"What do I do with my hands?"

It's not easy for actors to create a natural physical life onstage as they come crashing into the world of meter. A song marches ahead in tempo even when you don't have a thought in your pretty little head. You're deprived the luxury of allowing acting beats to develop naturally. As you struggle with the inability to express yourself effectively, the impulse to do something ridiculous with your hands grows irresistible. To bring a natural quality to your physical life at auditions and onstage, I invite you to turn to Stanislavski for one of the first acting tenets many of us learned:

"The thought precedes the action."

You must experience an acting beat before the corresponding words come pouring out of your mouth.

It's tempting to act out what you're singing as you sing it. But then the lyrics appear to remind you of your acting beat. Instead, first experience a thought. The thought (exhibited by a change in facial expression, a focus change, or a movement of your hands) precedes the action (your mouth singing the words). Then, the lyrics that follow will illuminate what we've just seen you thinking. In real life, we first formulate a thought, and then we speak. So, when we see a singer experiencing a thought or feeling before they express it in the lyric, it's as if the song only exists because that singer gives it life.

So, what do you do with your hands? Don't decorate your performances with meaningless gestures. As the late, legendary teacher and author David Craig used to say, "A good nothing is better than a bad something."

Until you can effortlessly do nothing with your hands, relax them at your sides, keeping your fingers and wrists relaxed as you begin to sing. If you've just handed your music to the accompanist, the producers know your hands work.

Now show them that your brain works.

Learn your song cold, then plot out your phrasing and acting beats; treat the lyrics as a monologue while still considering the musical elements. David Craig used the word "air" to describe the moments between phrases in a song. At the beginning of the "air", your thoughts must move ahead to the next acting beat, and we must see the new beat on you during the "air" even if you're still holding out a note from the old phrase. Again, your acting beats must change at the beginning of the "air" that belongs to the next phrase you will sing.

Although it will feel early and mechanical at first, your thoughts must move in advance of the lyric in order to drive the song. Practice this technique until it feels natural. Then, when you feel the need to frame a thought or express an emotion with your hands, let it happen organically before you sing the lyric.

Just as in any other kind of acting, you have to have something authentic going on in your eyes, and no amount of indication can make up for the lack of that something authentic. For now, stop worrying about your hands and do your homework. Trust that you are interesting enough onstage without embellishment.

I'll say it again. Do your homework. Know your acting beats. Rehearse all elements of the song again and again so you can forget your technique come show time. Most importantly, don't let the song sing you by dragging you along behind it. Instead, you sing the song. Your hands will get in the game soon enough.