What Causes Stage Fright?
Have You Ever Had the Actor’s Nightmare?
If you’ve ever been a performer, even if it was years ago in high school, there’s a good chance you’ve had what we call the actor’s nightmare.
It’s the dream where you’re suddenly in a show. You don’t know which show. You definitely don’t know your lines. And you’re about to walk on stage.
Terrifying, right?
I’ve heard that athletes have their own version of this nightmare. And I’m curious, if you’re reading this and you’re not a performer, do you have yours?
The reason the actor’s nightmare hits so hard is because it touches on something deeply primal. Performing is an incredibly vulnerable act. You’re bearing yourself in front of an audience, trusting your own abilities, trusting your cast and crew, and the potential for humiliation is very real. That’s genuinely scary.
But stage fright isn’t only reserved for nightmares.
Many performers experience some degree of anxiety around performing. It might show up as:
- Racing heart
- Dry mouth
- Losing focus or losing your place
- Difficulty catching your breath
- Blacking out or going blank
So, what causes stage fright?
What’s happening underneath all of that is a nervous system response. Either something went wrong on stage at some point, and now your nervous system braces for it to happen again, or the fear of something going wrong has become so strong that your body starts treating the stage itself as a threat.
Here’s the thing about your nervous system: it doesn’t distinguish between something that is actually dangerous and something that only feels dangerous. So your body goes into fight, flight, or freeze, and for a performing artist, that can be devastating.
It can derail a career. It can make auditions feel impossible. It can cause you to freeze up at exactly the wrong moment, making it harder to get hired again. And even if you love performing just for the joy of it, stage fright can steal that joy entirely.
There’s often a layer of “what if” thinking underneath it all: What if I mess up and can’t recover? What if this ruins everything? What if I blank and everyone sees? That kind of fear pulls you out of the present moment and presence is everything when you’re performing. Even mild stage fright that doesn’t stop you from getting on stage can still get in the way if it’s keeping you in your head instead of in the scene.
The good news? This doesn’t have to ruin your career.
Stay tuned for Part 2, where I’m sharing three tips to start overcoming stage fright.
