Are you a non-applauder? — Page 3

I think applause may be roughly compared to tipping: unless you are physically impaired then some minimal response should be considered obligatory.

This.

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I comprehend and am sympathetic to both sides but also can't help noticing one of the sides' focusing on the wrong point.

The comparisons to tipping; the claims that it's an issue of respect; the comments on audience appreciation being a powerful motivating factor for performers; and especially, the assertion that theatre is a communal and interactive experience all speak truths.

But I'm afraid those who admit to being 'non-applauders' are taken as admitting they lack basic courtesy and don't have respect when it's likely they're complete opposite.

With that, I don't think it's right to assume no applause equals whatever no applause means to you. It's a gray area as far as what motivations and intentions are involved. Nobody is claiming that they absolutely REFUSE to applaud as some sort of statement. Most of us are just saying we don't follow the more "programmed" on-cue moments of applause and not defiantly either. I know I don't fall into it because I just don't feel it. Does that mean I ever force myself not to clap because I don't believe in it? No way. If I feel it, and I do often, I put my hands together without a second thought.

The end of a song, a silent moment after a number, a star entrance, a star exit, a WoW visual effect, and so on doesn't usually cause me to applaud, sometimes for completely different reasons, like being so engaged, I literally 'forget' to.

As for common courtesy and respect, I suggest not to waste your time focusing on it. I doubt anyone doesn't applaud because they are complete jerks. People who actually know me will tell you I am almost TOO polite and courteous that it can sometimes be annoying.

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My Oh My, I am only focussed on this subject for the sake of discussion. It isn't something I worry about when I'm actually in the theater.

And I do believe the posts of those who say they don't applaud in the middle of shows because they are concentrating. I have to admit that I almost never applaud a set; it's not that I don't appreciate good set design, but the set can't "hear" the applause and the relationship between viewer and set seems fundamentally different than that between viewer and performer.

The problem is that--exception for certain, very grave scenes--the performers have no way of knowing they are greeted with silence because spectators are "concentrating". So the process by which an audience literally funnels energy back to the cast is interrupted, however respectful the non-applauders may feel inside their own minds. (There's a reason sports teams prefer the "home field advantage".)

It's as if (warning: another strained analogy ahead) you and I are dating and I decide not to tell you "I love you" because I'm too busy "feeling the emotion" or I don't want to cheapen the words by wearing them out. I figure I'll just wait until our wedding vows or something. I think we all know how those relationships usually end...

Updated On: 5/10/12 at 10:43 PM

The only time I pay attention is when I've brought friends or family to a show based on my recommendation and hope that they enjoy - or at least appreciate - my selection. I was very trepidatious bringing some of my friends to Follies because I didn't think they'd truly understand why I love it so much, after the fact that I hyped it as my favorite musical.

This is an interesting discussion which I would have never thought to ponder otherwise. I tend to experience live theater in a completely reversed manner than what has been described in this thread.

While I am immersed in a show, the applause at the ends of songs or at funny lines or character entrances is a part of the experience and only heightens my involvement. Conversely, I often feel very quiet and reflective after seeing a performance, and a protracted curtain call jars me out of my reverie and back into the real world where we actively recognize the artifice of the event.

I'd say that I'm a much more engaged audience member during a performance, but much more reposed during the bows. It usually takes me an hour or so to come back out of a show if I've really enjoyed it.

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There is nothing like a gam

"As a performer, I can absolutely attest to the impact applause from the audience has on the performers on stage."

As an audience goer, I can absolutely attest to the impact bad performances occur more often than not and an audience is not there to "make you feel good".

As a performer, if you're not getting the kind of applause you think you deserve, you're either in a rotten show or you're just rotten. You don't deserve ANYTHING other than your paycheck. You don't deserve reassurance that you're talented unless you deserve it. If an audience's light response to your work affects your performance in ANY other way than making you try harder to be more talented, you're in the wrong business.

An audience doesn't owe a performer a thing.

I certainly applaud with more effort when the show is exceptional so makes sense to me that I withhold all applause if I really do not like the show.

I seldom applaud spontaneously, but I definitely don't
"withhold" applause either. I applaud when I feel like it. It isn't something I consciously think about. I will usually applaud politely and briefly if others are, but unless I am compelled by a performance to spring to my feet, I never give a standing ovation.

I think that applause at the end of a performance is customary, and somewhat obligatory, like tipping, as previously mentioned.

I think that standing ovations, on the whole, are not. I often hate giving standing ovations when I am not moved.

If i may shift the topic slightly, entrance applause is another thing - I have a friend that HATES HATES HATES entrance applause. However, I think that with a proper "star entrance", entrance applause can feel very natural, particularly in musical comedy - as in Gypsy, Dreamgirls (a brilliant triple-star entrance) and Young Frankenstein, which mediocre as it was, had some of the best star entrances ever.

Entrance applause is a weird thing that varies in its appropriateness - either the play/musical is not holding our attention, and we applaud the "star" outside the world of the play, or we are having such fun, that when the fun builds to an even greater level with the entrance of someone we love, we applaud to show that we are in the world of the play. Interestingly enough, Nathan Lane was given a big "star entrance" in the Goodman's "Iceman Cometh", throwing bills in the air, doing a grapevine across the stage, throwing bills into the air, while the rest of the cast cheered his entrance - but the audience was SO enraptured in the world of the play and in the anticipation of this character that there was NO entrance applause, which in this case, was very fitting. But with, say, Sherie Rene Scott's entrance in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" - you can't help but to applaud. The show has been fun and silly, and she enters on a laugh line - simply an awesome star entrance that the applause that follows only deepens the world of the play. It's an interesting phenom.

Going back through the thread, I saw the Joel Grey story - that is presumptuous, because honestly, he is not given a "star entrance" in Wicked (because, lo and behold, he is not the star). And in that essence, it becomes a weird thing...do you? do you not?

I also have thoughts on laughing and the holding back of doing so, but that's another thread.

Updated On: 5/12/12 at 12:23 AM

I don't clap during a show. Im usually contemplating what I just witnessed. What I find most annoying is when people fly out of there seats for a standing ovation even before the first actor comes out for a bow. Standing ovations mean absolutely nothing anymore.

There have been times I have witnessed and joined in a standing ovation after a in show number. Like the final performance of Caroline or change after lots wife. Or after freedoms child at the last civil war performance.

END OF THE RAINBOW does seem to pose some interesting issues. You get a sort of "double reality" anytime a show includes an on-stage performance; but when that performance is deliberately bad, then the spectator has to choose between applauding the "performance" or the performance of the "performance". I don't think there's an easy answer.

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Further, I don't think a standing ovation is ever mandatory, but often one has no choice if one wants to see the rest of the curtain call.

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"As an audience goer, I can absolutely attest to the impact bad performances occur more often than not and an audience is not there to "make you feel good"."

Frankly, I'm surprised at some of the hostility toward performers evidenced in this thread. Unless it's your kid in the school play, nobody MAKES you go to the theater. i don't know why you bother if you walk in the door already annoyed with the entertainers.

In fact, if you're such a bitter Betty that it's a chore to acknowledge people for a job well done, I don't know why you go out at all. Not when you can stay home and bitch on message boards.

Updated On: 5/12/12 at 04:36 PM

Kick lines get applause because people are used to hearing applause from every kick line on television since the 1960s. Applause machines most likely.

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