What are your top tips to pass along to student performers?
These are a few suggestions for performance day that have nothing to with the music-making. I try to make sure my students hear them every year.
- Deodorant is good. Fragrance is bad. On performance day, no fragrance, please. Different fragrances can disagree with each other onstage, and of course there are people with allergies or sensitivities to various scents. On the other hand, make sure you are minimizing your own odor by applying and reapplying deodorant!
- Good quality undershirts. Under your dress shirts, I recommend springing for a tech-fabric undershirt, which helps keep you dry and cool underneath the stage lights.
- Change your socks. One of the best hacks I ever read was to change your socks right before the performance. If there’s an intermission, change them again! The fresh socks will reenergize you right before you walk onstage.
- Bring a laundry basket. In the heat of the moment, you are going to find your clothes explode around the dressing room, leaving you extra work at the end of the night. Someplace to organize and collect everything makes a difference you’ll appreciate when you’re ready to go home.