Move on stage – When and how to move on stage when speaking

If you had been with me at the New Zealand Toastmasters convention in 2009, you would have seen me in the back of the room with my camcorder, recording the speeches in the comedy contest. Most of the time it was pretty easy. Get close enough and then make minor movements to the right and left if the speaker moved out of range. Most of the time I didn’t have to move the camera.

But then we had a guest speaker, an Air New Zealand pilot. He gave a very interesting talk, but there was one thing he did that was very distracting. He kept walking from one side of the stage to the other. That made filming difficult, but more importantly, it made it difficult to focus on what he was saying.

So how should you move a stage? There are three reasons to move. When the action in your story provokes movement, when you want to create a timeline on stage, and when you want to structure the stage.

Values

If the character in your story moves, you will move. For example, if you repeatedly walk into your boss’s office to ask for a raise, each time you do so you can walk across the stage to where the office is represented on stage. Or if you’re handing out flyers for a new business, you can walk across the stage while placing flyers in mailboxes along the way. You may be trying to lose weight, but find yourself constantly walking to the refrigerator (pick a spot on stage for the refrigerator). Maybe he’s staggering back to defend himself against an attack, or maybe he’s carefully feeling his way through the house after the power has gone out. Fast or slow, your movements will be determined by the action of your story.

timeline

If you are giving a speech that has sequential segments, you can give the first part of the speech at the beginning of the timeline and then move forward in the timeline as you give each segment of the speech. People read from left to right, so start the timeline from your right, your audience’s left, and move from there.

In this way, as you move from one point to another in your speech, you are making a visual transition. At the same time, you transition verbally, saying something like, “Fast forward with me ten years.” In point one, you can share how you felt frustrated about a certain problem you had. Moving on to point two, he shares how he researched and discovered the answers or tools that helped him overcome this problem. Moving on to point three, he shares how his life is better now that he has these tools.

Structure the stage

There are two ways to structure the scenario. The first uses ideas, the second uses holograms of people or objects. The first approach is similar to a timeline, but instead of having sequential events, you place the main points of your speech at different parts of the stage. You can still use the timeline approach of moving from the left to the right of your audience. For example, if you were talking about getting started in real estate, you could go to point one (to the left of the audience) and talk about organizing finances, go to point two to talk about buying property under appraisal, in Point three could talk about how to do the deal: negotiating, dealing with real estate sellers, and what clauses to put in your offers.

The second method is to place holograms on the stage, which you can visually recall. For example, you could be giving a speech about advice your grandfather gave you as a child. You could set up a spot at the side of the stage where your grandfather is sitting in his favorite chair. As you go through your speech, talking about the problems you’ve had in your life, you can visually call back to the area of ​​the stage where you’re sitting, indicating it with your hand, and talk about how you applied your advice to those today. problems. “I was wondering how to deal with this problem, when I remembered what my grandfather always used to say…”

There you have it, move with the action in your story or create timelines or holograms on stage. Remember to only move for one reason.

If you highlighted every word in this article, nothing would stand out. Speech coach Craig Valentine says the same thing happens if you constantly move when you speak, nothing stands out. Nevertheless,

When you move with purpose, your movements start to mean something. You can use them to add emphasis, impact, emotion, and clarity, and they won’t get lost in a sea of ​​constant motion.