200 Exciting Words Describing the Actor Audience Relationship in the Theatre

Here are 200 adjectives describing the actor audience relationship in the theatre.

Factors Affecting the Actor Audience Relationship

Staging

The modern-day proscenium arch stage is a form of end-on staging where the audience sits on one side of the performance space. This ultimately dictates those closest to the stage receive a very different treatment to those at the rear. Or, even worse, large theatres with a staggered audience on three or more levels, such as the stalls, dress circle and balcony. Try the Metropolitan Opera House at the Lincoln Centre, New York City, a proscenium arch stage where an audience of 3,794 people sit on six levels!

During the Renaissance in England, Shakespeare and others performed on a three-sided stage that pushed itself into the audience area, thus the name thrust stage. This enabled more people in the groundlings to be closer to the stage. Coupled with the expensive seats being one above the other on three levels and not staggered back, a large audience could sit within metres of the stage.

Less common is traverse staging, effectively a catwalk arrangement with the audience on two long sides of the performance space, akin to an NFL football game. This arrangement works until the performers are at the other end of the stage where some of the audience is seated, and then the action is a long distance away, not to mention some of the staging constraints.

Theatre in the round, or arena staging, places the audience on all four sides of the performance space. This intimate actor audience relationship allows a large audience to be seated near the stage. Still, disadvantages include the inability to have a set due to sightline issues and performers back to a section of the audience at any given time.

Seating

Many people forget that no matter the staging arrangement, each person in the audience has a different seat, a different view, and thus a different experience. Sometimes, sitting too close to the stage can mean a visceral experience, but for many theatre shows, sitting too close can mean an over-stimulated experience that has a negative impact. From the stage, performers often thrive on large audiences, but no one can ignore the beauty of a small, intimate actor audience relationship in a cosy venue.

Style

Additionally, the style of performance can dictate the actor audience relationship. The sordid naturalism of an Anton Chekhov drama or the authentic realism of an Arthur Miller play can directly determine the relationship between performer and audience, no matter the staging arrangement. On the contrary, what Bertolt Brecht asked from his audience in 1930s Germany with his Epic dramas that constantly reminded the audience they were watching a play performed by paid actors on a stage was a different experience altogether.

Contemporary theatre often has characters breaking the fourth wall in many ways, including direct address, narration, and even walking into the audience space mid-performance. Did someone say rules? What rules? The theatre may be steeped in historical conventions, but contemporary theatre has no rules. It can be as eclectic and experimental as it likes while continuing to shift the ever-changing nature of the relationship between actor and audience.

Actor Audience Relationship Descriptions