Whenever I audition for something with the judges sitting 10 feet in front or me

Question:

Whenever I audition for something with the judges sitting 10 feet in front or me i do horribly. Make it stop?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: You have to believe in yourself! But I realize it??s easier to say than to do, so I will try and explain it to you better.

What's extremely important is that first of all, you are as well prepared as you possibly can be. If they send you material to look at before the audition, then practice it. Practice and make sure you know your stuff!. Practice. Practice. Practice. That alone will help you to feel more confident.

If they don't send you material beforehand, then you still need to prepare yourself mentally. It is crucial that you focus on what you want and not on what you don't want. You need to focus your mind on what being focused and comfortable in your scene will be like and not on the things you are afraid will happen if you mess up.Go back to the message that you wrote to us and look at what you said. You have put this thought in your mind, that is an association of something that happened in the past at least once and now you think that everytime you are in that situation, the same "horrible" thing will happen. How can you even think about becoming an actor if you take all that negative baggage with you on stage???

Start thinking positively! What will that do for you? Let me give you an example.If I tell you right now, "Don't think about an orange elephant! Don't think about it!"What's the first thing that comes into your mind?

You don't have to tell me, because I already know. It's the orange elephant isn't it? Why is that? Because that's how the human brain works. That's how your brain works. In order to forget something, our brain first has to understand what it is supposed to forget. How does it do that? By first bringing it to the forefront and creating an image around it.So what does that have to do with your feeling comfortable during your auditions? Everything! If you tell yourself before you go on stage in front of 'your audience (and not 'judges') or during any audition or performance things like; "I hope I don't mess up. I hope I don't get nervous. I hope I don't forget anything. I hope I don't freeze in front of the group. I hope I don't do horribly!", you are putting yourself in a position to think about what you don't want. Your imagination will go there and create that image of all those negative things you keep telling yourself. Your focus is on the wrong things!

So now you know what you have to do? What kinds of things will you tell yourself the next time you go into an audition? Positive things! Good things! You will be great! You will be very comfortable in front of your audience! See yourself doing that. If you have to, close your eyes, breathe deeply before you go into the audition and visualize yourself being brilliant. How confident will you be while you are performing? You know your lines. You are that character. You are prepared! You feel it! You can see that you feel it! You are confident and you will be brilliant!

When you talk like that to yourself, you will feel your posture change. You will be erect and your shoulders will be back if you really feel it and if you really believe it. So BE confident and FEEL confident and you will BE the best that you can be. And breathe!Hope that helps!

Tony
www.actingcareerstartup.com