When people recoil

sit on their laps

Most performers I know are highly sensitive people.

We have the ability to notice everything. This is especially true when on stage. When on the stage, everything is amplified. We sense the audience. We hear every cough, sniff, shuffle and breath. Once our eyes adjust to the stage lighting, we see every movement as well. This was even worse for me.

Most of my professional career was spent performing in school gyms. The lighting options there were poor. The lights could be on, or the lights could be off. Given that I wasn’t performing radio drama or reading guided meditations, the lights had to be on. This had its benefits.

If anything at all interesting was happening in the audience, I could hear and see at the same time. This made things really easy to locate and integrate as part of the show. Each moment I was performing, people had a sense of what’s he going to do next?

For some, this tension was thrilling. Others, found this terrifying. These people were in charge. They were responsi…