Seth-Deborah Roth has discovered Hypnosis and the Stage as recently had an experience being dog trainer for a production of The Wizard of Oz (her dog played Toto) and when discussing stage fright with the actors and how hypnosis can be wonderful for helping folks access inner resources to move beyond it, she was bemused to discover that most of them did not even know hypnosis could help with that issue.  This was before she found my post on Stage Fright and Trancework which she said nice things about so for that I thank her (thank you, Seth-Deborah!) . . . and found worthwhile as a discussion in what stage fright is and how hypnosis and trancework can help overcome it.

Hmmm, perhaps Seth-Deborah should have hypnotized the dog. 🙂 Just kidding.

On to the good stuff . . . I have worked with a number of actors (I professionally trained for acting/directing for both my BA and MA) and hypnosis works great for stage fright issues as well as quite a number of things like learning lines, becomong one with the characters (there are both deep trance identification and associative processes that work great to free creativity in that regard).  In addition to my hypnosis training and my doctoral training in comparative literature, I have trained in both traditional theatre styles as well as the various "touch-me feel-you" styles. 🙂  There are some schools that use a "transpersonal actor" training sequence that incorporates a LOT of trancework so actors familiar with those exercises will find hypnosis a natural.  The Stanislavski system also uses many exercises akin to hypnosis ("sense-memory" is very nearly partial regression to emotional access while the idea of "becoming one" with the character is certainly a trancestyle associative process) . . . I participated in one acting workshop for "environmental theatre" where we all sat around in a circle and tranced out for a while "becoming one" with the aura of the room . . . folks who are willing to do that are certainly able to access trancework resources for something as simple as stage fright which does NOT need to be a dibilitating issue at all.  Many actors will have done trancelike exercises without realizing how closely akin what they’ve been doing is to hypnosis.  For those who are "nervous" about the use of hypnosis, pretalk, pretalk, pretalk to educate and overcome their fears, but one can also use "something else" such as "focused trance" or "associative guided imagery" to accomplish the same goals and in pretty much the same way without using the words "hypnosis" (which is a loaded term for some) or "sleep" which is entirely irrelevant, they can "relax" instead . . . or even, "become more alert" as they focus . . . whatever works for the individual to help that person access the appropriate inner resourses.  Of course, professional actors aren’t the only ones who could find the hypnosis or even trancelike actor’s exercises useful for helping them find the resources to step out there and perform.

All the best,
Brian
http://www.briandavidphillips.com