Let's get real. There are two reasons you don't care about the
"Proactive Approach." 1) You're a human living in USA 2014 so you don't have time. 2) You're an improviser, so planning is for lames.
Okay, point taken. (Please don't get mad if I don't entirely agree with you, but what is important is that I have felt the way you do right now.) Regardless whether you do or don't take a proactive approach, the following might be useful to you.
Here are CORE's nuggets for getting rid of the creeping doubts that grab you when you least expect them.
- Realize the problem is in your head. You need to disengage from your head. To do that....
- Break away from where you are standing. Often, you'll find you're locked in a death-stare with another performer, either trying to discern some gift that can save you, or hoping they'll say something witty enough to gas up the performance. That's toxic. Disengage from that, my friend.
- Stop talking. You're thinking too hard about what to say. Just put down the shovel. If you keep digging, the hole of doubt gets deeper.
- Pick something up. It doesn't matter if you know what it is yet. After you pick it up, it will tell you what it is. If you work too hard to figure out what it is, well, that's the same as trying to figure out what to say and we just asked you to stop that. Or instead of picking something up....
- Do something. Anything. Make it mundane. Fold laundry. Scratch a stain off your tie. Take off your cardigan and put on some sneakers, Mr. Rogers style. The point is, you have to get your body thinking, not your head.
Re-read those points and you'll probably guess that the pace of the scene has just downshifted.
Not necessarily. In fact, pregnant pauses are often ways to ramp up on intensity. Plus, the added time gives you a chance to pick a direction that can sail on all that new found intensity.
Hang in there, trust yourself. You can ride it out.
