SITTING ON STAGE.....WHY?

Sorry if this has been talked about before, but I couldn't find it...

What is the whole idea of selling the general theater going public seats on the stage?

I'm totally at a loss to come up with how in any way this is a good thing (unless of course, you are the one on the stage, I guess!) I mean, if I'm in the house seats, I would find it totally distracting to have extraneous movement on stage.

We've all read many posts about how poorly many people behave in the theater to begin with. Now they are being offered the opportunity to sit on the stage during the show?!?!?! WTF?

Aside from perhaps concert productions, I can't figure out why this is becoming a more talked about practice.

Any thoughts?

When did this start?
Do you like or dislike the whole idea?
When would it be a really bad idea?
Is it greed on the producers part?
Do you think it fires up the actors or serves as a distraction?

Just curious what everyone else thinks...and I know this is the place to gather opinions!

Thanks!

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Updated On: 5/23/07 at 11:21 AM

It's been around as far back as the original production of Equus in the 1970s. Personally, I can't stand it, but I can understand why some would find it thrilling to sit on stage and (indirectly) be part of the action.

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It's a wonderful idea. It furthers the idea of the Ground, that a performance is about more than just the performers, it's about the space and the audience, they are all a part of how the performance goes, we're all in this together, as it were.

It's a fairly old idea, pick up the book Musicking and there's a lot about the ground in there. I think it adds a wonderful sense of vitality.

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eughh...I think it works for Spring Awakening and every time I've seen in the audience I don't find the people onstage THAT distracting but that being said when i sat on stage last Friday I really didn't like it. You ended up watching/sort of being part of a performance rather than watching the show. I was glad that I sat onstage but I would never want my first experience with the show to be onstage and I don't think I'll sit onstage again. It was cool to have them be so close (although when Lea Michele practically jumped ontop of me during Touch Me it was a bit uncomfortably close and I really didn't know where or how to look) but like I said you end up watching the ACTORS perform almost like you're getting a backstage pass. I found it hard to engage in the storyling but I was fine because I've seen it so many times. I think that if it works for the show than do it but other than that leave it be. I can't comment on Inherit the Wind but I think that it works for SA.

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I think you have to look at it show by show.

I have only seen it in the case of SA. The onstage folks are mostly in shadows, except for some light spill. I think it's fairly successful at creating the idea of a smaller more intimate playing space inside a larger house. And it's not a traditional show. However, I can't imagine it working at, say, Inherit the Wind, but maybe it does. In the case of Xanadu, the whole thing sounds like it is played for laughs and camp, with thde 4th wall knockecd down, so an onstage audience would definitely work in that vein.

I saw the original Tony award winning Broadway production of EQUUS(1975) four times, each with a different leading actor: Anthony Hopkins, Anthony Perkins, Richard Burton, and one other that I can't remember. It was fascinating to see the different take that each actor brought to the role. But to the point of this thread: I don't recall any on-stage seating for EQUUS. Personally, I hate the idea--I wouldn't want to sit on the stage and I wouldn't want to see others sitting on the stage. Period.

Isn't EQUUS coming to Broadway next season?

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Updated On: 5/23/07 at 12:58 PM

So what are your thoughts on arena and thrust seating? I think putting audience onstage is just an attempt to create these kinds of theatre settings. I suspect it is jarring for those who aren't used to arena or thrust theatre.

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I don't like the ideal either. I hope they do away with it for the Spring Awakening tour. People in the theater already act like idiots, I would hate to see them on stage doing something stupid or distracting. Plus if your onstage how can you start to leave during curtain call??

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The Boy from Ohio- I have seen both Spring Awakening & Inherit the Wind this season and from my observation. Those folks sitting onstage have to wait till the show is completely done (during curtain call) before leaving the stage (there is actually a stairs for them to go up and down the stage , on the front of the first row at stage right & left) and they have to be onstage 10 mins before the show starts. When I saw Spring Awakening, all the people were already there on stage before the cast came out for the "Mama Who Bore Me: number-and the only empty ones were the seats for the cast .

I was wonderin' if those people onstage starts singing with the cast in Spring Awakening numbers. Would that be soo funny !- J*

With the onstage seats, if you show up late at SA,,you aren't admitted to your seat until affter intermission.. for obvious reasons.

First of all, I don't see an issue with a show having onstage seats if it is an ARTISTIC choice and not a 'gimmick because everyone does it' choice. It's no different than seeing a show in the round.

second of all, as a member of the onstage audience at SA, which is where I sat the first time I saw it, you aren't WATCHING the show.. you are literally experiencing the show... which, frankly, would be similar to sitting in standard house seats and being extremely attentive.. you EXPERIENCE it.

...and I don't understand why a green witch flying on a broom is so popular! WHY, WHY, WHY???

I have the script for Equus right here, and the playwright does indeed call for onstage seating. I am too lazy to type out what is says. Maybe later.

Gypsy: Maybe they didn't use the onstage seating for that producton of Equus. Even if it's indicated on the script, they may have chosen not to...