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Public Speaking 101: stage use – Stage Left & Stage Right


Many beginner Toastmasters see their speech from their own point of view, both in how they talk and how they use the stage.  With practice, speakers learn to see and hear (and deliver) their speech considering the audience’s point of view.  Before explaining how that works, it is helpful to understand the terminology.
Stage Left  &  Stage Right
House Right  &  House Left
The term “House” or “Stage” is in reference to what you are looking at.  So if you’re in the audience, you are looking at the stage.  If you’re on stage, you’re looking at the house.  (And if you’re one of my whitewater paddling friends, you already know River Left and River Right is the perspective as you look down river.)  Here is a video explaining it:

Read the full article about it here.

Now how do you use this info?  Most cultures read from left to right and observe the passage of time going from left to right.  So for clarity to your audience your story should follow that flow.  So if you are talking about an event that came first, you would stand or point to Stage Left.  As you refer to events through time, you move across the stage to Stage Right.  You may make several trips through time this way and your story may come to a conclusion in the present which you would come back to front and center to deliver final the message.

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