When visiting Quincy this weekend, we were talking about reinvigorating our audience bases. I began to think about what the word AUDIENCE means and its etymology. I thought about the word audience's synonym, spectator.
audience (definition from Online Etymology Dictionary © 2001 Douglas Harper, www.etymonline.com)
c.1374, "the action of hearing," from O.Fr. audience, from L. audentia "a hearing, listening," from audientum (nom. audiens), prp. of audire "to hear," from PIE compound *au-dh- "to perceive physically, grasp," from base *au- "to perceive" (cf. Gk. aisthanesthai "to feel"). Meaning "formal hearing or reception" is from 1377; that of "persons within hearing range, assembly of listeners" is from 1407. Sense transferred 1855 to "readers of a book." Audience-participation (adj.) first recorded 1940.
spectator (Online Etymology Dictionary © 2001 Douglas Harper, www.etymonline.com)
1586, from L. spectator "viewer, watcher," from pp. stem of spectare "to view, watch" (see spectacle). Spectate (v.) is a back-formation attested from 1929. Spectator sport is attested from 1943.
I feel that these words, which at their roots indicate watching and listening, are too passive for the new generation of theatre-goer, the person who attends the new wave of the American theatre.
The audience needs a christening: the spectator need a new name in order to fulfill their new role as active partners/participants in the theatrical event.
I want a word that connotes a conversation-partner, a participant, a theatre-maker, a collaborator, a peer, a responder.
Any ideas?
1 comment:
(I was working on my proposal for my thesis production that will take place in end of January. I believe it would be interesting since TJ was talking about "audience". It might not make whole a lot of sense since you don't have much information about the project. I can e-mail you whole proposal later on if you like. But the give you little bit of an idea, I am working on a Multisite-MultiMedia Interactive Dance and Video Projection where audience members walk through the piece and take more active role. Below part is from my proposal):
What I am experimenting with is the idea of breaking the relationship between the actors and audience, creating a new being and term "Actorience"(actor audience). In my conventional theatre training in Ankara State Conservatory in Turkey for the definition of theatre you need three elements to call an event a theatre; a space, an actor and an audience member. The great director Peter Brook starts his revolutionary masterpiece "Empty Space" with these lines; "I can take any empty space and call it a bare stage. A man walks across this empty space whilst someone else is watching him, and this is all that is needed for an act of theatre to be engaged."
On that note I am taking the next step, if you will, to bring an actor and an audience together in to one and same body by creating the Actorience. When I start to think how people behave in their daily lives and how similar they are when they convergein a theatre space, watching someone else performing actions and taking risks while sitting in comfort of their seats with familiar and same destined people around. In old days, let say in 30's and 40's in Brechtian Theatre actors successfully moved audiences to the streets to make changes in their lives and social conditions because they were ready and open to be moved, they were more alive, they were more hopeful and already fed up with what was going on. When I am comparing this same entity (audience) in different times, with out forgetting the effects of one of the man’s greatest and deadliest media inventions: Television also the idea of how Capitalism change in time to become more ruthless, more blood thirsty and much more hungrier in time, metamorphous of audience therefore the people, shocks and surprises me every-time.
Because of given these reasons I suggest, we take the seats under the audience and put them in a position that they are forced to move, be more active, be part of the process of creating with help of technology in a way that it would allow them to match their experience in the theatre to their daily life.
So this is what I'm working on and we'll see if it will ever work or not. I hope all this would make sense some how.
Best
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