(ELOISE) RISTAD, A SOPRANO ON HER HEAD — It is in performance that... we... court the very experience that terrifies us. ... A well-meaning friend says, "There's nothing to get nervous about," and it almost helps, because the desire to strangle distracts us for the moment.
| A. | Platform for public speaking | ROSTRUM |
| B. | Out of one's comfort zone | INSECURE |
| C. | Feel a frisson; tremble | SHIVER |
| D. | Become tense and stiff | TAUTEN |
| E. | Gathering of people | ASSEMBLY |
| F. | Lacking self-confidence; reserved | DIFFIDENT |
| G. | Olympics participant | ATHLETE |
| H. | Wistful number from "West Side Story" | SOMEWHERE |
| I. | Behind the scenes | OFFSTAGE |
| J. | Titanic model for Shelley's Frankenstein | PROMETHEUS |
| K. | Declamatory style of singing | RECITATIVE |
| L. | Glossophobe's feeling about public speaking | ANXIETY |
| M. | Oscar-winning director and ex-member of a comedy duo | NICHOLS |
| N. | Repeated musical phrase, as the two-note theme in "Jaws" | OSTINATO |
| O. | Drapery material named for a German city where it was originally made | OSNABURG |
| P. | Pulp paper used for daily journalism | NEWSPRINT |
| Q. | Dramatic character who speaks the line "Words, words, words" | HAMLET |
| R. | Polarized material used in microphones and copy machines | ELECTRET |
| S. | Emmy-winning actor in "The Larry Sanders Show" (2 wds.) | RIPTORN |
| T. | Played emcee | HOSTED |
| U. | Brief show between sections of a longer show | ENTRACTE |
| V. | Character killed by Orestes in Euripides' "Electra" | AEGISTHUS |
| W. | Cause for a red light | DANGER |