Audience/Performer Chemistry

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2 Audience/Performer Chemistry Theatre is: LIVE In person Taking place in the presence of the spectator A does B for C at D

3 OUR PRESENCE It doesn t just mean that we are in the personal presence of performers. It means that they are in our presence, conscious of us, speaking to us, working for & with us until a circuit that is not mechanical becomes established between us, a circuit that is fluid, unpredictable, ever-changing in its impulses, crackling, intimate. Our presence, the way we respond, flows back to the performer and alters what he does -- Walter Kerr, drama critic

4 OUR PRESENCE PERFORMERS can: Hear our laughter & cries Sense our silence Feel our tension

5 THEATRE A Group Experience A Communal Event = when a group of people assemble, at one time, & in one place Examples of Communal Events Religious services Celebrations Spectator sports Concerts Performing Arts

6 THE COLLECTIVE MIND Psychology of Groups A collection of people presents new characteristics very different from those of the individuals composing it. The sentiments and ideas of all the persons in the gathering take one & the same direction, & their conscious personality vanishes. -- Gustave La Bon, social psychologist

7 The Group Experience -The Positive Side- As an audience, we: Share a common undertaking Focus on one activity Sense intangible communion with those Respond in unison creating reassurance in ourselves

8 The Group Experience -The Negative Side- Audiences gone bad: Sporting events Soccer Riots in Europe Post-Football games in United States

9 The Group Experience Audiences gone bad: 1762 Convent Gardens Theater Riot (Consumerism) Management threatened to raise ticket prices 1749 Haymarket Theater Riot (Nationalism) Englishmen riot when French actors introduced onstage 1809 Old Price Riot (Nationalism) lasted 65 days Italian actors on an English stage 1825 The Edmund Kean Riot (Nationalism) British actor on American stage 1834 The William Farren Riot (Nationalism) British manager fires American actor on American stage 1848 Monte Cristo Riot (Nationalism) -The Negative Side- French actors on an English stage 1849 The Astor Place Riot (Nationalism) 23 dead & 100 wounded Called for replacement on British actor by American actor 1907 Abbey Theater Riot (Nationalism) Irish considered plays derogatory representations of them 1970 Peacock Theater Riot (Nationalism) Irish nationalists protested the portrayal of nationalism in a satirical drama

10 Affects of Audience on Theatre Experience 1. Group Make-up Varies from: Event to event Performance to performance Venue to venue

11 Affects of Audience on Theatre Experience Factors affecting Group Make-up Our relationship to those around us strongly influence our response to the total event Commonality Among friends or people with like minds we feel relaxed/receptive Differentiation Among strangers or those unlike us we feel alienated/estranged

12 Affects of Audience on Theatre Experience 2. Outside Events World Events SARS Royal Family National Events Presidential Elections 9/11

13 Affects of Audience on Theatre Experience 3. Audience Involvement Aesthetic Distance Spectator Observing Performer Participating

14 AUDIENCE INVOLVEMENT PARTICIPATORY THEATRE = Theatre as a means to another end Performers not actors No written script to follow Emphasis on education/personal development/ therapy

therapist Drama Therapy incorporates theatrical techniques to rehabilitate people

15 Types of Participatory Theatre Sociodrama role reversal explores attitudes & prejudices Psychodrama like sociodrama, but more private & interpersonal Trained therapist Drama Therapy incorporates theatrical techniques to rehabilitate people Creative Drama drama used to teach in K-12 schools e.g. students act out the parts in a history lesson

16 AUDIENCE INVOLVEMENT OBSERVED THEATRE audience participates vicariously or emphatically with what is happening on stage Empathy experience of mentally entering into the feeling or spirit of another person participation thru imagination while separated from the act

17 AUDIENCE IMAGINATION The active audience: Senses the presence of the other audience members Observes movements & gestures of performers Hears words spoken by performers Sees costumes, scenery & lighting From this, we form mental images or make imaginative connections which provoke joy, laughter, anger, sorrow, or pain.

18 AUDIENCE IMAGINATION ILLUSION = something that deceives or misleads intellectually Illusion is initiated by the creators of theatre, but completed by the audience.

19 AUDIENCE IMAGINATION Our imagination allows us to conceive of people & events we have never seen or experienced & to transcend our physical circumstances to the point where we forget who we are, where we are, or what time it is. Willing Suspension of Disbelief

20 Tools of the Imagination Symbols = something that stands for or suggests something else by reason of relationship, association, convention, or accidental resemblance Types of symbols Road signs Trademarks/logos Flags Language Audible Sounds

21 @ Symbols & +

22 Tools of the Imagination Metaphors = a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them

23 Metaphors

24 The Reality of the Imagination Though not real in the literal sense, theatre can be completely even painfully real in an emotional or intellectual sense.

25 The Reality of the Imagination Theatre like dreams or fantasies by probing deep into the psyche to reveal inner truths, they can be more real than outward reality. -- Harold Clurman, critic & director

26 AUDIENCE EXPECTATIONS When an audience attends an event, we bring more than our presence & imagination, we bring a background of personal knowledge and a set of expectations (our baggage) that shape our theatre experience.

27 INDIVIDUAL BACKGROUND Our personal memories & experiences. Emotional scars Private fantasies Our awareness of the social, political, & philosophical world in which the play was written or produced.

28 INDIVIDUAL EXPECTATIONS What we anticipate will happen at the performance by: What we know of the play What we know of the playwright What we know of the producing company

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