Will you PLEASE be quiet??!!
Mon, 26 Aug 2002, 09:26 amLeah Maher32 posts in thread
Will you PLEASE be quiet??!!
Mon, 26 Aug 2002, 09:26 amHey kids,
Not wanting to take attention away from the interesting three way romance developing in the "Reviewers in the Missed" thread, an interesting point has been raised way down there in the Reviews forum; what do you do about noisy audience members?
The amazing Mr Kelso in the equally amazing Copenhagen at the Octogon very recently apparently employed the simple break of character and "Would you please be quiet, the rest of the audience is tying to listen." before returning to character and picking up from where he had been so rudely interupted.
Is this the best way to go about it? Or should you just ignore it and hope it goes away? Or send a runner out in the interval to hunt down the culprits and have a quiet word? Or get the cast and crew together in the car park afterwards to make sure these inconsiderate audience members never bother another actor again?
Suggestions? Stories? Annecdotes?
Leah
Not wanting to take attention away from the interesting three way romance developing in the "Reviewers in the Missed" thread, an interesting point has been raised way down there in the Reviews forum; what do you do about noisy audience members?
The amazing Mr Kelso in the equally amazing Copenhagen at the Octogon very recently apparently employed the simple break of character and "Would you please be quiet, the rest of the audience is tying to listen." before returning to character and picking up from where he had been so rudely interupted.
Is this the best way to go about it? Or should you just ignore it and hope it goes away? Or send a runner out in the interval to hunt down the culprits and have a quiet word? Or get the cast and crew together in the car park afterwards to make sure these inconsiderate audience members never bother another actor again?
Suggestions? Stories? Annecdotes?
Leah
Re: How to be an audience member?
Wed, 28 Aug 2002, 04:47 pmWhilst I agree with the general sentiments expressed by Damian and previous writers, unfortunately I'm not so optimistic about the position of theatre performers / producers to demand audiences to behave better. There's one thing which people seem to be forgetting here - like it or not, the audience don't actually have to go to the theatre at all. Like any other consumer, if what we provide doesn't fit what they want, they won't go. It's that simple.
I remember only a couple of weeks ago, there was a debate on here where numerous persons bemoaned the lack of local support for theater and dwindling audience numbers. Well, if theatre is produced with an attitude of 'here's our product, here's the way we like doing it - please someone come and watch it', the problem of dwindling audiences isn't likely to improve. Personally, I think that if audiences no longer want to see theatre in the traditional sense (ie with manners), then you have to adapt what you are doing to accomodate that. Of course this may be understandably frustrating - and some people may well prefer to ignore the audience in favour of artistic fulfilment. In fact, there is nothing stopping that - anyone can give a 3 hour epic whilst demanding that the audience be well-behaved - in the silence of an empty theatre for a start. The moment we want to charge people to see it so we can make a living (read: business) out of it, we have to do what any other business does and think about what the audience wants.
You can't have things both ways (well, not in the one show at least) - if you don't want to give the audience what they want, that's fine, but you can't really complain if they go and do something else with their Saturday night. Maybe it's worth it, and we'd prefer to perform in the cirucmstances which we find most fulfilling - but if that's the case, then why are we constantly moaning about the lack of popular support?
Just a few thoughts,
Craig K Edwards
I remember only a couple of weeks ago, there was a debate on here where numerous persons bemoaned the lack of local support for theater and dwindling audience numbers. Well, if theatre is produced with an attitude of 'here's our product, here's the way we like doing it - please someone come and watch it', the problem of dwindling audiences isn't likely to improve. Personally, I think that if audiences no longer want to see theatre in the traditional sense (ie with manners), then you have to adapt what you are doing to accomodate that. Of course this may be understandably frustrating - and some people may well prefer to ignore the audience in favour of artistic fulfilment. In fact, there is nothing stopping that - anyone can give a 3 hour epic whilst demanding that the audience be well-behaved - in the silence of an empty theatre for a start. The moment we want to charge people to see it so we can make a living (read: business) out of it, we have to do what any other business does and think about what the audience wants.
You can't have things both ways (well, not in the one show at least) - if you don't want to give the audience what they want, that's fine, but you can't really complain if they go and do something else with their Saturday night. Maybe it's worth it, and we'd prefer to perform in the cirucmstances which we find most fulfilling - but if that's the case, then why are we constantly moaning about the lack of popular support?
Just a few thoughts,
Craig K Edwards
- ···
- ···
- ···
- ···
- ···
- ···