CMU School of Drama


Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Yeah, What's The Deal With Clapping?

gizmodo.com: Sometimes I have an out of body moment where I see myself as an audience member and think about how dumb-looking the whole process is. You sit somewhere. You gape at something and don't monitor your facial expression because you assume no one is observing you, and then often, you clap. It's definitely a cultural tradition, but sometimes it just feels like an instinct. I sometimes find myself clapping at borderline inappropriate times seemingly because it's a reaction my body is volunteering to perform.

2 comments:

Carolyn Mazuca said...

Upon reflecting the idea of "digital clapping" or likes, I also envision those who clap when they laugh or when they get super excited all on their own. Maybe clapping is polite and a norm for the accepting of performances but maybe it also grows with us from babies to adults. Definitely an interesting reflection!

Unknown said...

Clapping is one of those weird aspects to theater that I'm not sure I fully understand. I get the idea of using it to judge audiences reactions to show (meaning they find something funny or are really enjoying a part). However, there are times when I think the applause can be disruptive to the show. For example if your watching a show like "Next to Normal" I would not want there to be applause after each song because it would really break up the show. What I mean by this is a good piece of theater (to me) will pull you out of the audience and put in the world of the show, and the constant applause would pull me back into the audience. The place for applause is at the end of the show at the curtain call because that is the time for the audience to tell production how much they enjoyed the show.