a simple lesson that leveled-up my storytelling.
In storytelling, everything is about the audience.
One of the first things you learn as a stage actor is how to “cheat out”. As an eleven-year-old in “Honk! The Musical”, this made zero sense to me (which is probably why my only line was delivered from off-stage, and I spent the rest of the show step-touching in a goose costume behind the 7th graders).
Fast forward a decade and I finally learned why this simple lesson makes or breaks good storytelling.
In college, this basic concept of cheating out was reframed by the best acting teacher I’ve ever had as “sharing with the audience”.
Whenever we would close ourselves off, he would kindly suggest “Why don’t you share that with the audience?” Suggesting that whatever beautiful moment you were having on stage didn’t matter, because no one in the audience could see it!
Almost a year after graduating, I had coffee with this professor and mentioned what a profound impact this suggestion had on my work. He simply responded:
“As storytellers, it’s incredible how often we forget about our audience."