Emily asked: Do you think the environment affects one's ability to improvise? I definitely think this is the case. Oftentimes, we feel more comfortable performing anything—improvisational or otherwise—in front of people we don’t know, rather than in front of our peers. People who are comfortable going on stage in front of a hundred strangers freeze up when they are asked to do the same in front of their classmates. This is because we would rather mess up in front of strangers who we will most likely not see again than people we see regularly. The less you know a person, the less you talk to them, the less they can express negative judgments to you about your performance.
I think this anxiety is especially prevalent when students are asked to perform something that they either developed themselves or are making up on the spot. Again, this is because we fear negative judgments. If one plays a part in a play, and his friend tells him after the performance that he didn’t like the play, one would take it more personally if it was a piece one wrote himself. On the other hand, if one is performing a piece that someone else wrote and his friend dislikes it, one can simply shrug it off saying, “Well I didn’t write it,” thus excusing him from any blame for the lackluster show. It takes more courage for a person to share his own work with others than it does to merely display someone else’s.
My question in response is this: Do you think your peers are likely to judge you more harshly than a stranger would?
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