This fall season at Pleasant Valley brings an important feat for not only those on sports teams but also this year’s PV Theatre class. That is because this season brings one thing that those participating in theatre are anxiously waiting and preparing for. This thing being auditions for the current production of Clue! But how does anxiety or being nervous truly affect how one performs in their audition?
To explore this topic, three students that have auditioned for the production and previous productions were interviewed to get their opinions on this. All three participants were asked the same question: How do you think anxiety/being nervous can positively affect your performance in an audition and/or how it can negatively affect your performance in an audition?
Dylan Gelles, a Senior at PV who has been a part of the theatre class for four years was first interviewed. Dylan’s response to the question was as follows:
“So, I think anxiety can help me push to do the best I can in a performance. But on the other side of the same coin, I think it also can make you feel a lot worse about your audition or performance. For me specifically, it helps me kind of push myself to do the best I can, more than it harms me.”
Dylan had auditioned for the role of Wadworth, the main character. And he did in fact get the role!
The next interview was with a Junior at PV who has participated in theatre for the past 2 years, Katelyn West. Her response helped to add another perspective that contrasts with what
was said in the first interview. Katelyn answered the question with this:
“Well, I feel like it will definitely negatively impact you, because obviously you’re stressed and you’re worried about messing up and you’re really wanting to get that part and you’re imagining all the things like what will happen if you get the part or if you don’t. But I do think positively, if you’re stressing about it, you’re memorizing so much that you will do it and get the thing you’re specifically auditioning for.”
Katelyn, who had auditioned for the role of Mrs. Peacock was given the role for the matinee performance!
While these answers were enough to satiate some curiosity , it was the third interview that pieced everything together perfectly. It truly answered this question to what I believe is the fullest extent possible. The third interview was with current Sophomore Juniper McElhany who joined theatre last year and has only a small amount of experience with auditioning. Juniper’s statement on the subject is written here:
“I feel like the positive way that it can help you is that it can push you to do your best. But negatively, it’ll make you more scared to do it. It can make you think “I don’t think I can do it. I feel like it’s 50/50 depending on the type of person you are. For me, I feel like a lot of the time it’s negative because it makes me overthink everything and it makes me feel like ‘I could’ve done this better’ or ‘I could’ve done that better’ so I feel like it affects me more negatively than it would affect a lot of people.”
Juniper had auditioned for the role of Mrs. White and earned the role for the evening shows of the production!
If one is a person that deals with anxiety in a way that can help themselves perform tasks in their daily life better, then they may be able to use their anxiety as a tool to perform to the best of their capabilities in an audition. The other side of that would be that if they are a person that struggles with utilizing their anxiety to perform better (or can’t function due to anxiety), then they may be overwhelmed with nerves and perform poorly in an audition due to mass amounts of over-thinking.
So the answer to the original question is this: There is no correct answer! It all depends on who somebody is and how they cope with anxiety or nerves. Everybody is different in their own way and it is important to play to one’s strengths and to be confident in one’s own abilities.
