Keeping One's Cool During Performance Challenges

That was great. I bet the people were talking about what happen afterwards on not her performance.

Hi,
 
I've told this story here before ... but acting on a stage can be very similar and a many incidents can be a big problem, and I always rehearsed the actors with many interruptions in the area of silly, like a vacuum cleaner walks by, to simply interrupt the actors and teach them concentration so they can continue without missing a beat.
 
The best example, was Anna, who was in the beginning acting program, and she was new and then some, but she was a good student and paid attention. She knew her lines well, and always maintained her child-like innocence in her character and whatever reactions she had to add/change.
 
So, on opening night she is nervous. She had never been in front of an audience. So I went up to her and looked in her eyes ... and asked ... do you know your lines? Yeah. Do you know where you are going? Yeah. What's the problem? And she pointed out there ... a full theater, sold out. Wait a minute ... they are not a part of the story ... your story is on the stage ... but you might have to freeze a little to allow them a hand or two. OK, she says.
 
So, in the production we had this huge, I mean HUGE map of the world that was 75 years old on the wall, and she is to point to an area to be "born" ... and she chooses an ocean, and of course the guy says you can't do that one, and she chooses another, also "wrong" (desert!) and then the third one is right. AND, then the map starts falling on top of her from the side ... she makes it like she is trying to get out from under it, and the rest of the map falls over her. When she pops her head out, she starts pulling the map with her to the guy on the stage with her, and of course he is going nuts because that map is so old and we were risking ripping it apart and the library would kill us!
 
Needless to say, the whole scene got a massive applause, and at the end she got a really strong ovation ... but while I won't take credit for it, the preparation for it all, was the reason why they could work with it so well. Even my professor was impressed and asked how I did that?
 
You can teach these things for stage folks ... and the tougher groups to do it with are musicians that think that their solo is their star turn, and it never goes wrong ...
 
The best? Andres Segovia breaks a string in the middle of a piece, and he never stops and continues to the end of the piece. When done, he quietly asks if it sounded OK, while his guitar got strung up again. He got an immediate ovation at that moment. Massive moment and shows what ability and professionalism can do for the music itself ... and the musician. Eliane also did well, considering the bad pedal, although I would not have been able to tell what the pedal did or not do on a performance, I don't think. Sometimes, the musicians ability is so far above the audience, that interruptions are not necessary, but on a monster piano, I bet that this would be a bad issue. She was funny about it, and continued which was nice.

I've been in front of a lot of people throughout my life, almost exclusively NOT due to music.  The few times I've played in a band live we played to a couple house-party crowds, in a roller-rink and at the Bacchanal in San Diego (capacity, at the time, 550).  The musical experiences were so new to me that my head was filled with "what to do" issues and I really didn't have any thoughts to spare about the crowd.  Needless to say, since I wasn't the main attraction this helped a lot!  Plus I grew up in roller-rinks and even worked at one for four years where up to 1,000 people during a weekend session would see me while I was DJ-ing or working the floor.
 
Now, sports-wise (as both participant and event director / judge), I've been in front of anywhere between a handful of people all the way up to over 16,000 at the San Diego Sports Arena - not counting being on ESPN twice (which is a whole different feeling since you KNOW lots of people will be staring at you, but they're just not THERE now so it doesn't feel as bad).  In most cases, I was able to zone in on my task and not let the audience make me nervous, however, I found it MUCH easier when the crowd didn't know me!  Performing anything in front of a bunch of people I know was easily the most nerve wracking.  It took a lot of years before I was comfortable interacting with the crowd.
 
After all that, having to speak in front of a lot of people has become fairly easy.  I was the Director of a non-profit organization for a few years which required a few large meetings each year of up to 200+ people.  Those were cake compared to the performance times!