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Audience as Participant

Submitted by Street on

not including participatory theatre (ie where an audience don&;t have to prepare beforehand)

An attempt to classify the types of audience participation

I/E:    Ignore / Exclude: a ritual or happening that ignores the audience
I-T:    Invisible Theatre: with performers operating secretly in the real world
Inv:   Involved in set-up: people watch the show being set up and become an audience
F+R: Giving focus & responding voluntarily: perhaps the standard audience model
PfR:  Performers playing for response: mugging and clap-traps
Man: Manipulated audiences: fooling the crowd eg illusionist
V-P:   Voluntary participation: the classic &;He&;s behind you!&;
R-P:  Requested participation: instructing / queueing the audience for specific responce
Rep:  Representative: &;Can I have a volunteer?&;
ASp:  Audience becomes the spectacle: audience presence becomes part of the show
C-P:  Crowd Power: in acting together the audience becomes empowered
Sec:  Competing sections: eg who can cheer loudest
Sep:  Separate experiences: a show with 2 or more different perspectives
Dir:    Directed: physically moving place between scenes
Gui:  Guided: following a prescribed physical route
Exp:  Explore: audience physically find own way around a dispersed performance
P-G:  Pervasive Gaming: where participant play a public game
Imr:   Immersive Theatre: when audiences become characters in a scenario
U-I:   Unplanned involvement: performer picking on someone
UUI:  Unplanned, Unknown involvement: picking on someone without their knowing
I-F:    Intense Focus: prolonged, heightened focus on an audience member
Hum: Humiliation: finding a victim and repeatedly picking on them for comic effect
 

ADQ = Audience Discomfort Quotient

Please rate on a scale of 1 - 10:
C    =  loss of control
i     =  intensity of experience
s    =  size of group
PH =  public humiliation
H   =  humour
w   =  warmth
a   =  moderate alcohol
F   =  festival atmosphere

ADQ =

       -(C+i) + (10-s) x PH2
    ____________________
          ( H + w ) x a + F

Chris Squire

Presented at FLOI 12

Who was involved? (Companies / Organisations / Artists / Performers):