Moving 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 humorous contest speeches. Most of the time it was pretty easy. Get close enough and then make small movements to the right and left if the speaker was 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 really interesting talk, but there was one thing he did that was really distracting. He kept walking back and forth across the stage. 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 generates movement, when you want to create a timeline on the stage, and when you want to structure the setting.

Action

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 may cross the stage to where the office is represented on the 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 (choose a spot on the stage for the refrigerator). Maybe he’s staggering back to defend himself from attack, or maybe he’s carefully feeling his way through the house after the power went out. Fast or slow, your movements will be determined by the action of your story.

Chronology

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 up 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 on the left, and work your way up 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, he transitions verbally, saying something like “Go ahead with me ten years.” In point one, you can share how you got frustrated by a certain problem you had. Moving on to point two, share how you researched and discovered the answers or tools that helped you overcome this problem. Moving on to third place, share how your life is better now that you have 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 in different parts of the stage. You can still use the timeline focus to move your audience from left to right. For example, if you were talking about getting started in real estate, you could go to place one (to the left of the audience) and talk about organizing finances, go to place two to talk about buying a property under valuation, on the spot. Three could talk about how to do the deal: negotiation, dealing with real estate sellers, and what clauses to include in your offers.

The second method is to place holograms on the stage, which you can call back visually. For example, you could be giving a speech about the advice your grandfather gave you as a child. You can set up a spot on 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 recall the area of ​​the stage where you are sitting, indicating it with your hand, and talk about how you applied your advice to today’s. problems. “I was wondering how to deal with this problem, when I remembered what my grandfather used to say …”

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

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