One thing I have never ceased to be fascinated by is the audience; it’s varying size, how they are addressed and treated during the performance and what role they take. Being an audience member so much in the past year has refreshed my perspective on what is most exciting or rewarding as an audience member.
Have largely been obsessed with experimenting with small audience numbers or one-to-one performance during my time at The Other Way Works it was great to be reminded of the force and excitement that large audiences create. Watching Pina Bausch’s The Rite of Spring (which had a cast of 36 as well as audience of over 1,000) it was wonderful to feel the palpable fizzle of energy wave back through the audience to reach me. I think most people there were on the edge of their seats, and you could feel it.
At the same time there is still something remarkable about a performer making eye contact with you, and involving you personally in the moment. I enjoyed the points in The Other Way Works' recent show Black Tonic where, having watched the action unobserved, the audience member was then made involved by the performer making eye contact with them.
Maybe the closest I have seen to mixing these two worlds is Punchdrunk’s work, which usually has several points when the audience is directed to gather and to watch a dance or a final reckoning. The company usually tries to have one to one moments as well, but these are few and far between and most of the very large audience don’t get to take part in them. What I am interested in experimenting with is perhaps a guided version of this, with the audience traveling in small packs where individual interaction is possible, before converging with everyone for a performance designed to be viewed en masse. I will be looking to start experimenting with this in my Woods Project, coming up in September.