HowlRound: Outrage is contagious. A week or so ago, Don Aucoin decried “inappropriate” laughter in the Boston Globe, which I read because several of my Facebook friends were outraged enough to preempt their regularly-scheduled outrage at white-male programming in theatre seasons to repost his article in an effort to outrage people like me.
6 comments:
This is too broad to be binary. It can't be that all theater should either have a silent audience or a loud one. Comedy should certainly be producing some laughs right? A Disney show for children should be producing some sort of reaction from the audience. However to address this I think you have to consider that the audience is what is important. So if the vast majority of the audience wants to enjoy the show in peace than that's what you should be doing as an audience member (nothing). But I think in our society that probably only applies to very realistic dramas where you get sucked in. If I go to a comedy I am hopefully going to laugh and if I see a Disney on Broadway show I am going applaud with childish delight because that is what we are there for. At its heart theater is entertainment, it should audience centric, not artist centric.
I've seen a lot more articles about this topic show up recently, and I wonder why the surge in interest for audience behavior. These articles always support their claim for more animated, less restrained audiences with examples from the past of theater and performance, when spectators were expected to shout and laugh and interrupt. While no one now craves an unruly audience that supersedes the performance, a lot of theater artists are calling for a reinvention of what sitting in a theater should be like. There is a fear that this art form is getting stifled by its decorum, which may or may not be true, and that the way to save it is to encourage the audience to engage more. I think that overall, I agree with this movement, if only in the hope of making theater more approachable. I also agree with Isaac that it's not about one or the other, but simply allowing audiences to respond as they would like to certain pieces. I would like to see dramatic plays in silence, but love to laugh out loud during comedies.
Also, I just love this quote: "Any theatre that drew in enough Millennials to make a dent in the current demographic would have a bronzed bust of its Marketing Director in the lobby"
Hehe! Audiences have been obnoxious forever and see themselves at the center of all attention and importance. I love how this article articulates the awkward and scattered laughter that happens sometimes in a theatre: "[laughter] is by its nature a private response made suddenly, uncontrollably public." I laugh a lot at inappropriate times not because something is necesarrily a funny topic, but because the topic may be surprising or startling. I used to uncontrollably laugh while getting my blood drawn-- a lot of people I know would categorize that as innappropiate laughter! I also think that this entire snobby air of having to be "sophisticated" and "stiff" for attending events like theatre or cinema is ridiculous because like this article says, it puts it on a pedestal. It creates a class system and defeats one of the fundamental purposes of theatre and great art-- to bring people and their shared experiences together.
I read the referenced article, and I had to say I agree. Some of the most fun shows I have been to have been ones that rely heavily on audience participation verbally, or shows full of people who are not aquatinted well with the "rules" of theater. Because, as the author states, there are unspoken rules of theatre going. Of course, cell phones does not fall under this as it is explicitly stated. There is no reason to have a cell phone. But things such as waiting in the aisle until someone comes back, not laughing at certain parts? or others often irritate me. Theatre is an incredibly immersive experience. Theatre should not be treated as going to the opera or some other fancy event, it is a dialogue between an audience and an actor. And if the audience needs to express their side of the performance through laughter, that is what they do. The actors job is to take this response and further involve that member. And if the actor decides the appropriate response is to become angry the member did not respond the way they wanted them to, then maybe there is something about the performance that needs to be reevaluated.
I feel like sometimes we forget that part of what makes live theater "live" is not just the fact there are plenty of opportunities for us to screw up, but that we are just feet away from hundreds of people who we can't predict at all. The audience is part of the experience, for the actors, for the crew, and for the other people watching the show. We are all waiting to see what is going to be responded to at the same time. There are times when I go see shows, and no one laughs at anything, and while that doesn't necessarily mean that the audience isn't enjoying it, it can be soul crushing to the actors who had a roaring audience the night before. That being said, people have different opinions of what is appropriate. I saw a show once where an actor took off all of his clothes, and during that scene a member of the audience woohooed him. I was outraged, but then in the talk back the actor thanked who ever did it, because it was new. I hadn't even thought about that. Audiences are part of the experience, so loud or not lets just stop complaining about them, and accept them for what they are. We signed up for live theater, so lets focus on the work, and not how loud or soft the people clap for us.
Part of what makes theatre amazing is that it's all live. The live aspect of theatre is what makes it so magical, because it creates a connection between the performance and the audience that is unlike any other art form. As the performance is live, the audience reacts to it as it happens. In a way, the actors and the audience are performing simultaneously. The laughter or gasps or general vibe of an audience are part of what makes each performance special. One of the best experiences I've ever had in a theatre was due to the liveliness of the crowd, and the effect it had on the actors. I saw a performance of Peter and the Starcatcher on Broadway, and the audience was so incredibly spirited, laughing and clapping at the right moments, and the cast fed off that energy. You can't dictate the way an audience reacts to a piece, and those reactions are part of what makes theatre special.
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