Who do you love? THE AUDIENCE!

As I was working with young people, training them for performance, audience awareness had to be a part of the training.

We would do dances on stage: Look Upstage! Step Stage Right! Step Stage Left!

As we worked scenes and blocking, I would hop up and demonstrate positions that would open up actors to greater visibility on the proscenium stage.

"The audience wants to see *these* cheeks," I would say, pointing to my face, "not *these* cheeks!" as I turned around and pointed at the butt cheeks.

Lots of giggles. And they learned.

The short hand shout out of "Wrong cheeks!" would prompt the actor to re-orient, adjust, move to share more with the audience.

They learned.

"You are a sunflower!" I would say, "And the audience is the sun! Ever so subtly you move, you lean, you orient to the sun!"

They learned.

I taught them that without the audience there is no theater. "Who do you love?" I would challenge them.

The shouted response: "THE AUDIENCE!"

The audience, I taught them, wants to like you, wants to love you. Share your character, your voice, your energy, your play, with the audience and they will love you and appreciate you and give back your energy ten-fold.

Who do you love? THE AUDIENCE!

post-play

After a play closes, I am of divided mind.

Part of me is sad, missing the rush and the excitement.

And part of me is ready to rest, to detach, to regroup.

Ensemble

Ensemble is tremendously important to me. The idea of each of us contributing to the greater whole is inspirational; and in my own experience, when this is working, the result is far greater than the sum of the individual contributions. When ensemble is really working, each of us is driven, challenged, LIFTED into doing BETTER than our best work.

Ensemble is one of the guiding principles in how I choose the scripts I choose. Significant acting for everyone. Room to grow.

Ensemble is a delicate atmosphere. It is difficult to foster, easy to destroy. It is based on respect: respect for the art, respect for the process, respect for each artist and for the art in oneself.

Stanislavski described every element of the theater experience, from the hat check girl to the usher to actors to the director to the janitor, being a part of that art. A part of the ensemble.

And we must respect every part. And we must love every part.