Lovers
I am a firm believer that the audience is the major part of a production. Audience participation and even what the audience takes from the show is what determines how the show has gone.Each member of the audience takes from the show different views, different thoughts, and even different memories. For example, when talking in class about Lovers it was discovered that I remembered different aspects from the show than Robbie and Lauren. I remembered it was said that Mag and Joe were buried in the same cemetery, but I didn’t remember that they were buried on separate plots. This could be because at that particular moment I wasn’t paying attention, or I had been distracted by the lights or something from off stage, which wouldn’t be anything new, or I just didn’t comprehend what had just been said. There are dozens of reasons why two audience members will remember two different pieces of information about the show.
Another key thing about audience participation is the laughing or clapping within the show that may throw off the actors. Ann Nelson talked in class about it being different with the audience there because the audience laughed at parts that no one had ever really laughed at, or they wouldn’t laugh at parts that the actors had always thought were funny. This kind of interaction from the audience can completely change how a show is done. Going through weeks of rehearsal and doing the show hundreds of times makes the lines less affective, even boring for the actors. But this is the first time the audience has seen the show, so the actors need to make it real to the audience to keep them into it without giving away the ending. So if the audience laughs at a line, it is very hard to not break character because you haven’t laughed at that line in so long that hearing laughter makes you want to laugh with them. Or if the audience doesn’t laugh at a line that you thought was funny, then you work harder, raise the stakes, to get the laugh-lines across so the audience will catch on and react.
Plus, the audience makes it hard when you can see them in the first row, and all your friends are in the first row making faces. Just ask Ann; it can throw an actor off when you look up and see a friend making a strange face at you letting you know that they are there. The audience has a major role in making the show go a certain direction, and making the performance turn out great, or not so great.
posted by LilmissKS @ 8:28 AM
1 Comments:
I will agree that when Liz makes faces at you from the audience it is hard not to laugh. But at the same time, during rehearsals, no one ever really laughed because we had gotten so familiar with the text that it just wasn't funny anymore. Even when Kirk came to watch, there wasn't near the same amount of laughing as we experienced during the other performances. It really through me off the first night when people laughed when I wasn't expecting it. But at the same time, I feel it really helped the performance. The actors feed off the energy of the audience, the laughing and the oohing or whatever is done can really encourage a certain emotion or action. At the point where Joe says, "In fact, I think you are the stupidest person I ever met." On friday night, the audience responded with an... "ooohhhhh" and that in itself helped to make the characters reaction more angry, because not only was she offended but so was everyone else in the room. Any input and audience has can make or break a performance. For those of you who came on Saturday matinee, you know what I'm talking about, there was very little reaction from the audience and you could tell it was affecting us, there were pauses for laughs that didn't happen and we were having to conjure our own energy because we couldn't feed off the reactions of the audience. Well, that was a long example, but yeah.. the audience is a HUGE factor in how a performance goes.
Post a Comment
<< Home