STAGE FRIGHT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16584, 17 November 1921, Page 9

STAGE FRIGHT.

SIR HUGH ALLEN ON BOW TO CURE “ NERVES.” What are wo to do about oui “ nerves ” ? It is the question wliid bothers half the world to-day. Evqry body who has to work under the eye o a critic, from the orator who wonder how his speech is going to the shop girl who is aware of the shopwalkers eye while she is soiling a yard of rib bon, is liable to an attack of what wc To all such sufferers Sir Hugh A lfei spoke when, as Director of the I toy a College of Music, h©i_ad dressed the stu dents of the college at the opening o the new term. He Was speaking mainly to those who are or will beconn public performers of music—but hi words apply to everybody. *Clt is noi too much to say,” he declared, “ thai nerves are the most needed ingrediem in oie performers’ outfit, and that tier vousness has brought distress if note!is aster to countless musicians. ‘ Nerve, and ‘ nervous ’ are words which have the most diverse meaning in our lan guage. Wc speak of nerve as of some filing strong, vigorous, as courage anc boldness and assurance, and of nerveas a disordered state of the nervous sys tern. ‘‘ By ‘nerves ’ we mean that miser able state which attacks us at all turn: of the road, when wc have to play o: | sing, when ire dou’t know our work when we are late, when we have to «dc things in front of others. . . . Per sonally T know of no greater disco nr fort. “ I have known a. man railed upon to speak suddenly among friends to h< absolutely dumb, and another to havt uttered a. string of unintelligible non sense. T have known conductors whe confessed to a feeling of completes l blankness at tlio beginning of a concert. “ Now tlie paradox of the whole affair is that you cannot be a really gbod performer or conductor unless voi are nervous (in a sense and in the right degree) and you cannot bo if you ar< nervous! The case is really this: It- is only those who have nervous suscepti bility and a delicately balanced anc well-controlled nervous system wh< will ever make an appeal by their per formance.” Beyond tlio need for obtaining iul t knowledge of the matter in hand, ! Hugh advises the nervous to culti vat© an interest in work, an interesl 1 which becomes absorbing, which mean? that our minds are taken up with what we are doing—not with why we are do , ing it. This absorption prevents on: attention from wandering. The pavei of attention which enables us to con centralo upon what we are doing, am. to become insusceptible to outside in fluences, is not only the cure for nor vousness, but. it is also the best- way tc build lip character/’