Speaker 1Shut up, and sit down. Welcome to Being On Stage, the only podcast that gives you motivation, inspiration, and confidence to be better on stage. No matter how you entertain, sing, dance, band, comedian, public speaking, MC, drag, burlesque, performance art, or street performer, this is the show for you.
Speaker 2Hey, rock stars. My name is Reggie Dawson. I am a stage performance coach and your host of the Being On Stage podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in, and welcome back. Jumping right into things, I've met a lot of performers, and you would be surprised at some of the basic stuff that we just skip. When you're first starting out and you're getting into performing, it's easy to get it in your head that, man, I just got to go out there and do my thing. And over time, as you'll learn, it's better to play. And there's some educational pieces of performing on stage that you really need to have down. And so, you know, it got me thinking, why not do, you know, one episode focused on just some basics of the stage? And, you know, I do these episodes here and there of going over some basics, and this one's all about knowing the stage and the different stage directions. And then it's actually a little bit of a two-parter, because the next episode, we're going to get into using the stage and how you can use this newfound knowledge. That we're going to go over today. So, stick with me here, guys. You know, I'm going over some terminology. I'm going to be describing things to you. I will say, it may be better to see it, to see like a diagram of it. So, what I'm going to do after this episode is I'm going to create a diagram of everything that we talk about today, and I'm going to share it on Instagram. So, you can follow me on Instagram, at beingonstage, and you'll see the diagrams of everything that we go over in this episode today. So, first and foremost, everybody knows what center stage is. And that's. That's kind of like, we're going to use that as our anchor point, the center of the stage. If you want to follow along and kind of draw your own diagram, we're working on like a three-by-five grid, almost. So, if you draw a grid, just three squares by five squares, you can kind of fill it in, just like I have on the paper that's in front of me. There's five basic points of the stage, okay? There's center stage, that is dead center in the middle of the stage, okay? From center stage. From center stage, you have upstage, which is back away from the audience. You have downstage, which is further closer to the audience. You have stage left, which is the performer's left, and stage right, which is the performer's right. Okay? Now, each of those areas kind of has little subsets. So, if you're filling in your grid, you know, you have your center, which is the center block, and then all the way to the left, you have left. All the way to the right, you have right. When you go forward towards the audience, you have downstage. That would technically be downstage center. So, you can have downstage left, which is all the way to the left. You can have downstage left center, which is kind of between the center and all the way to the left. Then, you're also going to have the same thing on the right. You know, you have downstage right, which is all the way to the right, and then you have downstage right center, which is between the center and downstage right. Okay? Rather than go over this and just kind of repetitively. I'm going to go over it quickly. So, upstage, you have upstage center, and then you have upstage left, all the way to the left, upstage right, all the way to the right. And then, of course, you have upstage left center, upstage right center. You also have center stage left and center stage right, which is, as you can imagine, like going back and forward. If you stop at that center line that's horizontal across the stage and kind of between all the way to the left and center, you have center left, center right. Again, I'm going to share this diagram on Instagram, so I know that I went a little fast. But when you think about being downstage and closer to the audience, you know, that's where you're a little stronger in your performance. You know, you're more interactive with the audience. It's more of a statement, more of a powerful position. You know, the further you go away from the audience is more of dramatic effect, or if you're trying to create distance, or sometimes you can use it for some emotional parts of the songs, you know, draw yourself away. And then. You know, moving to the left and the right is really about where you want to focus everything. Now, I'll tell you, your audience will naturally look to their right, which is stage left, your left. Okay? So if there's anything that you want to be exceptionally powerful, you want to do it downstage and either downstage left center or downstage left, because that's naturally where the audience is looking. Because, you know, when you read, you go left to right. So remember, from the audience, it's opposite. So they're looking right. And that's stronger and more of a. Just the attention's naturally drawn to stage left. Another couple of terms just to kind of be aware of when you're planning your show. And, oh, so here's a term. It's called blocking. Now, I mentioned in the beginning of the show that it's so easy to get in the mindset of just get on stage and do it, and it'll be amazing. But as you progress and as you learn, you'll learn that you have to plan things. You have to plan your movements. You have to plan the positions, you know, your pause points. Where you're going to stand, when you're going to move, especially if you're performing with other people. You know, there's nothing worse than, you know, I'm going this way and you're going that way, and we run into each other in the middle of the performance. That's not good. So the way you plan it and the way you kind of time it out is called blocking. And that's when you're using all these directions that we went over, upstage, downstage, and kind of planning where everybody's going to be. And then from there, you kind of plan how everybody's going to move, and that's called blocking. When you're blocking and when you're planning the show and kind of almost scripting your show, the movements of the show. And I'm not talking about choreography. I'm simply talking about walking from center stage to downstage and making sure you don't run into your partner who's walking from downstage left to center stage right. So how you're going to move, when you're going to move. It's almost like a strategy. It's a plan. It's a script. It's an important piece of the performance. It's an important piece of the performance to ensure that everything goes as you see it in your head. And you can hire someone to do this while you're rehearsing so that you don't actually have to write each individual thing down. But you're going to want to have a plan, and you're going to want to have your show blocked out so that you know where you're going, when you're going, and who else is moving at the same time. So a couple of terminologies that you'll learn or need to learn as you're blocking is. So there's give stage and take stage. Give stage means you're kind of backstabbing. You're backing off and giving more stage to the audience or to other performers. Take stage means you're coming closer to the audience, and you're moving closer. You're taking more of the stage for yourself. And then you have your body positions. So we talked about where you're standing on the stage, but then you have the different positions and the different angles of your body. So there's full front, and I mean just facing front. And then there's quarter turn to the right, quarter turn to the left. And