Okay, Help. I Have Never Read Before–GIVE ME ADVICE!

July 16, 2010

Internet friends, help me.  I am reading at the Soda Bar on Sunday in Brooklyn – with Matt Bell, John Madera, and Jeff Parker (!! I know, why am I there?) – and I am scared out of my mind. Yes, I did used to be an actress. Yes, I did used to perform Shakespeare for a whole lot of people live. But this is different, right? I mean, do I read my piece like I’m performing it? Or I guess like most people read, like Ira Glass or Sarah Vowell or something? I also have a crappy voice–it’s just kind of girlish and not that high, and while I was acting I would change it, but I probably should read in my own voice, right?

Oh, balls. Please, writerly friends. How do I not suck and totally horrify everyone in this reading? Advice? Tips? Links to people I should listen to? I’ve been to readings, but most of them were really bad or someone like David Sedaris that is so distinctive you can’t possibly copy them. (Also, I don’t think I could sound like a 60-year-old-pack-a-day-smoking-female even if I really, really tried.) So past experience is not particularly helpful. Maybe you can be? I would owe you forever!