[intro music]

JESSICA RICH: Hi, my name is Jessica Rich and I go to Croydon Park Public School. My monologue is entitled I Hate Performing. I hope you like it. Bye. Why did I even come to this class? I didn't know we had to perform it in front of everyone. What am I going to do? Everyone was looking at me, judging me, laughing at me.

If I do even one single thing wrong, everyone will notice, and I'll be so embarrassed. The light is so bright and it will be beaming in my eyes. My hands will start to tremble like crazy, then my mouth will dry up and I'll start to stutter. Oh, no. I can't do this. What if I suck? What if I'm horrible? Then everyone will know how horrible. Then everyone will tell all their friends how horrible I am. Then they'll tell their friends. I'll be trapped. I have no escape from this life-sucking embarrassment.

Everyone will remember me as the girl who can't even speak in front of other people. I hate performing. If I was confident, I could do it so easily. I could even be good. I would use any excuse I have not to perform. Ah yes, I know what you're thinking, just pretend to be sick. But the problem is I've tried that before and they didn't buy it. Use a doctor's note. Sadly, I've tried that before too. And as I shockingly found out, I'm not very good at forging signatures.

Wait, you know maybe I can do this. I've practised. I practised all last night and all of this morning. I know I know all my lines. I've gone over it in the mirror about 10,000 times. If I do that, I'll be fine. Just fine. I just have to stay calm and relaxed. And the whole point of this class is to have fun. Right? I can do this. I'm ready. Actually, you know what? I can't do this. Bye.