Performance

ENTER STAGE RIGHT3 Phase Program

Compass ProgramThe University of Sydney

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Seymour Centrehttp://sydney.edu.au/seymour/

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Other events that are like theatre?

Can you think of some other public events that you have been to that are like theatre?

Perhaps the following slides of different theatre spaces will help you.

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Music concert

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Nippers Junior Lifesaving Carnival

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Football Match

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Chinese New Year Parade, Sydney

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University Lecture

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Graduation Ceremony

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Why are they like theatre?

• All the events involve ‘people’ (actors).• All the actors are doing something (performance).• All the performances are watched by people (audience).

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The AUDIENCE

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What happens in the theatre when the curtains go up and the lights go down?

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What happens in the theatre when the curtains go down and the lights go up?

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Theatre EtiquetteETIQUETTE• customs, conventions, decorum, rules• For example: sitting quietly, paying attention, not talking, showing

appreciation

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Theatre Etiquette: Yes or No? • Arrive Late ☐• Sit wherever you like in the theatre ☐• Leave the theatre during the performance ☐• Talk on your mobile phone ☐• Talk to your neighbour during the performance ☐• Clap during the performance *☐• Play computer games on your phone or laptop or listen to your ipod ☐• Yell out and encourage the actors *☐• Eat and drink ☐• Chew chewing gum ☐• Take photographs ☐• Clap at the end of the performance ☐

*Of course, you need to listen carefully to the actors because they might invite you to participate…

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Theatre EtiquetteETIQUETTE• customs, conventions, decorum, rules• How you behave in the theatre affects the actors on stage and how they can

perform. • It also affects the work of the stage manager and the enjoyment of the

performance by other members of the audience.

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A ‘Good House’

If all the audience members practice theatre etiquette, then at the end of the show, the actors are likely to say:

A good house?

We had a

good house today

A good house means that we had a good

audience

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There Is More Than Meets The Eye

• There are many people involved in putting on a play and they all have to work together.

COLLABORATIVE• (COL = together LABOR = work)• However, you do not see everyone involved in putting on a play because they work

in different parts of the theatre – onstage, backstage and front of house.

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Who does what?

• Can you figure out what the actor does?

• Can you figure out what the director does?

• Can you figure out what the designers do?

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Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956)

• “This is not magic, but work, my friends”

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Who does what?

• 3 teams – Actors, Directors, Designers

• Each team takes five cards

• Swap cards until you think you have the right ones!

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Summary: what did we learn?

• A performance involves an actor, an action, and an audience

• A theatre audience has a role to play in the performance

• The audience’s work is to listen, watch, clap, talk or be silent, according to the type of play it is.

• The audience works in the house.

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Summary: what did we learn?

– Theatre work is collaborative: people work together

– The other work in a theatre takes place onstage, front of house, or back of house.

– The director, designer, and actor all have particular jobs to do.

– Sometimes they do the same jobs.

• Now when you go to the Seymour Centre to see your play, you will know that there’s more than meets the eye!

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Some visitors…

• A week after the play, some students from the University of Sydney will be

coming to our classroom to do some more activities with us. They have

given you a task to do after the show.

• The university students want you to draw your favourite scene or a

memorable scene from the play and write some words to describe it.

• You will get your worksheets for this at the end of the performance.

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See you at the theatre!