THE PIANO: The Relationship to the Audience

What is your ideal audience? What does the audience want? To be tricked, to laugh, to contemplate, to feel, to think, to be entertained, to be awed! All of these are true. Every audience wants you. When you realize the audience wants you, what do you have to say?

The audience is an instrument that is played by the performer as a piano is by a pianist. Art is always a line of communication to the audience and the content of that message is yours. You have ownership of it. Take responsibility of your art. Know that it is your voice that will be part of the conversation with the audience. The audience recognizes and is familiar with the materials and the elements of the theatre. They encounter Space, Shape, Time, Emotion, Movement and Story every moment of their lives. They may not be masters of these materials but they are well tuned to receive and empathize with the performers' space as long as the performer is meeting them with clarity, specificity and the truth of observation and participation in the moment.