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Style Conventions
 In
every age and every culture, audiences have particular expectations
when they enter the theatre house. People are bound by their culture
and a lifelong indoctrination of values, norms, traditions, beliefs,
lifestyles, and relationships. Audiences know that theatre is
theatre, not life, and the relationship between theatre and culture
form theatrical style conventions. Style conventions have to do
with audience expectations determined by place and time.
The
sixth century BC Greek culture was marked, in part, by their value
of heritage. Athenian heritage was tied to citizenship; a man
had to have Athenian parents to be an Athenian citizen. A man
of means also valued his status not only in terms of his past,
but also in terms of his future. Past-present-future, ancestors-family-legacy,
were one. Attending the theatre, then, where the man witnessed
his own heritage was far more meaningful than we could ever know.
It was a reality for that time and that place within that particular
relationship between audience space and performance space about
that particular portrayal in action of the written word. Michel
Saint-Denis explains:
The reality
of each country is made of its historical personality which
is constantly being modified.
The theatre
takes part in the expression of that reality which is traditional
in the case of old countries or fresh and unconventional in
the case of new countries.
But the
theatre is an art; and its form depends upon architecture, particularly
on the relationship between the auditorium and the stage, on
acting, and more than anything else, on the work of the writers.
The theatre's
means of expression are forged by the time in which a play is
written and performed, and by the contribution of the past.
In each
country the theatre addresses itself to the public of its time
which in due course will become a "period".
Each period
has its own style even though we are not conscious of it as
we live.... And this style influences everybody. It has an influence
on life and it is with the unconscious feeling of the style
of our own time in our own country that we turn towards the
interpretation of the styles of different periods in different
countries.
It is impossible
to separate oneself from one's period without danger of death.
And it is impossible not to be influenced and supported by the
traditions of one's own country.(1)
Due to television
and film, audiences today expect to see and hear the performance
with a sharpness never before demanded. They want to see without
barriers and hear with absolute clarity. Audiences expect intimacy,
but, as Saint-Denis points out, they want to be "placed in
such a way that they can be 'reached' from the stage; that they
can be struck by the reality of the performance they are watching."(2)
They want an experience. Actors also strive to reach the patron.
When that happens, and it happens very rarely, it feels like electricity
connecting actor to audience.
The theatre
architecture, (the shape of the performance space relating to
the shape of the audience space), as well as the technical conditions
determine how directors and designers conceive the staging of
a reality for a modern audience. Modern American audiences of
live theatre do not want to merely experience the sturm und
drang they witness and feel during the day. Resolution is
expected. Positive resolution can move from a feeling of fear
to a feeling of security, from a feeling of despair to a feeling
of hope, from a feeling of invisibility to a feeling of worth.
BUT audiences no longer care for mawkish illusion or sentimentality.
Confrontation and passion portrayed by relationships are often
the ideals of what modern audiences seek. Audiences expect to
experience something REAL - according to how THEY define Real.
Audiences today want to connect to their own humanity. They want
to connect to the world that surrounds them, to connect to other
people, to connect to the earth - without guilt, without judgment
- and with a great deal of meaning and emotional catharsis.
To find that
style is, indeed, the challenge of every theatre artist.
- Michel Saint-Denis, Theatre: The Rediscovery
of Style (New York: Theatre Arts Books, 1960) 48-49.
- Saint-Denis 56.
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