{"id":1183,"date":"2018-04-18T00:05:15","date_gmt":"2018-04-18T04:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=1183"},"modified":"2018-04-17T21:41:10","modified_gmt":"2018-04-18T01:41:10","slug":"p-performance-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=1183","title":{"rendered":"P – Performance anxiety"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Excuse me…there\u2019s someone performing<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a storyteller and a musician. Sometimes I get to perform in schools and classrooms, at festivals, occasionally at libraries, and at events where there are a lot of other things going on at the same time. I can certainly relate to a discussion that Lina and Minna had following an evening Arts-in-Education event at their school. Lina plays guitar and sings and was asked to perform for the entire group of parents and children as they were entering the auditorium for that evening\u2019s scheduled performer.<\/span><\/p>\n

—————————————-<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t believe it!\u201d Lina said angrily, as she came backstage after her performance. \u201cDon\u2019t those parents know how to show respect for a performance that is going on?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Minna was backstage, fixing up some refreshments for the performers when Lina entered. \u201cWhat are you talking about?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m talking about common courtesy.\u201d was Lina\u2019s reply. \u201cWhen you walk into a space where someone is performing, you find a seat, sit down, and enjoy it, or at least remain quiet. These parents and kids just don\u2019t even realize that someone is performing for them. They feel that it is all right to keep chatting away loudly, ignoring who\u2019s on stage. It makes it very difficult to perform.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Minna tried to find a reason. \u201cWell, you’re not the person they came to see. Maybe they just don\u2019t realize that you are doing a performance. You could be just testing microphones or something like that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry, I don\u2019t buy that,\u201d Lina replied, \u201cthey are just self-centered and rude. People should enjoy it when people are performing, whether they are who they paid for or not. If they don\u2019t like what is being performed, then they should at least excuse themselves temporarily. It is a disservice to those of us that perform, and models the wrong thing to their children, who, by the way, are just as bad.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Minna asked, \u201cDon\u2019t the teachers or supervisors that are there try to control the noise and ask those that are inconsiderate to leave?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lina laughed, \u201cSome might, but a lot of them are doing exactly what the kids and parents are doing…poor role-modeling.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCouldn\u2019t you ask for them to be quiet and respectful?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Though Lina knew that she could ask, she was adamant that she was being tasked with being a performer, not an audience police person. \u201cI think that diminishes my role as a performer. It\u2019s the organizers and supervisors that should be doing the policing. That should include the use of cellphones during a performance.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Minna felt somewhat guilty as she realized that at times, she had done exactly the things that Lina was complaining about. But being made aware of something you\u2019re doing that is inconsiderate can sometimes teach you not to do it again. \u201cI have to apologize to you,\u201d she said to Lina. \u00a0\u201cI wasn\u2019t out there tonight, but I can recall times that I have done exactly the things that you are complaining about. I\u2019ll make sure from now on, I definitely show more respect for people that are performing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThanks,\u201d replied Lina. \u201cI guess I\u2019ll work on changing society, one person at a time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014-<\/span><\/p>\n

As a performer for both small and large audiences, I see this kind of behavior a lot. I wrote a blog on this topic in 2013 <\/span>http:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=297<\/span><\/a> . What I wrote then, still holds true. Here\u2019s a picture taken during one of my performances where a parent walked up beside me while a group of girls were chatting away right in front of me. I assumed she was coming up front to get her daughter and her friends to stop chatting. No…she came up to take a picture of her daughter and her friends. Mind you, this was while I was performing. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I wish I had a solution to this problem. Any thoughts you might have would be appreciated. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Excuse me…there\u2019s someone performing I\u2019m a storyteller and a musician. Sometimes I get to perform in schools and classrooms, at festivals, occasionally at libraries, and at events where there are a lot of other things going on at the same … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[111,2,8,7],"tags":[70,127,67],"class_list":["post-1183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-to-z-blog-challenge-2018","category-storytelling-general","category-storytelling-in-school","category-story-writing","tag-a-to-z-blog-challenge","tag-audience-behavior","tag-harvey-heilbrun"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1186,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1183\/revisions\/1186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}