AUDIENCE AS PARTICIPANTS

In this performance, we want the audience to be participants; to be a part of what they are watching – not physically but emotionally. I believe it is important to relate and appeal to the audience when performing, as if they cannot connect with the play, it’s not going to have an effect on them, and it won’t prompt questions within themselves, or between friends and family.

Yet, transforming the audience into participants reminds me of the late Brazilian theatre practitioner, director and performer Augusto Boal, the creator of the Theatre of the Oppressed, and his theory of having the audience as ‘spect-actors’. He created shows and exercises to fully immerse the audience in the show – both physically and emotionally.

Within Theatre of Oppressed are many sub-topics and trails leading to other areas, but here are some of the main exercises and games Boal has developed to help people connect, unearth and discuss important social issues:

• Forum theatre is an improvisation which at a moment of crisis, the audience stops the play, vocalises how to solve the problem and someone must jump into the scene and produce that idea in the situation.
• Image theatre involves a succession of exercises which are meant to probe and discover the truths in society and cultures through freeze frames. The actors then physically create still images focusing on thoughts and feelings, true life experiences, or oppressions. The group decides on a theme, and then are free to mould and change the image created in front of them.
• Invisible theatre is a rehearsed play performed to the public, without them knowing watch they are participating in is theatre. A topic of general interest is chosen to observe how society reacts to heated debate, and what they thoughts are, or whilst seeing a confrontation/ situation take place before them; how they respond.

I find Boal’s practices very interesting, and completely necessary, as I feel by exploring the different thoughts and opinions on social and political issues, it broadens how you think about those issues, and how you can cause change within areas of damage.

So, in this sense, we want the audience to be participants; fully immersed in the play; interacting with it. Definition of participant:

1. To be active or involved in something; take part: participated in the festivities.

2. To share in something: If only I could participate in your good fortune. (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/participates)

I think it’s an interesting idea to call the audience participants as they are sitting down and never physically or verbally contribute to the play. However, they do contribute by partaking in the atmospheres we are going to create through reciprocating, and passing on the feeling, and being emotionally moved by the art through the subconscious influence on their mirror neurons. It is our job as a congregation of actors to bridge the space between us and them.

Definition of congregation:

1. (Ecclesiastical Terms) a group of persons gathered for worship, prayer, etc, esp in a church or chapel

2. the act of congregating or collecting together

3. a group of people, objects, etc, collected together; assemblage

4. (Ecclesiastical Terms) the group of persons habitually attending a given church, chapel, etc

5. (Roman Catholic Church) RC Church

a. a society of persons who follow a common rule of life but who are bound only by simple vows

b. Also called: dicastery an administrative subdivision of the papal curia

c. an administrative committee of bishops for arranging the business of a general council

6. (Education) Brit an assembly of senior members of a university

(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/congregation)