THR 2011 Introduction to Theatre
Department of Theatre and Dance
markngma@appstate.edu


 


The Audience Plays It's Part
The Public Imagination

Imaginations Captured
             Group Psychology
                  Willing Suspension of Disbelief: The Imaginative Agreement
                    Coleridge
            Empathy and Emotional Connections
                        -sympathy
                        -empathy
            Dramatic Irony: Intellectual Connections
                        -foreshadowing
                        -mistaken identities
            Catharsis
                        -Antonin Artaud- "theatre of cruelty"
                        -grand guignol
            Aesthetic Distance
                        -orchestra
                        -psychological and physical distance Unities of Time, Place and Action
            Illusion of Reality
            Understanding the rules of the game

A Brief History of the Audience in the Theatre
            Active Audiences
                        -Crowd control
                  -outdoor theatres
                        -Greek
                        -Roman
                        -Medieval
            Accommodating Architecture
                -Medieval
                     -Elizabethan-groundlings, pennystinkers
                -Voltaire
                -Denis Diderot
                Audiences are Recognized
                    -prologues
                    -epilogues
                    -soliloquies
                    -direct address
                    -aside
                Actors and Their Public
                -claptrap
                    -contracts
                -professional clappers (claques)
                -applause sign
            Confrontation, Conflict and Riots
                     -smaller spaces , climate control , emotions , empathy
                     - responded violent, explosive
                     -French dancers , 1/2 price tickets, theplays
                -Astor Place Riot
                        -William Macready / Edwin Forrest
            Restoring Order
                        -Johann Goethe-philosopher
                        -pit renamed the orchestra
                        -continental seating
            The Audience in the Dark -Squire and Marie Bancroft
                        -chairs -numbered and reserved seats
                        -box set
                        -fourth wall convention
                        -realistic costumes, props and acting
                        -most important innovation was darkening the theatre
                                      -Illusion of a real place
                            -Invention of Gas Lighting
                            -Movies

     
Modern Audiences
            Audience Etiquette
            Golden Rules
            Nontraditional Roles for the Audience
                        -front of house
                        -Chicano theatre
                                    -actos
                        -audiences in traditional and nontraditional roles have more to do than observe and respond
                            passively
            Passing Judgment
                        -curtain call
            The Audience As Critics

The Audience at Work
            The Post Play Discussion Fallacy by Michael Bloom