your participation please
Today I came across a fantastic conversation on WNYC's Culturist blog about audience behavior at performances (started by Claudia La Rocco - read it here) and after adding my two cents, it got me to thinking about the audience experience at Seen Performance's last show, on the other side of the glass plate, she wore nothing and now I'm really curious...
In the opening segment you, the audience, work together with your fellow show-goers, be they strangers or friends, to build the set, assembling parts by following rules not always so obvious and by communal trial-and-error. An activity (oh that dreaded audience participation!) that really seemed to be causing fun. (Or was it the beers they sell at Dixon Place?)
During the second portion of the performance, your primary point of participationn was through watching (which stimulates ideas, I hope!) - the "visceral" in the piece won't make you want to jump out of your seat and dance along.
How did the first part of the night open up your engagement with the quiet and repetitious hour that followed?
In the opening segment you, the audience, work together with your fellow show-goers, be they strangers or friends, to build the set, assembling parts by following rules not always so obvious and by communal trial-and-error. An activity (oh that dreaded audience participation!) that really seemed to be causing fun. (Or was it the beers they sell at Dixon Place?)
During the second portion of the performance, your primary point of participationn was through watching (which stimulates ideas, I hope!) - the "visceral" in the piece won't make you want to jump out of your seat and dance along.
How did the first part of the night open up your engagement with the quiet and repetitious hour that followed?
2 Comments:
I just love the idea of it. It feels right.
thanks, boris! It felt right to me too. I am most intrigued by the audience "participation" in this piece --the rest of it seems to be there almost simply to provide contrast, but a contrast that will make us think of watching as a more participatory action itself.
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