Daily Prompt – December 12, 2025

Have you ever performed on stage or given a speech?

I am fighting the urge to respond to this prompt with a simple “yes” because AuDHD brain says ask a close-ended question get the closed-ended answer. However, I know its a writing prompt so lets dig in a little to my history with the stage,

I have performed on a stage multiple times. As a little kid I was in Peter Pan for a school play. As pre-teen and teen I was in a number of musicals because of the summer camp I went to. I remember being in Annie and Grease most specifically. I also played clarinet in high school so was on stage for concerts and in one instance for pit orchestra.

As an adult, I shifted my time on stage to behind the scenes mostly. I got involved in community theaters. I did costuming, set dressing, set design, props, I even learned and ran lighting for a few shows. My real love however was directing. I directed a number of shows. I won’t list them all but that was the most fun for me. I was on stage a few times during this period as well. I was never as comfortable as an actor as I was a director but I had fun.

Here’s the interesting part of it all to me. I can perform on stage in all the ways I just mentioned and be perfectly fine. Giving a speech however, and the stage fright is horrid. I stutter and stammer. It’s bad, just bad. Doesn’t matter if I memorized the speech or not. Being up there by myself as myself just brought fear and anxiety but hiding in a crowd or being someone else and wearing a mask even if metaphorically, that was easy.

It’s quite the allegory if I think about it.