This is a post about performance anxiety. Specifically the performance anxiety, apparently, of one of the singers in the group, who for obvious reasons shall remain nameless. The picture at left was chosen because supposedly the number one fear people have is the fear of public speaking. Apparently public singing comes in a close second.
When I was looking for a suitable image to headline this post, I saw one that I thought was hilarious. It was a picture of a podium on an empty stage, with a banner behind it which said "Overcoming Stage Fright & Performance Anxiety." The names of the people running the seminar were below, but people there were none. It looked as if the guys running the workshop had bolted at the last moment.
At any rate, the story which I am about to relate began last night at the rehearsal for the music for the Benefit Event this Sunday. It is a wine and chocolate tasting, and is going to be pretty fabulous. I'm always looking for ways to do things a bit differently. I like to think of it as never being satisfied with the status quo, but actually I'm probably just easily bored. At any rate, this year I have divided the singers up into small groups with only two people on a part, and the groups will be performing at various locations throughout the Center for the Arts. One of the singers showed me their part for one of their pieces, and their part's text was incorrectly shifted, resulting in the words being one note off, which naturally is annoying and confusing. I apologized and promised to send a corrected part, which I did after I got home.
Today said singer emailed me. I had apologized for the messed up part, and here was the response:
"Thanks. And I was going to say "No Problem", but then I remembered my dream from last night. Coming so quickly on the heels of rehearsal, I am going to call it a symptom of Temporary Post Traumatic Choir Rehearsal Disorder, or TPTCRD.
Now, probably all of us have had some type of performance anxiety dream, and usually mine take the form of needing to play the guitar or piano in front of a group of people. (This is probably because I own both instruments but really can only plink a few notes in a row on either one.) Then I wake up. But last night was different.
The Camerata was about to perform in front of a large number of people in an auditorium, and we were all split up into small groups and waiting in individual rooms. Notably, none of us were wearing clothing, and it was cold. I could go into more detail here about why that is bad, but since I am at work, it's probably better if I don't. I would mention one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes here, but since you don't have a TV, that probably won't help.
After what seemed like a long delay and much wandering about backstage, you finally relented and allowed us to wear robes and pajama bottoms. At this point I was warm and reasonably happy, if not very fashionable. (Well, depends on the concert I guess.) Then I woke up...
See you Sunday!"
I thought you all should know what the singers suffer for their art. And if you found this article because you were searching for actual information on performance anxiety, I have actually written more seriously on the subject, although in the context of football. If you're curious, here is a link to an article about place-kicking, and here is an article about a backup suddenly thrust into the limelight. Enjoy! And I hope your dreams are happier than my singer's were. My dreams usually take the form of having to take a final exam in a class that I didn't know I was signed up for, on a subject i know nothing about, like, say, quantum physics, and for which I do not have the textbook...
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