Git on Up

What does it take to rock a theatre audience?

When is the moment we can sit them down and get them back up again.                                     …And sit ’em down and get ’em back up again.

In my experience, curating a production for an audience is full of theory. We may be producing a show for a predicted audience in a certain form, but we are not sure how they will react or come alive. So, we make a plan and we leave it open ended.

If we, theatre artists, want t make a play come alive with the intention of             outwardly moving and ramping up an audience, what steps should we take?                                     How Hard Is It? How Much Work? How Much Audience Trial and Error?

I’m not talking about putting itching powder on their seats here, pee-pull.

But i’m saying, if it’s Music Theatre, Rock, Hip-Hop, Rap, the s*it we jam to.                Should we take the seats from right under their butts?

“Give a girl a seat, she’ll sit!” they say…(no one says that, but STILL).                                         If they have to move their legs, will they?

During ‘Hype Man’ by Idris Goodwin, produced by CompanyOne Theatre, I felt myself jaaaaaaming with that beat, I was rocking I was living I was feelin’, but I felt trapped.    By a lot of things. Myself, my chair &my white compatriots.

Where was the moment I could say, “fuck it, let me get my black ass up” instead of “ugh, I’m not even vibin’ right'” Should I have been looking for permission? If given the option to sit or to stand, which would I have taken?

But damn, I was looking around.. and the beat was so dang good, but I did not see many people jaaaaaaamin’. Did they want to too? Where was their encouragement besides the three actors on stage and the clear as day concert they put on for us?

I ask all these questions because as tired as I always say I am, I want to investigate even further how we can define and produce more Music Theatre to git people up to listen

 

and VIBE.