. When it is not addressed, it will color everything we do.
Just as the athlete must get in and maintain top form, an actor/performer must do the same.
Over time, opportunity will be met with preparedness, and we will play our song with a finely tuned instrument, just the way we intended.
