The audience from Hell

Gordon wrote "This week I heard of the latest nightmare to hit the theatre – school kids in the front row." For some of us, this is nothing latest or new, really. Most of my performances have school kids in EVERY row. I've had kids who've been abysmal throughout the performance, and others who have been absolutely delightful to perform to. Yet often it's the 'nightmare' kids who've been my 'best' audiences, and the 'perfect' kids who've been the worst... For an audience's behaviour to be described as a 'nightmare' implies that there is a single approved 'non-nightmare' way to react when seeing theatre. I'm of the opinion that that is a vague and nebulous concept and if your hopes for a good theatre experience pin on getting this approved reaction from your audience, then you're setting yourself up to fail. If you are, rather, willing to see a multitude of reactions as 'right', and interesting, and something that your performance ought to respond to (theatre is a live interaction between performer and audience, after all), then it becomes much easier to deal with as you realise there are all sorts of situations across the spectrum and they are all unique and therefore can't be 'wrong'. I take it by 'schoolkids' you generally meant 'highschool age kids'. There are concessions to be made when the audience is really young schoolkids. They are often learning how to experience theatre, and boisterous or 'inappropriate' behaviour from young kids can often simply mean they're enjoying themselves immensely. So let's look at highschool examples: There are teachers who announce to their students that they 'expect' a particular standard of behaviour, that talking or giggling won't be tolerated, that they need to sit quietly and pay attention, etc. They want their students to demonstrate 'perfect' behaviour....and these are often audiences that feel DEAD to perform to. It's no longer an interaction between performer and audience, it's an interaction between teacher and students, who just happen to be watching performers. Any chance I get to prevent this little 'teacher talk' from happening before I do a performance, I always take and never regret. I always want to observe the audience's natural reaction, good or bad - not their fear of detention. And I want the opportunity to influence that reaction through my performance, not have it taken from me for the sake of 'our school's reputation for good behaviour'. Please, teachers, give them permission to react! If you have to judge their behaviour, do it afterwards. But in the vast majority of cases, they'll not be anywhere as disruptive to us as you imply they'll be. And then there are audiences who come in not intending to cooperate. They are probably there under duress, or simply because it's a chance to skip a maths class. They sit there with arms folded, sneering faces saying 'you can't impress me, this is going to be a waste of time'. Now, if I've come in with the wrong play for them, then I probably AM wasting their time. And that's our fault. But when we've chosen the right play, and produced and performed it with that audience in mind, then they suddenly become the absolute BEST audiences to perform to, because they are a challenge that we rise to. Starting with an audience that appears negative, and finishing with them enthused, attentive and impressed, is why I do theatre! There's a false sense of security given to performers by an audience that behaves 'politely'. An adult audience will usually sit quietly and pleasantly, even if they really don't like the show. The most you might get is a yawn or a fidget. It's not generally acceptable for them to express any disapproval, and because they've invested their own money in a ticket, there's an element of pride in not admitting they've possibly made a mistake of judgement...so they will hide any adverse reaction until they return to the anonymous security of their computer that night before you can discover what they really thought. An audience of schoolkids often has made no investment in the show whatsoever...it's been paid for by parents directly, or indirectly through school fees. And they don't care to hide any disapproval simply to be 'polite'. They'll talk amongst themselves, look out the window, play with mobile phones...and be the most honest audience you can perform to. Unlike adults who know 'how to behave', with kids you'll be immediately informed if you are engaging them, or if you're not. And if you're not engaging your audience as a performer, you have a bit to learn. Oh, and lastly - everything I've read in above posts, about good/bad behaviour from schoolkids (being disruptive, sending text messages, calling out, pulling faces, etc) I can apply to an exact same instance regarding an audience of adults. Admittedly, many of these performances have been in a pub or outdoor environment, meaning alcohol is often a factor...but not all. It means that 'poor' behaviour isn't a schoolkid trait. It's a human trait. Cheers, Craig ~<8>-/====\---------