När vi ses och Hur gör vi med publikinsläppet?
(2023)
author(s): Karin Bergstrand
published in: Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH)
This exhibition shows my project from the Master in Acting 2021-2023 at SKH in Stockholm.
The essay is called "When we meet" and the performative part "How do we let the audience in?"
As an actor and clown, I have worked in many different rooms and with many different audience agreements. Everything from stage-salon situations where the audience knows exactly how to behave and what their participation looks like, to playing for only one person in a hospital bed or in a small rowing boat, where participation must be clearly negotiated and communicated. I've met adults who are world masters of theater etiquette, but can't answer a question if asked from the stage, and I've met children who are wild first-timers who engage in intense dialogue with us on stage.
I am interested in the dialogue between actors and audience and in audience participation. What standards and agreements are they regulated by? How does the fear of making a mistake, breaking the norm, affect the experience of the performance? Does that fear of shame limit what is possible in the theater?
I have also wondered what roles the audience can have, what in a work communicates this role, and whether the audience can change roles in the same work.
In "How do we let the audience in?" you can read about the work with Eva and Margaretha, two half-masks who are both actors but in whose artistry the audience plays very different roles.
