I'm SO nervous for my monologue! Any tips please?

Question:I have to do a 2 minute monolgue, I'm a bully who's just been shoved in a locker by some huge girl who stood up to me.
Okay, so I have a rough script, I'm basically clausterphobic, so I look for my puffer, and then I have a drink of beer...which is really water :P then I call my "mommy" to come and get me.

Basically, I'm making this guy a softy on the inside.

But my question is how the heck do I keep my cool?!
Usually, doing presentations my face goes bright red...which is sooo embarasing, and also my voice goes all weird and shaky...jeez its annoying...
I don't know how to calm down, breathing doesnt help all that much, I just need a proper mind set... but what am I suposed to think going up there. Every single persons eyes on me!
Sooo scary, but I know theres a way to beat this fear, please anyone?
Its on Friday and I've been dreading this day since forever lol, I'm a good guy, I think I just have confidence issues...

Please help me

Thanks in advance.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: I have to do a 2 minute monolgue, I'm a bully who's just been shoved in a locker by some huge girl who stood up to me.
Okay, so I have a rough script, I'm basically clausterphobic, so I look for my puffer, and then I have a drink of beer...which is really water :P then I call my "mommy" to come and get me.

Basically, I'm making this guy a softy on the inside.

But my question is how the heck do I keep my cool?!
Usually, doing presentations my face goes bright red...which is sooo embarasing, and also my voice goes all weird and shaky...jeez its annoying...
I don't know how to calm down, breathing doesnt help all that much, I just need a proper mind set... but what am I suposed to think going up there. Every single persons eyes on me!
Sooo scary, but I know theres a way to beat this fear, please anyone?
Its on Friday and I've been dreading this day since forever lol, I'm a good guy, I think I just have confidence issues...

Please help me

Thanks in advance.

Brendan:
First of all, you have to think of yourself as the character. Of course, everyone will be looking at you as you act, but if you consider yourself as the character you are playing then the people will be looking at the bully and not you. Think how it would feel to be a bully who has someone stand up to him. Maybe he bullies people because he's really a coward to begin with and you have to be surprised that someone would actually stand up to him.
First thing is to be surprised that someone stood up, then you have to change your thinking to the problem of being claustrophobic and where you might find your inhaler, then your beat changes again as you decide to take a drink of beer (water :P) and once again when you decide to call mother to come get you. These are called transitions in thought and you can use them to help make the monologue seem like an actual process of thinking even though it is a memorized speech. Take time to keep it real and don't look like you're acting, just try to keep the bully in mind, but also show that he is a real person who is just as scared about life's troubles as everybody else.
As for your own fears, if you can put yourself into your character, you can even overcome stage fright because you'll be the character you're playing.
A great actor named Jack Lemon always used to say "It's magic time" just before he did a scene. When he said that, he meant that he was no longer himself but that his character was there to do the scene.
You can do the same thing, Brendan, just by making yourself think as the character would and make your thoughts what his thoughts might be. For example, you want to boost your own confidence by creating the thought process of your character. Does he have a name? What is the name of the girl who stood up? What did you want to make her do that she stood up to? How do you feel now that she becomes the bully and put you in your place? How is he a softy and how is he still the guy who wanted to be a bully? What makes him so angry that he has to try to humiliate other people? What is it about the girl that made him choose her for a victim?
Do you see where I'm going with this? Just give yourself a lot of things to think about as the character and you have to forget that the audience is there watching you because you are in a locker and not on a stage.
You can do this and you'll be brilliant if you just let the charcter take over and stop making it about you in front of your classmates. Try to think as he would think and try to portray a truthful emotion as you progress. When you call your mom to come get you, you can be reduced to your own little boy again who needs protection.
I think you'll do this exercise very well. I wish I could see your performance. Break a leg, Brendan!
Rob R

Happens to me all the time, and I've been doing theater for years. What works for me is to use that energy to help power your performance. In your case it should be a cinch, since your character should be shaky/red faced from his experience anyway. And hopefully as you go it will get easier to calm down just as the character would.

Don't fight it! Join it!

Yes!!! http://www.actingcareerstartup.com/free_... for tips about how to perform the monologue.

and

http://www.actingcareerstartup.com/how_t...

You'll do fine!

Tony

Yup. I know, breathing-while still beneficial- doesn't really help with the butterflies(not so much in the stomach as in the chest). I've been in theater for 10 years, and every single time I go on stage-bit role or lead-, it gets a little better. Theres still the feeling, but the important thing is not to try and trick yourself into thinking the audience isn't there.

If someone were to actually succeed at tricking themselves in this way, then major kudos to them. But that never happens, so, in the process of trying to trick yourself, you will panic and forget your lines. Beleive me, its happened to everyone.

As for advice, and encouragement, it pays to remember a few things;

1) if its on a stage, the lights are usually too bright for you to see past the fist few rows, so thats cool.

2) Your character, in this particular scene has to be insecure and jittery, so you can force stage fright to work in your favor.(stutter, crack your voice, forget a few lines, and no-one in the crowd is the wiser) It rocks.

3) The entire audience has not memorized the play/monologue. And if they have, they haven't memorized how YOU are going to act it out.

finally, the big thing to remember is this-

4) Going on stage is like jumping into a pool you know is going to be really cold. You see other people getting in and they do the same things you'll do when its your turn. Once you jump in though, you get numb to the cold for as long as you need to be in.

The key to the stage(and a cold pool) is not to forget that its scairy for the entire time your on stage(thats impossible), just to forget its scairy for that split second before you go on.

Sorry for the length.