[musictheatre00]

I just finished watching my DVD of Anything Goes with me playing Lord Evelyn Oakleigh, and I ripped myself to shreads so badly that I am depressed, I expected it to come out a lot differently, It might just be because I'm my worst critic. Does this happen to you?

[bare24601!]

When I was in sixth grade I was Juliet in the school play Romeo and Juliet, and they filmed the performance, then showed it to the class. But I was a drama queen and basically started crying and saying "I don't want to watch it!" So the teacher escorted me into the hall while everyone else stayed and watched. Also one time I was in Bye Bye Birdie, and at the cast party at the end, they set up a projector and showed everyone's auditions on it. I was mortified... My mom has a few of my performances on DVD and every time she starts playing them I'll leave the room. I mean, I record myself acting/singing in private all the time and watch it over and over, trying to improve, but if it's a performance I've already done in public and can't change, I'm a little reluctant to watch it. That probably doesn't make sense but it's how I am and something I should probably work on.

[shakalakababy]

yeah sometimes. It takes awhile for me to get used to watching myself but if i really think i'm doing a good job i like watching it. There are something (like my last voice recital) that i don't like to watch as much

[LaurelDP]

I can't watch immediately after because I'm still attached to the role. When I'm still emotionally connected to the character, it's hard for me to point out my flaws, because they end up making me feel like crap, and it's about me and not about my acting.

After I wait a while I like to watch... Usually when I'm working on another character. I think it's important for me to see and critique my past performances.

[Cake_in_Song]

I love it and hate it equally. I'm obsessed with what I look like on camera.

[PappyCat]

Can't stand it! It always seems worse than it is.

[ilovebway]

It's difficult for me. But I get around to it, eventually.

[blue wind]

i love it!

[Brackynn]

I always end up ripping myself to shreds ... but I'm always very eager to watch, anyway. Maybe I just enjoy inflicting pain on myself

But I hate watching tapes of my performances with other people watching, too. I find that really awkward.

[musictheatre00]

I actually think it would be easier to watch with other people only if they're cast members, because then you can just joke around and have laugh at all the good times had, watching alone always turns into a critique for me.

[Patrick]

I haven't actually seen myself but I have heard myself...mixed emotions.

Marlon Brando walked out when he first saw On The Waterfront (greatest movie ever) because he was upset with his wondrous performance.

[Tenalto]

I can't take it. I don't want to see it, and I don't want others to see it, either. I always feel that it's dreadful.

[broadwayxdoll]

dont rip myseplf apart about it. but i always come up with 100039488530 things i could have done differently to make it even better

[AllThatJazzHands]

[Quique]

I once watched a performance I did in high school, and the first thing that struck me was how weird my mouth moved when I talk. I slur my words a lot and have generally awful diction. I also have a slight lisp. And I stutter quite a lot. :S

[MaryMag]

I'm never happy with how I look. All my actions look insincere. I hear where I was flat, etc.

But I think a lot has to do with the quality of the video. An awesome production of Cabaret I did looked stupid and laughable cuz the video was shaky, out of focus, and the vaudeville-esque lighting we used on stage just looked bad. Some parts of stage don't adapt well to film directly, (such as certain kinds of lighting.) In another show I did where we had several cameras and adjusted some things to be friendlier to the camera, I look amazing.

But the equity houses I've worked with don't allow you to tape ANYTHING. I couldn't even get them to let me tape the performances when I was understudying.

[Annie]

[Salome]

everyone should watch their own performances. you learn by them you see what you like and wht you dont. it makes you a stronger actor.

[kiwiholly]

I only like watching myself when I'm on my own, because then I do learn and improve, but doing it in a group situation is no fun at all. :/

[LisaKitty]

I absolutely hate watching myself on video/DVD, especially when it's a big group thing with other actors. However, I do force myself to watch my performances when I am alone, because I learn a lot about my own habits and body movements when I do so.

[Luc]

I'm not sure how I feel about watching myself. If I do, I either get really sad or really happy after. Sometimes it feels like I did a crap performance, but then I watch the video and it turned out a lot better than I thought, and vice versa.

[blue wind]

[music is my life!!!]

i can only watch school shows and youth theatre concerts - not shows cuz of copyright...

[sopranodespair]

My granfather ecorded when I was in "Pirates of Penzance, Jr." I still haven't seen it. He's supposed to email it to me. Im really excited, but also really scared.
I freaked out when I had to watch videos of me in show choir, though.

[EponineMNFF]

I try really hard not to watch myself. I understand that it's good for learning, but I usually just criticize myself so much that I get thoroughly dejected and depressed for a day or so.

Not to mention, a production always looks a LOT worse on the video.

I DO watch all of my school plays from elementary school. So cute!

[UniquePerspective]

No.

It's almost to the point of a phobia, honestly, and I don't know why.

