DON'T LET STAGE FRIGHT STEAL THE SPOTLIGHT

It's the opening night of your school's production of Peter Pan-and, as it happens, your theater debut. After rehearsing for weeks, you're prepared to hook your audience's attention as the wily Captain Hook.

- Abha and Deepa Jain

But as the curtain rises, your stomach begins to churn like an ocean in turmoil. Ragged breaths escape through your parted lips. And your heart pounds faster than a dubstep track of music.

You'd rather be walking the plank than facing the folks out front. But you can't escape. After all, "the show must go on," as they say. Yet, inside you, what on Earth is going on?

SOMETHING FRIGHTFUL THIS WAY COMES

Welcome to the stage fright club. Also called performance anxiety, this condition affects actors of all ages and experience levels, from rookie kindergarteners to Broadway stars. Take Bella Merlin. She's a professor of acting and directing at the University of California, Riverside. She has also acted for many seasons in several US theaters. Yet, she says, "For seven years, I dreaded the one thing I loved: acting."

Signs of stage fright include sweating, rapid breathing, tightness in the chest, dizziness, and "butterflies" in the stomach. Not everyone shows all these signs or experiences them with the same intensity. Yet extreme fear can make some actors flee mid-performance and bring the curtains down on promising careers. When stage fright builds up, be it at an audition or on opening night, it can snuff out the spark of performing.

If you have performance anxiety, know you aren't alone. Stage fright is theater's epidemic: One study showed that four-fifths of the actors interviewed had experienced at least one bout of "stage jitters."

Yet, many actors never openly discuss their fears. One reason may be "a sense of shame attached to experiencing anxiety before performing," says Linda Brennan. She's a psychotherapist and heads the Voice and Speech department at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles. Merlin agrees. "There is a stigma," she says. "I think actors fear that directors won't employ them if they've got stage fright."