then there's the half turn to the left, which is basically facing left. It's called left profile. Same thing on the right, right profile. And then you have what's called full back. And really full back means that your back is fully towards the audience. And it's really something that you want to avoid whenever possible. It's really good for dramatic effect. I used to use it when if I was doing a transition from one song to another and there was a bit of an intro, I would go like full back. And maybe do like. A little sway back and forth or like a bounce, like I'm getting ready to go again to like reintroduce myself. I would also go full back if I wanted a dramatic ending. I would just turn around full back at the last beat of the song. It's really good for dramatics. But when you're still communicating with the audience and you're still performing, turning your back to them, it could interrupt that flow that you have with them in that connection. And you don't want to do that. And I notice a lot of times when people are performing with each other. It's. It's very easy to forget that you're not the only person to worry about. You know, you also have to make sure that your partners on that stage are also not in a position to where they have to choose between facing you and facing the audience. So you should always have your body at least tilted towards the audience, even if you're, you know, communicating with another person. That's what those quarter turns and even those half turns or four is so that you're not fully facing away from the audience. There is something called a three quarter turn. And that should really only. Be used if you're if you're moving. And the three quarter turn is when you're you're not fully back to the audience, but you're kind of diagonally back from the audience. You would use that. So if you're downstage, right, it's almost three quarters would be like walking towards dead center of the stage. That would be a three quarter body turn. And when you're in that position, you know, you're moving to a certain other spot and then you're going to face the audience or at least in some way again. The. Easiest way to remember it is try to keep the front of your body looking as much towards the audience as possible. It's going to be difficult at first to not make it awkward because, you know, you're still interacting with the other people that are on stage with you. I mean, if you're a solo artist, this should not be a struggle at all. Your body should be facing the audience at all times, whether you're turned, you know, halfway to the left, quarter way to the left or to the right. You should at least be mostly facing. the audience at all times. Now, if you're performing on different types of stages where maybe the audience is on three sides of you or the hardest way to perform on four sides of you, you know, it may be a little more difficult to make sure that your back's not towards somebody, but as much as possible, you want to leave yourself open to the audience. It, it invites more of a connection. It invites them more into the performance and into you. And it just, it just, it looks better. Like to be, to be quite frank and honest, it just looks better from an audience standpoint. If you're looking at me when I'm watching you. So one of the last things I want to go over is moving on stage. One of the things I want to impress upon you is when you're moving on stage, you always want to start with the foot that is closest to where you are going. And you should know where you're going before you're moving. You should never be moving without purpose. There should always be a purpose to every single step you take on that stage. I've seen performers time and time again, you know, they have this back and forth pacing that they do or the side to side pacing, and it looks unorganized and there's no purpose to the movement. They look nervous. If you're going to move on stage, even if you're going to walk five feet to the left, do it with purpose, do it with the purpose of knowing where you're going. And when you get there, stop, face the audience, strike a pose, whatever it is you're going to be doing, do it with purpose. You should never be moving on stage if there's not a reason, for the movement. So when you do cross, not only do you, you know, start with the foot that's closest to your destination, you want to know where you're going. You also want to make sure that when you are crossing the stage, you're not crossing anybody else's path to cause like a running into somebody. That's why it's important to block and plan these things out. You also want to make sure that you're still thinking about where you are in relation to the audience, where you're looking. Are you looking where you're going? Are you still maintaining that connection with the audience? If you're a solo performer, you're not going to be able to it can be really, really difficult to maintain the connection with the audience while still moving around the stage. It's easy when you're in a group because, you know, you can always count on someone to be looking at the audience. You can always count on someone while you're moving, someone else is moving. The spotlight may not always be on you, but if you're a solo performer, this can be difficult. So you're going to need to learn to navigate the stage while facing the audience. And this could include walking backwards, walking sideways. You don't always have to be full-fledged. You don't have to be full-fledged. You don't have to be front to the audience. But you always have to be conscious of where the audience is and making sure that it appears that you are facing the audience. And it's not just about giving them attention. And it's not just about making sure that they can see you. It's also about making sure they feel that connection with you. It's almost like a psychological thing. When you're facing me and your body is fully facing me, I feel like we're more involved in a conversation and more involved in a connection. And I think that's a really important thing. And I think that's a really When your body's turned or your head's turned away or you're full back to me, I don't feel like there's a connection. I feel like I'm watching a brick wall. So that facing the audience in some capacity helps create that connection. So anytime you cross the stage, make sure that you're also conscious of where you're facing your head, where you're facing your attention, and where you're facing your body. Again, next episode, we're going to get more into how you can use the stage to say different things and dramatic effect and emotional effect. And I'll see you in the next episode. For now, I wanted to make sure that we at least went over the basics because I know that's something that is so easily forgotten when you're just ready to just get out there and go after your dreams. Keep going after it, guys. And listen, if you're stuck, if you're not sure what to do next and you're not sure where to go, but you have this dream that you want to follow of performing on stage, go ahead and shoot me an email, reggie at beingonstage.com. Let's work together. We'll chat for about 30 minutes, figure out what direction you want to go. So shoot me an email, hit me up on Instagram at beingonstage.com. I do weekly videos inside a free Facebook group called the being on stage group. You can join by going to beingonstage.com slash group. I go in there once a week and share some motivation. I do a video once a week, kind of dive diving deeper into that motivation and really pushing you to keep growing and getting better. You can head over there to Facebook and join that group. I'll see you there. As always, rock stars keep on shining.
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