Description

Guest hosts theatre students Alayna & Zoe
Majoring in theatre: Anticipation, connection and the breath before the curtain rises

What does the moment right before a show begins feel like?

In this episode of Seeing Senses, Sarah hands the mic to two guest hosts: University of Georgia theatre majors Alayna Young and Zoe Davidson. Together, they explore the charged, sensory-rich seconds before a performance starts, both from backstage in the wings and from the velvet seats of the audience.

From the click of a mic wire behind the ear to the dimming of the house lights, Alayna and Zoe reveal how these details shape emotion, memory, and connection. They discover that performers and audience members share many of the same feelings (anticipation, suspense, excitement) but experience them in subtly different ways.

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Listen if you’re curious about:

• How senses heighten anticipation before a show
• Why onstage vulnerability can outweigh perfection
• Sensory overlap between audience and performer
• How small details spark big emotions
• Why the “breath before it begins” connects us all

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Key themes & takeaways:

• Anticipation is full-body: heartbeats, breath and room buzz align
• Backstage items like zippers or headset mics spark emotional shifts
• Audience and performers share emotional arcs before the show starts
• Sensory cues trigger emotion and anchor memories
• The most powerful theatre moments are often unplanned and subtle
• Vulnerability builds connection: showing your human side draws people in

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Guests:

Alayna Young is a fourth-year theatre student exploring the relationship between performance and the senses. She’s passionate about the transformative potential of stepping into another character and how sensory detail deepens that transformation. Zoe Davidson is a third-year theatre student fascinated by the invisible threads between the stage and the audience. She’s been performing since childhood and sees theatre as a place for honest, human connection.

Thank you to Sara Gray from AIFS.

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Bonus for multi-sensory thinkers:

Head to Seeing Senses on Substack for updates and extras.
You’ll find sense-hacking experiments and book recommendations from the guests. Become a paid subscriber to support the making of this podcast (with extra episodes and content).

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Host:

Sarah Hyndman is a designer/researcher, author and speaker. You can book her for a talk or workshop about Multi-Sensory Thinking here via Type Tasting. Sarah is the founder of Type Tasting, curator of The Sensologists and author of the bestselling book Why Fonts Matter (Penguin/Virgin). 

Seeing Senses. Where there’s more than meets the eye. 

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Theme music by AudioKraken. 

#MultisensoryDesign #Theatre #Performance #SeeingSensesPodcast #MultiSensoryThinking #Podcast