Christine McHugh on Transforming Lives Through Performance Coaching
I’ve chosen to direct theatre, and in particular, solo shows my entire adult life. The theatricality that the stage lends to the storytelling medium leaves us all inspired. I have great faith, that through my coaching, my clients earn the ability to rise to the occasion of a full house and completely connect with that audience in order to deliver powerful stories about their life experience. I know this changes my clients as it proves themselves as storytellers of the human experience as well as confronts them with one of the greatest challenges anyone can face – standing on stage with no script or character, just their own stories. A self-revelatory theatre piece has the power to transform a person’s life by giving them the opportunity to venture deep into the mystery of themselves and come out the other side with the experience of full self-expression. Nothing helps a person to see the story that they tell about themselves quite as much as a solo show where the client will put their story on paper, rehearse it and then perform it in front of an audience. From the point of performance they then have the opportunity to rewrite those stories that aren't working and create the next act of their life all the while benefiting from the guidance of a coach who is dedicated to supporting them on their path to self-knowledge.
I know that it’s a deep experience for the audience as well as they become reconnected to the power of their lives through the universality of our stories. I’ve seen it happen over and over and yet even I sometimes forget. What follows is an account of how my last client’s performance re-inspired in me the power of this process.
I had been coaching him through dynamic layers of his past, and the stories he wanted to share with those in his life. We refined his presentation and sculpted his stories into a framework that balanced the comic and dramatic. Four days before his performance I flew to the city where he lives and we began putting the show on its feet, working out the timing of slides, music and transitions as well as the nuances of voice and movement with props. I coached him through transcending his nerves and emotionality to deliver a moving account of his life (so far) for his milestone party. What I had underestimated was the effect that it would have on his audience.
All my predictions bore out; he rose to the occasion in an incredible way. His timing was impeccable, his voice resonant, and his handling of the emotional dynamics were masterful. As he delivered his last lines, the audience erupted in a long standing ovation. That’s when I began to witness something that I hadn’t seen so poignantly before. Inspired by my client’s courage in allowing such vulnerability with the stories of his triumphs and failures, his regrets and his joys, audience members turned to one another and told stories to each other about their lives. Veritable strangers began sharing their peak experiences. All evening long we swapped stories about bankruptcies and births, teenage pranks and some of the unexpected curves that life throws us. It was a night I will never forget. In watching the audience be so emboldened, so inspired, by his work, that they naturally started doing it themselves, I realized how much power there is on our stories. We all want to be seen, to reveal ourselves to each other. It generates a feeling of closeness, of universality, that connects people. There is so much extraordinary in the ordinary lives we all lead. It feels to me wasted if not rejuvenated, refreshed, and shared with others.
In that moment I realized that my greatest calling is to help people bring their lives out of the shadows and into the warm and bright spotlight of awareness.