Any Tips on Public Speaking?

[Amber]

I have to perform a monologue to my English class but I'm terrible at public speaking. I usually freak out and start to laugh nervously or read to quickly and stumble over my words, and I always forget things like stage directions.

Has anyone got any tips or help they could give me?

Thanks
xx

PS - Sorry if it's in the wrong place. Feel free to move x

[Jessie Wallace]

If your feeling nervous take plenty of deep breath's, pause if you need t, Remember to slow down. And if your totally terrifies, then immagine them all naked.

[Abi]

Practise it as many times as you can before you get up and do it. If your sure that you know what you are doing, then you're less likely to slip up with something small when you do it properly. Have confidence in yourself, and beleive that you'll do well. If you're getting assessed on it, then it will be obvious if you are nervous, but even more obvious if you dont even think you're going to do well. Dont think about "What happens if i forget my stage directions?", just think positively, and if something goes wrong, then improvise, and dont make it obvious.

I've just finished directing a drama piece which involved some Year 7's, who are 11, and have never gone onto a stage before. The main thing i told them, which realy helped, is that nobody knows how you meant for it to be, so if you mess up, it will only be obvious if you make it obvious. So improvise, and it doesn't matter.

Hope some of that makes sense :lol: And good luck with it!

[Amber]

Thanks Jessie Wallace and Abi. I can't even begin to explain how much this helps :)

Thankyou
xx

[Kim]

Try and learn as much of the piece as you can in the time you have. Then, if you come across one of the parts that you know well, it should build your confidence. Whatever you do, don't nearly end up crying in the middle of one like I did. Think positive; my teacher said I wasn't actually that bad. If you're allowed the script with you when you do it, cross out anything you don't want to say in red pen or something, and write the script out with stage directions in or something.

[Amber]

Thanks. I have sort-of memorized my monologue though you are allowed to read it. It'd just distract me if I read from paper.

I think the thing that scares me most is the fact that I'm up there infront of everyone, on my own. I do alot of acting in and out of school but that's with other people. The idea of not having anyone to rely on to help if I miss something makes it so much harder.

[.:SpIcYsPy:.]

And if your totally terrifies, then immagine them all naked.

This might be a bad question but.. :p... How is this meant to help?! :lol:

[Luna]

This might be a bad question but.. :p... How is this meant to help?! :lol:

its one of the best ways of relaxing if you are up on a stage and your the centre of attention, you imagine the audience naked your not going to be worried about what you look like are you?

[Meh]

I messed up once when I was at school. I was so nervous and did a dreadful speech. Everything that could go wrong did. But I did learn from my experience and will give you the following advice:

Be confident. It will show through in your speech
Take your time and don't rush what you are saying. Have small bullet points for reference purposes
Practise in-front of people if you can, otherwise practise alone. Make sure you practise
Be mobile. By that I mean don't stand stiffly looking at one person and speaking like a robot. Make contact with your audience, look around, use hand gestures to stress a point etc
Fail to prepare, prepare to failLet us know how you got on. Good luck.

Edit: I just realised its a monologue. The same applies, but you can really impress everyone by being the character as you recite e.g. tone of voice, facial expression etc

[Amber]

I messed up once when I was at school. I was so nervous and did a dreadful speech. Everything that could go wrong did. But I did learn from my experience and will give you the following advice:

Be confident. It will show through in your speech
Take your time and don't rush what you are saying. Have small bullet points for reference purposes
Practise in-front of people if you can, otherwise practise alone. Make sure you practise
Be mobile. By that I mean don't stand stiffly looking at one person and speaking like a robot. Make contact with your audience, look around, use hand gestures to stress a point etc
Fail to prepare, prepare to fail
Thanks NB. That helps alot :)


Let us know how you got on. Good luck.
Thanks, I will.

EDIT: I'm performing it on Thurs/Fri.

[Katy]

just do all the advise given in the above posts and yourll do great. This was the thing i hated most at GCSE i was never a good speaker, i was a gobby cow but i could never be loud when i needed to.

Just take it slowly which i think is the main thing, and take deep breaths make sure every word can be heard and you pause when necessary. Its really basic things, but there what you usually forget when your nervous.

Good luck with it.

[Skits]

i found the most important things were making eye contact, speaking slowly and pausing when you're meant to. there's nothing worse then a speech that's rushed.

[Amber]

Thanks for everyone's help. I'm performing it tomorrow and I'm actually looking forward to it :)

[Dr. Tangliss]

I have to perform a monologue to my English class but I'm terrible at public speaking. I usually freak out and start to laugh nervously or read to quickly and stumble over my words, and I always forget things like stage directions.

Has anyone got any tips or help they could give me?

Thanks
xx

PS - Sorry if it's in the wrong place. Feel free to move x

Picture them naked!

Seriously though, try to remain calm, take some herbal calming tablets too, as they helped me in the past. If you know someone in the audience, look at them every so often, as that can be reassurring..

[Amber]

Thanks everyone! I did pretty good and I managed to stay calm. One thing that annoyed me was that I wrote on my hand anything I thought I'd forget. I didn't even need to look at my hand for anything but then I got a bit stuck with a few lines of my monologue. I hadn't written anything for that bit so when I looked, there was nothing there to remind me! I had to skip that bit. I told my teacher after but she said "You really rehearsed it well." and "I didn't even notice when you'd missed those lines." I'm very very happy because she seemed to really like it :)

So thanks again everyone!
xxx

[alan45]

And if your totally terrified, then imagine them all naked. Great tip Dawn it always works even on a Sunday morning in Church.