What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

#1

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/21/13 at 8:29pm

(If there's a thread on this already, I'll delete but I'm too lazy to search at the present moment)

What do you think about shows in which the actors need to talk directly to an audience member? I.e the first few scenes of Hair and the charades/Lazarus scenes in the recent Godspell.

As I stated in another thread it always gives me anxiety, which is kind of odd because I've acted in shows before...

Anyway, what do you guys think about it? Fun or uncomfortable?

#2

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/21/13 at 8:38pm

It's quite common. Into The Woods and The Drowsy Chaperone immediately come to mind.

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"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg." -- Thomas Jefferson

#3

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/21/13 at 8:55pm

If done well, it works. I saw a production of Guys and Dolls where the BEST moment was when Adelaide came out and talked to audience members. However, if you watch the Tony Awards where Godspell went into the audience... it was uncomfortable.

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"Nice is different than good."

#4

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/21/13 at 8:58pm

IMO, I only like it if the show is for kids around Pre-School through 2nd Grade age. It is fun for the kids, but adults not so much.

#5

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/21/13 at 9:03pm

Love it


Link

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If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.

#6

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/21/13 at 9:05pm

I always encourage that kind.

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"Nice is different than good."

#7

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/21/13 at 9:07pm

I hate it. I paid good money to sit and watch and those actors are being paid to entertain me. Don't make me do your job!

#8

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/21/13 at 10:14pm

I remeber as a kid that used to scare me. I remember being really scared in a performance of the Lion King. Now I actually love seeing it, and use it frequently when directing, however as an actor I feel really uncomfortable doing it.

#9

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/21/13 at 10:20pm

Depends. It felt forced to me at Hair. Fun in Drood.

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"Through The Sacrifice You Made, We Can't Believe The Price You Paid..For Love!"

#10

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/21/13 at 10:23pm

And keep the actors out of the audience. God. I didn't pay a hundred dollars to have the fourth wall come crashing down around my ears. I just want a story, and a few good songs that will take me away. I just want to be entertained. I mean, isn't that the point?

---The Drowsy Chaperone

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"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."

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blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22

#11

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/21/13 at 10:30pm

Always worth sharing the greatest piece of writing about this ever.
THE ONION: Oh No, Performers Coming Into Audience

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Words don't deserve that kind of malarkey. They're innocent, neutral, precise, standing for this, describing that, meaning the other, so if you look after them you can build bridges across incomprehension and chaos. But when they get their corners knocked off, they're no good anymore…I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.

#12

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/21/13 at 10:41pm

I thought that the cast's interaction with the audience during GODSPELL was extremely effective. It was just another way that the show reached out to people and made them FEEL the presence of a Living God.

Long Live God!

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"Long live God!" (GODSPELL)

#13

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/21/13 at 10:41pm

That Onion article is perfect.

Updated On: 3/21/13 at 10:41 PM

#14

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/21/13 at 10:43pm

....as long as we're talking about Cheyenne Jackson. : ) from RC in Austin,Texas

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"Noel [Coward] and I were in Paris once. Adjoining rooms, of course. One night, I felt mischievous, so I knocked on Noel's door, and he asked, 'Who is it?' I lowered my voice and said 'Hotel detective. Have you got a gentleman in your room?' He answered, 'Just a minute, I'll ask him.'" (Beatrice Lillie)

#15

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/21/13 at 10:50pm

It's all about timing. In general, I'd say no, thank you.
Done well

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"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.” ~ Muhammad Ali

#16

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/21/13 at 11:09pm

It's a centuries old tradition, done quite often in Shakespeare plays. The theaters were designed for it. In those times the audience got so much into the performances that they sometimes got on stage and had to be forced down. They were even fights involved as the audience developed such a hatred for the villains that they tried to take justice in their hands.

I don't think it should be taken to those extremes today, but I really love the idea of metaforically expanding the stage into the audience.

#17

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/21/13 at 11:34pm

I seen enough self-consciously avant guard theater that I've mostly gotten used to it, but I'm not a fan.

When the cast engages the audience as a whole, that's fine; but when individuals are singled out, I feel it's like a practical joke. The actors have rehearsed, know what to say and do, and what will happen. The audience member is left to guess.

That being said, I was once singled out as the "go to audience stooge" by the Reduced Shakespeare Company. I ended up impaled on a sword and covered with imaginary vomit, and finally had to run up and down the aisle representing "Juliet's id". I decided to surrender to the device and had a great time.

#18

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/21/13 at 11:37pm

As an actor? I hated it. As an audience member? I hate it. (Addressing the audience is one thing, making me participate is another.)

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If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it? These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.

#19

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/21/13 at 11:45pm

What about the other way around?I had never experienced that before seeing a performance of Dreamgirls and I THINK Your arms too short to box with God?. I got such a fright when audience members started shouting back at the singers.I sort of understand that now,but I have never yelled at players on a football field telling them what to do--maybe I am just too timid.For some reason I am ALWAYS the poor sucker they try to drag up on stage-must be the terrified look I have when they go looking for a 'volunteer'.A clown in a Cirque show once gave me the finger when I refused.Actors can hide behind the mask of a character-an audience member has nowhere to hide.

#20

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/22/13 at 12:14am

I usually hate it and find it lame/cheesy, but I liked how they did it at Drood. Especially before the show when the cast mingles with the audience. It was fun and did not seem forced or awkward.

#21

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/22/13 at 9:05am

Loved it in "Drood." It felt very fun and natural to me.

GavestonPS, you are a good sport.

#22

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/22/13 at 9:53am

Can't stahd it.

I'm paying to watch, not participate.

#23

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/22/13 at 9:58am

Passing Strange made really good use of it.

#24

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/22/13 at 11:02am

Enjoyed it. During one part of Boy From Oz (a part where audience is usually involved), wife tossed a thong onto the stage (Aussie thong), Mr Allen (played by Hugh Jackman) put it on. Great fun for everyone.....

#25

What do you think of the cast interacting with the audience?

Posted: 3/22/13 at 11:48am

It depends on the show. In Spelling Bee and Drood, it is done really well.
But in other shows, it can seem like a children’s theater gimmick.

Not sure if this qualifies: In Cats, at intermission audience members could
go onstage into the junkyard and get Old Deuteronomy’s autograph. I always though
this odd. The whole point of not seeing the orchestra was for perspective; as if we were seeing a junkyard and the cats were in proportion to the set and props.
So to go onstage and get an autograph that the actor signed with his own name with
2 stagehands on either side was bizarre. Also when Tugger left the junkyard and
went into the audience during his song, and picked a lady to dance with, it was just uncomfortable to watch. Both times I saw it, the ladies were not into it at all. I cannot imagine the actors playing the parts liked it either.