(n): a social event involving a public performance or entertainment
(n): the act of presenting a play or a piece of music or other entertainment
(n): a show or display; the act of presenting something to sight or view
(n): the act of performing; of doing something successfully; using knowledge as distinguished from merely possessing it
(n): something done (usually as opposed to something said)
(n): any recognized accomplishment
(n): the action of accomplishing something
(n): process or manner of functioning or operating
(n): a sustained phenomenon or one marked by gradual changes through a series of states
"'How do you feel?' asked the stage manager.
I looked at her and tried to concentrate.
How did I feel? I felt the way I always felt before a performance: like I was about to be executed; like I was a fraud; like I was that infinitely compressed point, just before the big bang."
—Glenn Kurtz, Practicing: A Musician's Return to Music (New York: Vintage Books, 2007), 95
I was absolutely struck by how true this statement is. He's described that feeling to a perfect T of being just about to go onstage.