Different kinds of theatre need different ways of relating with the audience

Description

This week we finished reading the pre-expessionist play "Spring awakening" (German: Frühlings Erwachen), read about set design, and ...planned... to watch the performance of "Desarraigos" by a colombian theatre group.
Although in the end I couldn't assist the performance, what we discussed in class about it had a great impact in my understanding of theatre and how it works.
Desarraigos was a non-dramatic play, while Springs awakening is a dramatic one. What would be the different challenges or requirements of these works?


Analysis

While dramatic plays attract the audience's attention mainly by telling a story (which has a climax and a solution or ending), we asked ourselves the following question:

how to attract attention in a non-dramatic play?
and this immediately reminded me of the activation theory, which tells that people will seek activation through different types of stimulation, including novelty, complexity, variation and uncertainty. And underactivation will lead to boredom.

Dramatic plays have the characteristic of attracting our interest with a certain plot, but as non-dramatic plays don't have a clear story, the director needs to propose an innovative way of connecting with the audience:


Different kinds of theatre --> need a different relationship with the audience


For example, a non-dramatic play should always look for a different kind of scenery, as the form of the stage has a great influence in the connection with the audience.

We usually don't pay as much attention to the set design as to the acting, but one of its main function is to focus the audience's attention in the actions.
For this same reason, the creation of the stage is not a matter of having nice scenery but having scenery that WORKS and contributes in the actions and purpose of the play (dramatic or non-dramatic).

Connections

KIOSKOTAMBO: 

I was worried about the audience's understanding of the story, but then realized that telling a STORY is not the ONLY aim of theatre. 

People in Paucartambo do not needed to believe but to feel connected.

It can say something else without telling it in a conventional way, as we can see in non-dramatic plays, where it is clear that HOW (the way or form) actions are shown have a greater importance that WHAT is being told. 

Lo más resistente:

Plays (especially non-dramatic) need to be innovative and dynamic
- avoid being repetitive.

As well as Lo más resistente, Desarraigos was a non-dramatic play -a series of imagines- that lacked variation. In both plays the lights achieved to change the mood, but after one point the audience knows what will happen after the actions keep repeating.

Hebras:

Hebras teaches us that non-dramatic plays need to have different stage conventions. A circle around the stage, for example, creates the mood of a ritual and a close connection with the members of the audience. The stage used for Desarraigos did not work as it was a different kind of theatre, presented in the traditional western convetion.

Sin título:

This is another non-dramatic play that teaches us the importance of novelty. Each scene is different in terms of characters, stage form and actions. Changing places contributes in dynamism, as they also did in La Cocina.

La falsa criada:
Static and fixed sceneries do not help in Theatre. La falsa criada focused in a "nice' scenery rather than in a scenery that worked in terms of setting and acting. 

Reflections

Different kinds of theatre need different ways of relating with the audience, specially in non-dramatic plays, where the audience is not connected by a plot that intrigues them. Here, novelty, complexity, variation and uncertainty are essential.

In dramatic plays, we "suspend" the disbelief in order to feel connected to fictional situations, but in non-dramatic plays this connection needs to be created by being innovative!

Even if the play is a dramatic play, scenery and set design need equal importance and attention. Scenery contributes a lot in the connection established with the audience, and MATTERS as much as all the elements present. We shouldn't give more importance to one than to another.

Do promenade performances work for all kinds of theatre? -Is this the best form or convention to establish a close connection with the audience?

Is Hebras considered a promenade performance??

Should we never put on stage non-dramatic plays presented in the Western conventions for audience? Does this 'convention' create an immediate wall or psychological separation between the actors and the members of the audience?

Is the connection created by breaking the fourth wall as STRONG as the connection created in a promenade performance??