[EponineMNFF]

[Beagle On Stage]

I do really like seeing what everything looked like, though. Sometimes you rehearse for a month and half, do the show, and turn in your score, and you've never even seen how the production looked. Sometimes you're very pleasantly surprised to see that elements you hated or were self-conscious about actually looked great in context.

[LesWickedPhantom]

I forced myself a month ago or so to sit down and watch my dvd from my CT show from last year. and I learned something very interesting about myself... as respectable as my performance was... I wave my arms like mad when I sing (as in, start at my sides, and start moving up and down, fingers spread... gah). and once I pinpointed that out, it drove me insane, and I bugged out. But I was able to make sure my arms did not move in my CT show this year. hopefully some happy medium will be reached one day, but I won't know because my new dvd won't come in for a couple of months or so.

my speaking voice sounds terrible in recordings though. I have such a deep man voice. transfers well for singing though. wtf.

[blue wind]

^i have that same problem when i dance! i just can't seem to make my arms not like flip out and wave all over the place. i would never have known that if i didn't watch my recital videos. since i've realized it, it has improved a lot!

[Beagle On Stage]

I was once mortified when I watched a DVD of myself and found that for some reason in that show, I was popping up on my toes practically on pointe whenever I sang the highest note in a phrase. I think it's because I had to fly in the finale of that show, and every night I would progressively get pretty terrified starting at the top of the second act, since it was pretty freaking scary in the decrepit little converted movie house we were in. So I think it was like some kind of little tic I developed for that show. I've never done it before or since, so I suppose it was just the one production.

[Kiwi]

It depends. I hate watching myself, but I like to see the production and I like to see what I did well and could improve on to learn from. I hate hearing a recording of me singing more than anything.

[ConverseSneaker]

Yes. I actually prefer to watch my shows over the movie versions of the show.

I may cringe sometimes(mostly when I see myself as Little Red...what I wouldn't give to replay that role and see how I've improved!).

[ActingDude17]

I have a really hard time watching myself performing.

One time me and my friend were watching a production of Beauty and the Beast we were both in. When he came out as Chip, he buried his head in a cushion and we laughed our heads off. We'd done the show a year or two earlier and his voice was a lot higher back then.

[ilovebway]

Ha, I looked at a recording of a show I had done in like sixth or seventh grade and it just made me cringe. I was so nervous that I would unconsiously start talking so fast, that you couldn't understand what I was saying. Plus, my eyes could never focus on anything. They were always wandering around.

But looking back at them makes you find your weak spots and helps you find things you need to work/improve on, etc.

[~GertrudeMcFuzz~]

The community theatre I go to makes DVDs of all of the shows, and I watch them at cast parties and things. I always cringe when I come on stage, though, because it's always worse than I thought it was. There's also things I tried to get across to the audience that didn't come through on camera, and I wonder if I was big enough with my actions.[/quote]

[ILoveToSing2010]

I HATE IT SO MUCH!!!! I always end up saying "gosh do I really sound like that ugh"

[Elphaba22]

Watching myself in OUAM was painful.. I was like I CANT BELIEVE THATS HOW I SOUNDED, but I ALWAYS watch my performances so i can watch for things to improve on. Like i learned that I "windshield wipe" with my hands sometimes, and it looks wierd.

[jetblack_diva]

all the time!!!!! I can't watch myself without finding every little thing I do to be wrong even when everyone else tells me how great it was! I watch ne ways so that I know what I need to work on!

[star2ballie]

I like it cause I can actually see what happened when I wasn't onstage, ahhaha. Sometimes I'll be watching a video of a show and be like, "when the hell was this scene? cool cart!" (thats a Fiddler example for you).

I actually now like watching myself more than when I was younger because it really is a learning experience, every single time. I like watching my shows in order, too. The other day I watched Once Upon a Mattress (my Jr. year show) and then Hello, Dolly (Sr. year), and it's kinda cool to see how much I improved in just one year. It's encouraging, because I can actually see improvement, whereas in my weekly voice lesson I only hear tiny little things getting better. It's nice to see the big picture.

[Xack]

I can't stand it, I never watched an entire performance of mine. I'll start, but leave the room before long.

[lonewriter]

I'm not an actor so I wouldn't have a clue as to what it would be like from that viewpoint however, as my screen name describes, I am a writer and I do cringe at my work, I think as a writer (or in your case, performer) we are our toughest critics.

[ConverseSneaker]

I just watched for the first time my dvd of OUAM and I burst out laughing. Apparently something went wrong with a small part of the video while taping the first night because after Swamps of Home, Lady Lucille brought out my dress(as in, the one I was wearing that night) on stage for Fred. And soon afterwards, I appeared with the dress I wore on 2nd night. I continued to wear my night 2 dress until act 2, when I reverted back into my night 1 dress.

Apparently, there was a problem with the video camera for half of act 1 so they taped those scenes the second night for our video.

[Chevstriss]