Don’t Sigh On Stage!

I am currently binging Drop Dead Diva. For the most part, it’s a brilliant acting class (but the writers need to up their game season 4!). Anyway, there is a wonderful actress in the show who has a terrible habit and it is driving me crazy.

She sighs before every line.

Shoot me.

Sighing is not acting. We don’t sigh often and when someone does, we believe something might be wrong. Generally, we hold our breath.

Look at it this way:

Your audience are passengers on a trip at sea.  You are the boat.  It’s shell, your body.  It’s accessories (like cabin space, restaurant, etc.), your attitude.  Your equipment, your energy.  Your voice is your mast.  Without air, it is nothing.

  And if you have a great breeze, but put your mast down, you aren’t taking your passengers anywhere.  You have a perfectly good mast and you just want to feel the breeze.  It isn’t about you feeling the breeze.  Feel it on your own time, sigh on your own time, tell the story when you are on stage.  
 


If, in the event, a director or playwright tells you to sigh, add sound, and chose your sound wisely. 

Make sure it helps the story.  Your breath makes your body work and is precious.  You should never take it for granted, especially as a story teller while telling a story. 

I’m from Maui AND I teach the occult. Your breath matters. Use your air only if it is the delivery of your mana. Sighing is a reckless use of your soul. Exasperated sounds? Awesome sauce. Les Sigh? No!

Let’s see how many times you watch tv and now see someone sighing too much.