The audience is the most revered member of the theater. Without an audience, there is no theater. Everything done is ultimately for the enjoyment of the audience. They are our guests, fellow players, and the last spoke in the wheel which can then begin to roll. They make the performance meaningful.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of the audience in the theater experience.
Viola Spolin highlights that the audience holds a central role in theater, as their enjoyment and presence validate the performance. The relationship between performers and the audience transforms the act of theater into a meaningful exchange, underscoring that without the audience, the performance loses its purpose and significance.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of art, this quote serves to remind listeners of the audience's role.
When student-actors see people and the way they behave when together, see the color of the sky, hear the sounds in the air, feel the ground beneath them and the wind on their faces, they get a wider view of their personal world and development in the theater is quickened. The world provides the material for the theater and artistic growth develops hand-in-hand with one's recognition of it and one's self within it.
I just assumed the world was full of solo percussionists. I couldn't find sticks or music or anything where I was, but that was expected because there was nothing there anyway. And I think that was possibly the greatest asset for me, just not knowing.
Photographs aren't accounts of scrutiny. The shutter is open for a fraction of a second.
Architecture does not change anything. It's always on the side of the wealthy. The important thing is to believe that it can make life better.
Some things you know about, you know what the ingredients are - maybe not all of them. But it's up to you to put in the amount. It's up to the director to nag you until you get it right.
Inevitably, every part an actor plays contains some of himself.
Because I cannot work except in solitude, it is necessary that I live my work and that is impossible except in solitude.
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