audience participation

The issue of audience participation came up at a dinner last week. There are different acceptable behaviours for different genre such as clapping at a difficult part in ballet or stamping your feet at the end of a particularly good orchestral performance. We were talking about theatre etiquette and it was mentioned how much performers enjoy township audiences as the people are more responsive. Audiences will wave, cheer, stand up and sing along. Very different from the traditional audience that stays seated and politely claps at the end or hopefully rises to its feet calling "encore". It reminds me of going to the theatre as a child in the UK where you would clap in time and sing along to a favourite song and really feel part of the performances. Now those are happy memories. Angela

theatre etiquette

Is it me? Or do some people not know how to behave in a theatre? Over the past four months we have seen people heckle the actors, arriving late and talking during a performance. The worst was someone arriving late, walking up to their seats in the front during a performance and then having a heated discussion about someone who was in their seat! Has anyone else found this. We need to respect the rest of the audience so that we all have an enjoyable experience. Angela

Bonhoeffer

We went to the last performance on Wednesday night at Motte Clique. It was really powerful and I want to read up more on the man. The highlight was talking to Peter Krummeck after the show - a fascinating man. He wanted to show that not everyone agreed with Hitler during that time as in anyother period of oppression there is resistance. We chatted to a man called Charlie who was a priest during this time and he related his experiences of being a priest in Nazi Germany - horrible. Angela