Take a minute to go back in your mind to your best ever performance - when you were walking on air, when performing was easy, when you were hitting every note vocally and emotionally. Everything joined up and every fibre of your being was invested in the performance you were giving. You were on fire!!

When you walked off stage, or ended that part of the rehearsal, you could see in the reactions of the people around you, confirming what you knew - you were brilliant. As you made your way home, you were still glowing. Deep down, you always knew you were capable of working to this standard and now you’ve proved it!

Sometime later, a thought pops into your head.

"I need to do that again."

Suddenly, the euphoria starts to fade and a nagging feeling of worry takes over.

"What did I do that was different to usual?"

And now you're trying to figure out how you found the flow. You play it over and over again but the answer doesn't come.

Next time you're singing that bit it just doesn't feel the same, and you know it. You can see it in the faces of the people around you. "Try and recapture what you had last time," is the note you get.

How do you do that when you don’t know what you did?!

Don’t worry. There is a way.

Let's rewind to performance number one, the easy, light, fun and successful performance. There's one key thing you've done brilliantly here, even if you didn’t know it:

You've put your focus outside of yourself.

You're engaged in what's going on around you, your fellow performers, your music, and all the things that make up the world of the performance. Because all of your mental energy is invested in what's going on around you, there is nothing left to power the critical little voice that keeps you head bound and distracted.

Now we move to the next phase. The in-between phase, when the seed of worry is planted and bedded in by you cultivating it with what?

Your focus and attention.

By the time you get to performance number two, the Japanese Knotweed of worry has wound its way around the garden of your mind. As the crucial moment of performance approaches, you're in exactly the opposite place you were in performance number one - apprehensive, constricted and tense. So what happens?

You try to repeat what you did the first time. Same looks, moves, gestures.

This never works. You only end up with a surface imitation of what you did before, which isn't satisfying for you or anyone else.

The way to consistently recreating that killer performance is to consciously learn how to activate the state of focus you stumbled upon in performance one.

That state of focus is pure investment in the present moment – there’s no space here for negativity or playing small. In this place you drink in everything – the twists and turns of the music, the words that are sung to you and the way the other characters treat you affect you so deeply you cannot help but respond with pure and truthful emotion, because none of your energy is invested in maintaining the mask of protection we call self-consciousness. This raw, unfiltered truth is what all performers aspire to experience and audiences long to see and feel.

When you really understand and experience this state of aliveness, you are truly liberated. When you can embrace each and every moment in performance, it will always feel light and joyous, and you will always be sharing your truth with everyone around you.

But, that mental Japanese Knotweed we talked about earlier has been cultivated over a lifetime, and you might need some help to hack it down. That’s what I’m here for. Everything I teach is geared towards making that state a habit – a good habit, which replaces the destructive habits of self-criticism and negativity. The techniques I teach leave you poised, alert and ready to pounce – or if the scene calls for it, when another character pounces on you, all the vulnerability, hurt and despair can freely come tumbling out. All this is within the framework of the world of the performance, set, music and your fellow singers, making you the ultimate asset to the show.

Do you remember the worst thing a Director has ever said to you? 

Or maybe not the worst thing, maybe it’s the most confusing thing or the thing you’ve heard again and again but have no idea how to change or fix, or the most meaningless thing or the downright weirdest thing?

The note that fixed itself firmly in your head as you left the rehearsal room and went round and round in your head that night and then, when you got back to the same point in your aria or routine that the note was about, popped back into your awareness and wrong-footed you all over again…..Whatever it is, it’s become a problem you don’t know how to fix and it’s knocked your confidence.

It happens to all performers at some point.

It doesn’t have to tie you up in knots.

It happened to me when I was an acting student. A year and a half into my three your course, I performed a funny song in the Christmas cabaret with a friend (‘Bosom Buddies’ from Mame, if you really want to know! I was Vera). After the show, the Head of Acting came up to me and said, “Adele! Well done! Finally, you’ve created a complete character!”

“Oh! Thanks!”

Initially, it sounded like a compliment!

Then I started to wonder what it meant? How had all the other work I had spent whole terms doing somehow not been complete? What had I just done that was so much better? I didn’t know, but I spent the whole Christmas holidays mulling it over and was none the wiser by January.


It’s never about the comment – it’s about the trigger

You see, the problem here is not the comment itself, it’s the tailspin it sends you into. If you already have a bit of tendency towards self-consciousness (as most performers do!) then this situation can make that beast roar. It’s time to train your dragon – to reign in your brain and start using all of that mental energy in a positive way to light up the stage.

So if this happens even to established performers, how do they deal with it? One very obvious way to answer this is to ask for clarification. However, this may not yield the peace of mind you want. Not all Directors are able to think and speak from the perspective of a performer (some of them can very well, but not all). They can tell you what they want to see, but they don’t guide you on how to get there. Armed with your note and any additional information you may have, it’s time for you to roll up your sleeves and get back to work.

Directors, and audiences, love to see performers doing something.

Doing, not thinking.

Worrying about a Director’s comment belongs entirely in the realm of thinking.

“What is my fellow performer going to do next? He always does something different here.” – that’s thinking.

“I really don’t feel confident about this scene.” – thinking.

You’re thinking too much – Thinking is about transmitting

When you step onto that stage, you need to be in receiver mode, responsive to what you see, what you hear, what other people do. When you’re focused on these things, which are outside of yourself, then you’re wide open to react truthfully to what you take in because none of your mental energy is taken up with obsessing about a comment or keeping you in your safe zone. You’re free to try different things, to share possibilities and respond to Director’s notes and comments with curiosity and action. Do you know what Directors love? Working with performers who are brave, who are open to trying things and who don’t take things personally.

And you want to be that performer, don’t you?

You can be.

It’s going to take courage to abandon your old fall back habits and safety nets. You need to be sure you’re ready and prepared to engage with a new way of being and relating on stage. But if you’re willing to leap in and try, you’ll transform your performance. You can cultivate the confidence to show your most vulnerable self in public and truly serve the words and music that have been entrusted to you.

And, best of all, you’ll be able to give the performance that those Directors really wanted from you all along.

Want to share your worst note ever with me? I read every email I receive and I can help. Click here to tell me all about it.