2.9 Stage Fright

Cover art for our episode on Stage Freight and anxieties related to theater performances

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On this episode of The Middle School Mind, Son has a special guest, Raphael, who is here to talk about stage fright and how they prepare for theater performances.

Preteen girl covering her face and experiencing stage fright in front of a microphone
Image courtesy of moms.com article on overcoming stage fright.

They talk about the process to get into a show starting with the audition workshop, the audition itself, call-backs, practices, opening night and all the feels associated with the closing show.

Audition Workshops

The workshop is like the pre-audition audition. You are generally divided by age and taken through singing, dancing and running lines.

Auditions

Image of a teen performing at an audition
Image courtesy of signupgenius.com.

It can get extremely competitive at auditions. Brother against brother, Friend against friend. And Raphael says it’s important to look “fly” to the auditions. It’s important to keep yourself busy like playing cards to keep yourself entertained during auditions.

Call-Backs

You have a short amount of time to prep for call-backs. If you bomb your call-back, you may have just missed out on making the show. It’s easy to psyche yourself out when you’re checking out your competition. The directors usually don’t provide feedback during call-backs which adds to the anxiety.

Practices

Teens practicing a dance number to prepare for an upcoming show.
Image courtesy of columbian.com.

You made the show – good for you! Middle schoolers need to balance school, other activities, family time and other interests in addition to the show. Son and Raphael practice at home in front of their stuffed animals for their audience.

Tech Week

Tech Week is crunch time where you prepare for the actual shows. The number of practices ramp up and you need to do run-throughs with microphones and costumes. You need to lean on your friends and trust your directors to make sure the show comes together.

Opening Night

The guys play Super Smash Bros on the Switch to take the focus off the show. Raphael was in a production with Son’s former guest, TB, previously where they played Super Smash Bros before the show while practicing their lines. The cast and crew are in full costume and huddle together and talk trash to relieve stress.

Closing Night

It’s a mix of emotions. We’re excited that it’s over but we also got so close to our castmates that we get so emotional. We also want to go out on top and give our best performance. We celebrate our show with an awesome cast party.

Thanks so much to Raphael for being a part of the show and sharing his experiences. We hope to have him on again in a future episode.


Featured Podcast

Cover art for If You Give Dad a Podcast featured podcast for this episode

On this episode, we featured our fellow podcaster, If You Give a Dad a Podcast. This is a nerdy dad podcast where they interview everyone from wrestlers, musicians and even a chiropractor. Listen to their show for all things nerdy.


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In this bonus episode of The ⁠Middle School Mind⁠ podcast, Father and Son take a listen back to our very first episode, Hello World when he was early in his 6th grade year as a fresh-faced middles schooler. It's a fun way to poke fun and reminisce about our time making the podcast. This is the final, final episode of The Middle School Mind podcast and thank you to all who were part of this amazing ride. For all you middle school kids out there listening to us. You can make your own podcast easily. You guys have amazing ideas and get your voices out there! — Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/themiddleschoolmind/support
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