Thoughts on Audiences.

I was mildly prepared to experience German audiences. I knew they were more subdued, no laughter and no cheering and would clap for a very long time but not stand up for performances. The differences between German audiences and American audiences seems to beg the question of whether or not American and German audiences even watch theater the same way. The reduced amount of laughter and cheering seem to me to indicate more respectful audiences that may seem to be paying more attention to the actual show. I know when I recently saw Hand To God on broadway there was a scene in which something funny was happening at the same time as two characters having very meaningful dialogue and I was frustrated because it seemed like the audience was missing something because of their laughter, as well as preventing me from fully understanding the scene. But then during Die Der Mann on Sunday I was laughing hysterically and a lot of the audience wasn't even though what was happening was funny for the humor of it. Similarly to Hand to God, while watching Erotic Crisis on Friday the audience was laughing during a very heartfelt monologue. After seeing this and thinking about the content I think I found a similarity between American and German audiences. They are uncomfortable when it comes to sex. Which somewhat surprised me because of the amount of nudity we've seen in German theater, but there's something about talking about sex, (or simulated sock puppet sex in the case of Hand to God,) that makes people giggle. Yay!

Speaking to the German curtain calls versus American curtain calls I very much enjoy the length of the German curtain calls, it gives you time to think, and decompress or run out of the theater without getting trampled as the case may be. I am interested to know whether these lengthy bows are intentional to give the audience this time or if that was just an added bonus. It also fascinates me because as we have discovered first hand on this trip German actors don't hold celebrity the way American actors do. This is not a culture that seemingly allows for that. This in turn does not put them into a category of "other" and it takes away the notion that successful actors are somehow "better" that the rest of us. I think this adds to the curtain call time because the audience is really genuinely applauding for a job well done, as opposed to just clapping because in the 1920's someone held up a sign telling us to hit our hands togetehr and we never got over it. Sometimes I've noticed here though that actors themselves are much less gracious during curtain call. There have been multiple instances, including some actors during Richard III, who looked as though they would rather be anywhere else. Which angers me because it should be shared I am not sitting here just handing you my support for nothing. It comes across very arrogant and it makes me wonder if these long curtain calls take away some of the respect for the audience on the part of the actors, because they expect applause.

I have probably learned just as much from sitting next to German audiences as I have from watching these pieces of theater.

Oh, and if you were wondering, yes, high school students in Germany are just as annoying and disruptive to watch theater with as American ones.