I performed a monologue yesterday (Easter Sunday) at my church for both morning services. The performance that the 11:00 audience received was decidedly different from that of the 8:15 audience. I did not intentionally give a different performance. The reason was not the later time, more awake, better fed or better feeling. The reason was simple: audience interaction. The audience in the 8:15 service was fully half the size of the 11:00 audience and less responsive to the text of the monologue. That response led to a more energized performance.

When you purchase a ticket (or receive it free) to a theatrical production, you have not paid your entire price of admission. The other part of that cost is your agreement to be an active participant in the production. No, we don't (usually) need the audience members to come on stage and take on a role. However, the concept of live theatre is that there is an interaction between the audience and performer. There is an unwritten contract: each party agrees to give energy to the other.

For those of you who have never appeared on stage in a live performance; be it theatre, music or other; I offer this insight. When a performer ascends to the stage in a live performance, he or she immediately begins to interact with the other performers on stage and the audience. The degree of that interaction with the audience depends in part on the closeness of the audience members. Sometimes theatrical lighting fixtures will make it impossible for actors to see all of the audience members but not always. However, nothing stands in the way of the performers taking audible cues from the audience. Appropriate applause, sighs, laughter and other audible sounds have a profound effect on a performers presentation of their character. You see, when performers re-create a character, it takes energy. They are placing themselves inside the head of that other person...reacting as they would react...speaking as they would speak...moving as they would move. When audible and visual cues are received from the audience, it transfers some of that energy back to the performers which, in turn, is used to further impact their re-creation of the character. Remember Conservation of Energy from your science class? That concept applies to theatre too. Positive energy: appropriate applause, laughter, sighs, crying, etc; produces positive effects. Negative energy: inappropriate applause, laughing at noticeable mistakes, inappropriate or loud talking, rustling candy wrappers, popping bubbles, etc; produce negative effects. A look inside the backstage world will yield large amounts of conversation about the audience: "Boy, this audience is dead", "This is a great audience, they're laughing at all the right times", etc.

So, in the words of my pastor, "how do we respond?" When you go into a live performance, remember that you can help control its success or failure. You contribute to the overall production. This is the critical difference between movies and television and live theatre...and also the reason many people don't like live theatre--i.e. they have to work too. This is also what sets apart rehearsals from performances for the actors. Thank you for your continued support (inside the theatre).