-- Posted by Aimforthehead at 7:30 pm on Aug. 19, 2008 I want to get over my fear of talking in front of people, so I joined Drama. I've been volunteering to do every play so far and it's not easy but I get it done. I need help on how to get over stage fright because I've only been in front of my class a couple times and am thinking about auditioning for a shakespeare play in front of 300 people. I have to act a monologue from a shakespeare play, I chose Comedy of Errors Act III. Scene II.  Dromio S.  Do you know me, sir? am I Dromio? am I your man? am I myself?   I am an ass, I am a woman's man and besides myself.    Marry, sir, besides myself, I am due to a woman; one that claims me, one that haunts me, one that will have me.    Marry, sir, such claim as you would lay to your horse; and she would have me as a beast: not that, I being a beast, she would have me; but that she, being a very beastly creature, lays claim to me.      A very reverent body; aye, such a one as a man may not speak of, without he say, 'Sir-reverence.' I have but lean luck in the match, and yet is she a wondrous fat marriage.    Marry, sir, she's the kitchen-wench, and all grease; and I know not what use to put her to but to make a lamp of her and run from her by her own light. I warrant her rags and the tallow in them will burn a Poland winter; if she lives till doomsday, she'll burn a week longer than the whole world.      Swart, like my shoe, but her face nothing like so clean kept: for why she sweats; a man may go over shoes in the grime of it.   No, sir, 'tis in grain; Noah's flood could not do it.   Nell, sir; but her name and three quarters,—that is, an ell and three quarters,—will not measure her from hip to hip.    No longer from head to foot than from hip to hip: she is spherical, like a globe; I could find out countries in her.    Marry, sir, in her buttocks: I found it out by the bogs.    I found it by the barrenness; hard in the palm of the hand.    In her forehead; armed and reverted, making war against her heir.    I looked for the chalky cliffs, but I could find no whiteness in them: but I guess it stood in her chin, by the salt rheum that ran between France and it.    Faith, I saw not; but I felt it hot in her breath.  O, sir! upon her nose, all o'er embellished with rubies, carbuncles, sapphires, declining their rich aspect to the hot breath of Spain, who sent whole armadoes of caracks to be ballast at her nose.  O, sir! I did not look so low. To conclude, this drudge, or diviner, laid claim to me; call'd me Dromio; swore I was assured to her; told me what privy marks I had about me, as the mark of my shoulder, the mole in my neck, the great wart on my left arm, that I, amazed, ran from her as a witch. And, I think, if my breast had not been made of faith and my heart of steel, She had transform'd me to a curtal dog and made me turn i' the wheel.  As from a bear a man would run for life, So fly I from her that would be my wife. -- Posted by TigressaLynnMae at 7:32 pm on Aug. 19, 2008 The simplest way to get over stage fright is to practice. Practice speaking, in front of your mirror. Stupid as this may sound, set up some stuffed animals as an audience, and speak to them, too. Practice that monologue, to your friends, family, and peers. -- Posted by Shibs at 4:01 pm on Sep. 8, 2008 Always speak your audition material as if you were up there auditioning it. Let the character shine, even during the first readthrough. Put emphasis on certain words, and even make gestures that are appropriate. Read it like you were saying it. It makes it more natural. And reading it to your stuffed animals/reflection in the mirror really does work. Nice choice of monologue, by the way.