There are a lot of elements needed to make a great show, and it is hard to know what a good show is because of the vast amounts of opinions audience members hold. Here's what I think may make a great show:
The audience has to be able to care about the characters. If I don't care about what they are doing, what happens to them, or what at all is going on on the stage, I might as well not be there.
Casting can make or break a show. A show needs performers who know what they are doing, who are connected to their characters, and who are believable with every move they make.
For a play to be successful, in my eyes, it has to transport the audience to a whole other place. If I am completely interested in the show, I might be sitting through a 3 1/2 hour long play, but it will feel like five minutes, and I won't want it to end. If I am thinking about dinner or my homework or something completely unrelated to the show while I am watching it, I am usually not fully concentrating on what is happening on stage. It is the creators' jobs to keep that from happening.
This isn't exactly up to anyone involved with a show, but the audience plays a role in the experience of seeing a show as well. If I am an audience member and everyone around me is talking, texting, laughing and screaming, I will probably go crazy. Nothing is more annoying than sitting next to or around people who are really distracting. At the same time, a really dull or unresponsive audience makes the experience not very exciting.
The play has to hit different emotions. If I am sitting through a one - note show, I will probably be bored. A drama should have comedic moments and vice versa. I love when I'm laughing during one scene, crying in the next, and completely scared in another. If I am actually feeling those emotions (and others), I've definitely been captivated.
The plot has to be interesting and, for the most part, make sense. I never like sitting in a theater confused out of my mind, wanting to ask the person next to me what is going on. If I am confused after the first fifteen minutes, I will probably be even more confused half an hour later (unless the show explains itself).
The last thing I want is to sit through a play that will put me to sleep. That is why, above all, a play has to be engaging. The characters, the story, the music - something or everything has to somehow capture the audience's attention and keep them connected. Without this, the audience will lose interest and tune out, counting the minutes until it is over. The only way the audience will be invested in what they are watching is if they are provided with something unexpected, unique, original, and interesting.
I don't think each and every one of these is needed for me to enjoy myself while watching a show, but a combination of them all would be ideal.
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The two points that hit home for me were "caring about the characters" and "hitting different emotions." I like how much emphasis you put on yourself, because while clearly it's someone's own brain that tells them whether or not it was a good performance, we usually describe the play itself while talking about it, and not so much about how it made us feel. And I completely agree with the fact that a good play should hit different emotions because if the characters or plot go on an emotional roller coaster and you are dragged on against your will, you know that it was successfully enthralling.
ReplyDeleteI really agree with both you and Kayla. I think that having some sort of compassion for the characters on stage is really important because it makes every moment of the play more intense, and is more likely to make a person take a side on something. I also think that plays with different moods and emotions are much more compelling.
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