Performing sick

We all dread it, but if you perform on any kind of frequency, crippling things happen in real life that don't belong on the stage: Laryngitis, flu/sickness, food poisoning, or personal crisis.

On a recent occasion I had to perform while in the height of a bought stomach flu. I had chills and fever, cramps, kidney pain and nausea. Yet, my character was not sick and so the audience did not want to know that I personally was. My close friends in the cast knew to rise me before my scene to make sure I would get on stage in time, but my true saving grace was honest practice. The audience never was the wiser.

We always hear to rehearse like you are in a performance and now I have a new reason. It was that muscle memory saved me from my reality. The second before entering stage in rehearsal I was involved in my character, and this time in performance I had that to rely on. Back stage I was barely able to stand but on stage my character was an over-determined, ratty, mean, bitch of a woman.

The hardest part for me was definitely exhaustion and how this sickness affected my breathing. Breathing was not a problem for spoken dialogue, I just choose a few different points of focus, but alas for the sustained singing in the higher ranges. It is hard to flex those muscles that don't care about your characters needs. I thank my professors enthusiastically for the years of excellent training they afforded me. It is because of them and their wisdom that I could rely on the technique and trust the physical exploration I have come to be able to employ.

The audience did not want to know, I did not want to show it, and proper training afforded the result: a standing ovation.