Research Notes, Semester 2: January (A)

Research Project Meeting 1

Audience reaction based on background

Classical Theatre:

Do audiences need particular education or background to "Get" classical theatre? It used to be for the people.

Baz Luhrman: Bringing people into Shakespeare, or bringing people into action movies with a Shakey twist?

Are we constantly developing Shakespeare, adapting it to relate to people?

In-Yer-Face: no escape if you're surrounded by the show, you can't avoid being involved. You can't check out. Trapped. Punch Drunk: very involved, actors touch you, feel like you're part of the show.

Average Theatre-goer vs Practitioner theatre-goer?

There should always be something in the show that keeps your attention which is Relevant to the Intended Experience.

What is the story behind clapping? Do we do so because we think we should or because we genuinely appreciated the show? How does this relate to the Forest Fringe donation scheme, whereby the audience is asked to give as much money at the end of the show as they think the performance was worth? Does that make audiences more honest? Is it more accurate than applause?

Wanting to Be Here makes the experience more enriching. Feel the dynamic of the area, not just the academic landscape.

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Creating Stuff: What is the discrepancy between focusing on the process versus the product? Process without product...disappointing? Unfulfilling.

Street Clowns in Mexico--theatre of not being noticed.

The Ethics of Stepping into People's Lives (we should run away from this topic!)

I'm just going to go there and do it--what ever happens, happens. In applied theatre, baseline probable reaction goes out the window. There is no common ground--you're dealing with the mentally disturbed, prisoners, the poor, children, the theatrically disinclined...

What are our strengths/focal areas?
--working with disadvantaged groups
--immersive theatre
--classical theatre, Shakespeare for everyone
--Hamlet in Tower Hamlets
--Seek patterns of interest within a practical framework
--Concept of Hope: introduction in to the high theatre experience?
--Transformational theatre: materiality transforms performer and audience at the same time
--The Transformative Power of Performance: Maria Brenointch: Boa Constrictors (?)

Blast Theory: games as theatre? Do we even call it theatre anymore?
Sally Mackey: Thea Care Lian Trilogy: Site-Specific, how do you go back to your project after you've had a year to grow and change?
-Reception based on culture: if you know snakes, would you jump onstage to help Maria? Do you analyze with more depth? Does that inhibit self-expression?

If you have to plant a tree of study, where do you put it in relation to everyone's starting point?
(study one specific reaction to one specific stimulus in a variety of communities. But what's the control group?)

Why does theatre make you cry?
Filming the audience opens a whole new can of worms: how do they behave if they know they're being watched?

Difference between Reaction and Perception: ensure you focus on one and avoid language which could stimulate crossover. Identify "key concepts" which the subject typically suggests and establish straight-away whether or not you'll be addressing them in this instance.
(Make sure other people hear your idea before you choose to study it)

How do we get the Same reaction in different communities?
Can we create a universal language or effect can impact everyone the same way?
Different audience reactions to the same stimulus?

(We must acknowledge that there is no universal effect, no universal reaction)

What about "two girls/one cup": same idea of varying reactions to the same stimulus. add music, different forms: classical vs grunge-core music...vs silence.

People's reactions to naked human form?

Willing vs unwilling audience? Changes intensity of reaction, direction of reaction...

Aesop's fables: ubiquitous? actual universal themes: tyrants will always justify their tyranny, honesty triumphs over corruption...
Before/After: Can we find universality? Reaction study. Use one specific example.

Sudden reflexive reactions: valid? Not really.
Most Dangerous: US serial, real events when people die or get badly injured.

Find an effect that encourages Engagement rather than Escape. Effect that encourages participation rather than simple revulsion or flight reflexes.
Contrast what you see on faces against what participants say they felt.

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Dang, the game has changed: more and more people are studying audiences than in the past few weeks. We are all acknowledging the role of the audience in understanding: the show is the impact of the piece on the audience in the context of their minds, their collective set of experiences. The show is in the interpretation.

The Metaphysical Shiver: (Taghrid?)

-Alienation through raising awareness. (can i fit this in?)

The attempt to identify problems to the general public. How does this impact people who just don't want to engage?

Claire: On MAATP 9 years ago, found it a time to disprove her own theories.
6 Core emotions at the heart of neurology that are recognizable across all cultures.
Duncan: playwright: command a sense of attention. How do you dictate specific types of attention? different ways of achieving it? Process does not dictate success.

Abstraction complicates things: truth is the most relevant.

What are the 10 things I want right now? (in 30 seconds)
Feminine Equality, Safety/Liberty, warmth/comfort, cleanliness, freedom from vermin, personal space, good food, friends, Ben, family.

(Funny those came out in a weird order, didn't they? Edit in hindsight, not in the process: find the sudden, uncensored self.)

What are 10 things I'm upset about right now? (in 30 seconds)
America, mindless entertainment, my tendency to sleep all day, my tendency to rant, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Chinese manufacturing takeover, travel and privacy infringement under the guise of safety, paranoia culture, institutionalized hatred

Theatre is what happens when an unstoppable force meets an unmovable object. (really? are you suggesting that the space between a rock and a hard place is filled with complaints?)

the power of pulling unpleasant information out of an audience: asking for secrets--what gives you the right to ask? Why are people complicit? Moreover, why am I complicit? In toda's study we have been the "Them" in the theatre: the recipients of the experience. the Audience.

Standaway Dance: IRA Bombings. Incredibly offensive play, groundbreaking.
Seven Jewish Children
Stockwell: Controversial, poorly researched dramatization of Brazilian man shot by police on the tube after 7/7

Non-Theatre audience: no clue-ers
Teenagers (Adrian) A-level age, East Londoners, 2nd generation British, no background in experimental theatre
Club Crowd @ Proud

Logistics:
Permission forms from parents for public display of kids' interviews, group audience filming.

Smart kids from rough neighborhoods, capable and talented kids from poverty
Tight communities: people who'd rather be poor than work for a stranger, or for a regular paycheck for helping achieve someone else's goals. Difficult to gather like-minded people without a name or a reputation.

What kind of show do we want to put on? Something enjoyable for both kids and adults?

(Ignorant audiences of theatre rarely express opinions, even if they have them, whereas everyone has an opinion about film, even if they don't know what went into it. Because people are used to the format. In theatre people are more likely to assume that they just don't get it. )

Do stories have to include some element of hope?
Are we studying gut reactions or thoughts over time?
Clowning: Effect without Content. Your audience should not be trying to intellectualize your actions or intent. How do clowns relate to kids vs adults?

Moments of universality:
Are they useful? DO we Want moments that Everyone can relate to? Is that too Hollywood?

Concept of Universality: assumption that on some level you can please everyone. Fascist?

Audience Research:

Why do you respond the way you do?
Visual/Physical/Sound based (Not Text!)

Movement: A universal language? (what about the blind?)

Sweeping generalizations about everyone: Imperial mindset. There is no one essential truth.
Postmodernism: Introductory material: Derrida

Theatre and Universality
Hans Lehmann: Post-Dramatic Theatre
Patrice Pavis

What are the possibilities and problematics of universality?
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Laban: universality of movements: big moments in life, birth, death, eating, excreting, sleeping and waking. Relationship of universality to movement/theatre/multiculturalism
gesture reactions cross-cultural audience
study of gesture in painting?
what is my culture?
American culture may be too big an undertaking.