Original scientific paper

MODERN THEATER AND THE AUDIENCE OR THE AUDIENCE’S CONTEMPT TO JUSTIFICATION OF ITS ESCAPE

Sanja Nikčević ; Odsjek za kazališnu umjetnost Umjetničke akademije u Osijeku

Abstract

The role of audience in the theatre dramatically changed from equal participants in periods of ritual theatre (Classicism, Middle Ages) to the so-called »imitating« periods (Renaissance and Neoclassicism) where audience needed specialized knowledge to watch a play. The twentieth century deepened the gap between mainstream theatre and audience completely. Since directors’/ post dramatic theatre, which is for the most part violent, shocking and non-communicative, started dominating the mainstream theatre, audience started protesting. Mainstream theatre and theory reacted promptly and declared audience incompetent, calling them »backward, uneducated and uninformed«. In response, audience started to leave theatre in eighties, which seriously worried financiers but not theatres. To avoid complaints about lack of audience, directors cut down theatre auditoriums, searched for new (smaller) facilities, justified a small number of performances by co productions, and sometimes manipulated with audience number data.

Keywords

Twentieth Century; audience; European theatre; directors’/post dramatic theatre; mainstream theatre

Hrčak ID:

158040

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/158040

Publication date:

9.5.2016.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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