If It Terrifies You . . . Do It!

Last week, I was particularly stressed out over an assignment I was given for my acting class.

I was told to become familiar with a particular scene and then perform it without memorizing the lines. I was supposed to focus solely on the character's thoughts rather than the lines, and then just let the lines come out based on those thoughts.

For some reason, I had a mental block as to how to become familiar enough with the scene to be able to perform it without memorizing the lines themselves. Also, the idea of letting the words just flow out from the thoughts seemed quite impossible for a stutterer like me who's trained myself for the past twenty-plus years to analyze each word I want to say before I say it.

I panicked. And in desperation, I called a friend of mine who has acted professionally.

At first, she commiserated with me about how difficult and perhaps unnecessary the exercise was. But as soon as I said that I was petrified to do it, she said, "Oh, if it petrifies you, then you should definitely do it."

After being somewhat horrified, I realized that she's absolutely right. If anything completely terrifies you, the best thing to do is to go ahead and do it, so you realize it's not nearly as terrifying as you think it is.

Of course, I chickened out. I postponed it to this week to give me more time to become familiar with the scene and a chance to become a little less petrified over the whole thing.

But not all is lost, because I'm still pretty scared to do it.