Peak Practice

Here’s one for you. Take a moment to think about how you feel after an embarrassingly bad audition/rehearsal/take.

I’m sure it won’t be long before your imaginings set off a series of physical sensations. Tight breath, sweating palms, tense neck, gut wrenching cringe. We’ve all been there, grim isn’t it?!

If you’re like me, you walk away from these experiences with a small voice in your head reminding you that you are useless, can’t act, never could and never will again. Take heart, I have found a solution!

I’m pretty sure that most people can remember one moment in one performance professionally, at amateur level or even at primary school, where they absolutely nailed it. The moment where you felt so free, so connected and so impulsive that you knew you were born to do this and the congratulations of your family and peers only confirmed your intuition.

Well, the good news is……..that moment of freedom is how good you are. That moment where everything came into alignment was the current peak level of your ability and so, we must walk away from less satisfying experiences knowing in our hearts that today we were not on form but THAT moment, THAT performance demonstrates your actual capabilities, it’s just you didn’t reach it today. Like athletes, we must be match fit to play at peak. Why do we actors and other artists expect to be different?

Next time you want the ground to swallow you up because of some acting embarrassment, I dare you to smile to yourself knowing that the crowd of witnesses were not privy to your true ability….today.

To you, the artist.

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